Al Tayer highlights Dubai Green Fund’s support the green economy of Dubai and the UAE

HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Vice Chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy and Chairman of the World Green Economy Summit, has participated in a plenary session at the summit, which is organised under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The summit whose main theme is Driving Global Green Economy, takes place on 5-6 October at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The plenary session’s topic was Green Finance: How to Mobilise Sufficient Green Global Green Capital. The panellists discussed ways to fund the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and best practices to for green financing including public private partnerships and green funds and bonds.

The other panellists were Mohammad Abunayyan, Chairman of ACWA Power, Zhengming Liu, Managing Director of the Silk Road Fund, Tanguy Claquin, Head of Sustainable Banking Team at Credit Agricole CIB, and Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO of Masdar. The session was moderated by Yvo de Boer, Former Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC.

During his participation at the session, Al Tayer highlighted the Dubai Green Fund initiative, which was announced by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to support the green economy objectives of Dubai and the UAE. The scale of the fund is AED 100 billion. Seed capital will be provided by the DEWA and other local and international inverstors. Over USD 30 billion of green Investment is anticipated in Dubai by 2030.

Al Tayer noted that the Dubai Green Fund supports the UAE Vision 2021, Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050, the Demand Side Management Strategy, the National Green Growth Strategy and the Climate Goals as per the Dubai Carbon Abatement Strategy (CAS) and UAE National Determined Contribution (NDC).

Al Tayer said that green funding is one of the 5 pillars of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050. They are Infrastructure, Legislation, Funding via the Dubai Green Fund, Building capacities and skills and an Environmentally-friendly energy mix. The Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 will make Dubai a global centre for clean energy and green economy. This will contribute to giving Dubai the lowest carbon footprint in the world by 2050.

The Dubai Green Fund will provide financing for viable green initiatives in Dubai such as green loans. The fund will act as a market catalyst alongside existing financiers to help build and accelerate the green sector. The fund is led by a team from DEWA and the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy and Dubai Carbon, and is supported by an international consortium of fund strategy, finance and legal advisors.

Commenting on green financing mechanisms that are driving green economic growth, Al Tayer noted that at present, DEWA is investing its own funds in various projects and subsidiaries. It has also adopted the Independent Power Producer (IPP) model to fund the first phases of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. Going forward with the launch of the Dubai Green Fund will attract investments and strengthen private and public partnerships (PPP) to support future green projects and solutions.

When talking about what is needed from government and if the public sector is sending the right signals to the investment community, Al Tayer said that governments have a key role to play in strengthening national policy and regulatory frameworks, facilitating the environment, having incentives to attract private funds and investments to support a sustainable green growth, changing the mind-set of the people, and driving innovation and preparing the right capabilities for capacity-building to meet future demands for the green economy. This means that the government’s role will shift from being a consumption driven economy to a sustainability focused one that is low-carbon, climate-resilient and resource-efficient.

“Dubai’s commitment is seen through the launch of the Smart Dubai initiative which was announced by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum to make Dubai one of the smartest, seamless and happiest city in the world. Smart cities are sustainable with their resources, and have clean, healthy and environmentally-friendly elements. I believe with all of these initiatives and policies that have been announced and implemented, we are truly committed to making this happen,” said Al Tayer.

Al Tayer also talked about what kind of Green projects the Fund will support and invest in. “We have established a strict internationally-accepted definition of what is ‘Green’ under the DGF (Dubai Green Fund) This definition will include projects in energy efficiency and demand side management (DSM), solar and other renewable energy, sustainable water management, sustainable waste management and reduction, and innovative decarbonising, pollution or resource-intensity-reducing initiatives. Other projects that are part of Dubai’s wider energy and water plans are not eligible, such as new coal or gas-fired power generation,” noted Al Tayer.

The World Green Economy Summit (WGES) is an initiative by DEWA under the umbrella of the Supreme Council of Energy in Dubai, in cooperation with World Climate Ltd. It is supported by the United Nations. It is held in conjunction with the 18th Water, Energy, Technology and the Environment Exhibition (WETEX) and the Dubai Solar Show.