The primary digital summit of Abu Dhabi Sustainable Improvement Week (ADSW) 2021, broadcast stay worldwide in English and Arabic on January 19, attracted greater than 17,500 registrants from over 175 nations. The occasion introduced collectively greater than 90 influential world leaders in authorities, enterprise and expertise who explored the social, financial and technological alternatives out there to help a sustainable inexperienced restoration from the coronavirus pandemic.

Through the summit, the leaders of the GNU Compiler Assortment (GCC) reconfirmed their decarbonization pledges to avoid wasting the equal of 354 million barrels of oil by way of the deployment of renewable energies. This represents a 23% discount in oil consumption to chop carbon dioxide emissions from the vitality sector by 22%, in response to the most recent figures from the Worldwide Renewable Power Affiliation (IRENA).

In his opening speech, HE Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Business and Expertise, Particular Envoy for Local weather Change and Chairman of Masdar, careworn that with the coronavirus pandemic, the corporate is helping now bringing intelligence (AI) and blockchain expertise to the world. In consequence, electrification, decarbonization and digitization initiatives have develop into more and more necessary “in all sectors”. He defined what the UAE is doing on this regard as follows:

Masdar’s photo voltaic vitality initiatives

New digital applied sciences require a excessive consumption of electrical energy. Within the United Arab Emirates, that is presently primarily generated from fossil fuels. Nevertheless, the UAE’s zero emission dedication by 2050 depends closely on solar energy to diversify Abu Dhabi’s vitality sector into renewable sources. Solar energy is seen as an anchor for Masdar’s renewable methods in some ways.

For instance, the inexperienced vitality firm Masdar is constructing the world’s largest solar energy plant in Abu Dhabi, as deserts characterize a few of the finest locations on the earth to reap photo voltaic vitality, benefiting from excessive ranges of photo voltaic irradiation and being a wealthy supply of silicon – the uncooked materials for semiconductors from which photo voltaic cells are made.

One other profit of putting in photo voltaic panels within the desert, in response to a 2018 research, is that they’ll create a extra humid atmosphere that causes vegetation to unfold with a purpose to fight desertification.

Masdar Metropolis – UAE Aerospace and Expertise Zone

Developed by Masdar, town of Masdar in Abu Dhabi is without doubt one of the most sustainable city communities on the earth, offering a strategic base by way of which firms can construct their networks each domestically and globally, to discover a number of enterprise alternatives. ‘investing and testing new modern applied sciences from design to implementation to assist the UAE diversify its economic system.

Dwelling to a free zone, town has greater than 900 organizations – starting from worldwide giants to native start-ups – which develop modern applied sciences within the fields of vitality, water effectivity, mobility, area, blockchain and synthetic intelligence. sort out the world’s most crucial sustainability challenges in additional than 30 nations.

Digital Financial system: The UAE authorities has made the digitization of its economic system a precedence to convey authorities effectivity, trade creativity and worldwide management. To realize this purpose, he established the world’s first research-based synthetic intelligence (AI) college in Masdar Metropolis, Mohamad bin Zayed College of Synthetic Intelligence – MBZUAI, which welcomed its first college students in January 2021. .

The UAE has additionally adopted the Emirates Blockchain Technique 2021 and the Dubai Blockchain Technique which have already rolled out a number of blockchain initiatives. Hardik Bhatia, for instance, Hardik Bhatia, an rising Fintech expertise and MENA award winner and blockchain developer, based SustVest, a crowdfunding blockchain-based platform that enables individuals to spend money on photo voltaic initiatives and earn revenue from customers who use their financing to put in photo voltaic panels. The corporate is predicated in Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority, which constructed its resolution on NEM Blockchain.

“The worldwide rooftop photo voltaic section is booming with alternatives and is valued at over $ 66 billion. Rising economies are contemplating switching to photo voltaic because it provides a inexperienced and cheap different to standard vitality sources. SustVest permits this transition in rising economies by crowdfunding rooftop photo voltaic initiatives in rising economies on its platform, ”defined Bhatia.

He added, “We symbolize photo voltaic initiatives in a granular style on the degree of particular person photo voltaic cells, and traders who purchase these tokens can earn dividends generated by promoting electrical energy from these particular person photo voltaic cells. We’re opening the doorways to retail funding within the photo voltaic area, and we’re doing this by symbolizing initiatives to decrease the barrier to entry and making a secondary market to offer liquidity to traders.

In the meantime, the United Arab Emirates Central Financial institution (UAECB) is co-developing the world’s first state-backed bilateral central financial institution digital forex with the Saudi Financial Authority named “Aber”, in Arabic to cross, cross or journey. a highway. Aber was initially established to assist the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia make extra worthwhile bank-to-bank cross-border monetary funds and settlements utilizing blockchain expertise on a probationary foundation and for the unique use of a restricted variety of banks. , in response to official statements.

Ultimately, Aber will likely be used worldwide on China’s blockchain-based service community (BSN), which can help future central financial institution digital currencies (CBDCs) from a number of nations, together with the UAECB.

Conclusion

A inexperienced restoration is crucial for a sustainable social and financial future within the digitized world of the post-coronavirus pandemic, mentioned Rt. Hon. Alok Sharma, President of COP26, who additionally praised the UAE’s efforts in creating inexperienced vitality applied sciences in Masdar Metropolis.

Discovering funding for this inexperienced transition is unlikely to be too tough in response to HE Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Group Managing Director and CEO, Mubadala Funding Company and Laurence Fink, President and CEO of BlackRock, Inc., probably the most massive asset supervisor on the earth, as a tectonic shift has occurred because the pandemic with markets assessing local weather threat within the worth of securities, triggering a basic reallocation of capital to sustainable funding to make sure a restoration inexperienced in a post-Covid-19 world.

“I consider the pandemic offered such an existential disaster – such a stark reminder of our fragility – that it has prompted us to face the worldwide menace of local weather change extra aggressively and to consider how, just like the pandemic, it is going to change our lives. .…. No drawback is increased than local weather change on our purchasers ‘precedence lists… We all know that local weather threat is an funding threat… With america’ dedication final week to affix the Paris Settlement , 127 governments – accountable for over 60% of world emissions – are contemplating or are already implementing internet zero commitments. The momentum continues to realize momentum and in 2021 it is going to speed up – with dramatic implications for the worldwide economic system, ”mentioned Fink.[1]

Concerning the Writer

Selva Ozelli, Esq., CPA is a world tax lawyer and CPA who writes regularly on tax, authorized and accounting issues for Tax Notes, Bloomberg BNA, different publications and the OECD.