Emirates News

Abu Dhabi – Saif Al Yazid – His Excellency Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, President of the COP28 Conference of Parties, confirmed that the Presidency of COP28 was in line with the vision of the UAE leadership. is keen to develop cooperation with all partners to benefit from economic opportunities for climate action and to build a sustainable future for future generations.
This came in his speech before the World Renewable Energy Conference, which is being held on the sidelines of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, which is the first high-level summit to strengthen efforts to increase global production capacity. of renewable energy three times by 2030.
His Excellency explained that the world needs to more than triple its current investment in renewable energy over the next six years to reach its production capacity of 11,000 gigawatts to ensure that the 1.5 goal is possible. degree Celsius, supporting sustainable development, and leaving no one behind.
He pointed out that this increase is one of the basic provisions of the historic “Emirates Agreement”, which represents a reference framework for the ambition of global climate and sustainable development, asking the world to this agreement granted for renewable energy has increased eight times in the last twenty years, at the same time as a reduction in Its costs have increased by more than 80%, because the cost of solar energy has grown less than any other energy source, indicating that this increase is “historic,” but not occurring at the required pace.
His Excellency called for urgent steps to be taken to increase investment in three key areas, including infrastructure, technology, especially artificial intelligence, and to support growth and development plans in countries of the Global South.

He pointed out the importance of private sector investments in these areas and explained that the promotion of these investments wants to give confidence to investors that their projects will be connected to an electricity network that will be able to distribute their production, which will be established according to a practical and appropriate timetable, bearing in mind that the infrastructure of electricity networks in industrialized countries often exceeds It is 60 years old, although networks are not even in many countries of the south.
His Excellency asked all countries to include specific goals for renewable energy and infrastructure in the next draft of their national contributions, in conjunction with the implementation of policies to invest in the to encourage the private sector, and to speed up and speed up procedures for obtaining permits without obstacles.
His Excellency highlighted the importance of the role of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, in addressing the key challenges facing renewable energy, such as demand forecasting, ensuring stability of supply, and long-term storage time, through its ability to increase network efficiency, predict. use, supports predictive maintenance, and enables integration between baseload energy sources and renewable energy sources, which increases emissions reduction efficiency and improves energy security.
His Excellency called for increased investment in the use of artificial intelligence applications in the energy sector to further expand the range of benefits from them, and indicated that the UAE will host a special forum that will including the world’s most prominent experts and world leaders. technology and energy sectors next November in Abu Dhabi, as these two sectors are closely linked.
His Excellency said that the world is currently seeing an unprecedented opportunity to achieve sustainable economic growth through green and smart technologies, highlighting the need to strengthen support for countries in the South that are not receiving the a fair share of global investment, as less than 15. % of total investments reaches more than 120 renewable energy developing countries.
His Excellency emphasized the need to rethink old climate financing models and support new, better models, and asked international financing institutions to provide financing in an accessible and at an appropriate cost, and to encourage private financing through innovative joint models.
His Excellency highlighted the Green Investment in Africa Initiative launched by the UAE last year, which aims to develop 25 projects for the production and storage of renewable energy in 14 African countries, as a successful model for encouraging investment in this area, in addition to the Climate Investment Fund “Alterra”, which was launched during COP28, and which has already invested $ 6.5 billion in partnership with investors in projects with a total capacity of 40 GW.

His Excellency explained the need to make efforts to address the challenges of the delay in developing energy sources in the countries of the Global South, and asked all party to explore all possible solutions in collaboration with partners who share the same visions, ideas and movements. , showing that traditional practices are not enough, which requires the implementation of a new model that promotes the partnership between… The government and the private sectors have reached a new level, by ‘ adhere to the spirit of unity and accept a positive attitude that sees spending on renewable energy resources as an investment that will receive a great return.

It is worth noting that the World Renewable Energy Conference, which opened yesterday and will end tomorrow, hosts several of the most prominent leaders in the business and government sectors, organizations intergovernmental, non-governmental organizations, and charitable institutions, to discuss progress, opportunities and challenges in relation to the goal of increasing the global production capacity of renewable energy three times by 2030. .