Dubai Carbon, a locally developed think tank for environmental economics, is playing a key role in promoting sustainable development in Dubai and the wider region
?Dubai Carbon was created in 2009 alongside the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy as a knowledge repository to bring regional specific initiatives in low carbon development,? said Ivano Iannelli, CEO of Dubai Carbon, at WFES 2017.
?We?ve grown quite a bit since then, and have a heritage of very big names as our shareholders, such as DUBAL, DEWA, Empower and ENOC. Starting from their own projects, we were able to consolidate in a very short time a lot of experience which is unique to the region.
?Our focus is to identify commercially viable green economy initiatives to pilot, implement and replicate. We find ways to improve the business processes of our stakeholders and help them to reduce their emissions. One of our successes is the Dubai Carbon Abatement Strategy, which is an aggregation of all the strategies of key stakeholders in the Dubai economy; it was presented and approved at the Supreme Council level and the Executive Council level. ?
?We also have a number of success stories that we showcase on behalf of our partners,? Iannelli continued. ?One is the global activities for distributed solar, with the Shams Dubai rooftop scheme already up and running. We obtained an overall umbrella agreement under the UN to register all these projects at once. We did the same for Empower; we got the first methodology in the world on district cooling. This is relevant because under the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy, the penetration of district cooling is planned to increase to 40 per cent. A tool like the programme of activities under the UN will facilitate the efforts of district cooling companies and entities, not only in Dubai but across the GCC.?
Iannelli also highlighted Dubai Carbon?s collaboration with Etihad Solar, specifically to retrofit schools with distributed solar. ?We are looking to use schools as a vehicle to showcase how easy and effective it is to install solar rooftops,? he explained.
Commenting on the growth and success of WFES, Iannelli noted the regional focus of the event. ?Saudi Arabia is a big player here, and it?s good to see another GCC country expanding its reach. There fact that at a UAE event, the focus is on another GCC country, shows how the efforts of the UAE in sustainable development are being replicated and scaled across the region.?
