UAE: World may ‘go back to coal’ if carbon emissions continue, expert says

Since the Paris Agreement, the world has managed to generate only 10 per cent of its energy from clean sources, with 85 to 90 per cent still coming from fossil fuels

Ted Kemp, Chief Content Officer, Khaleej Times, and Abdulla Belhaif Al Nuaimi, Former Minister of Climate Change and Environment, UAE Government at The Journey to Net Zero – UAE 2025. KT Photo: Shihab

The former UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment has warned that the world is making little progress on climate action, saying it continues to “do the same [thing].”

Abdullah Belhaif Al Nuaimi, who served as minister from 2020 to 2021, said on Wednesday that if contamination from fuel dumping and carbon emissions continues, “[it’s] not really going to help the environment, and we remain doing the same.”

Speaking in a panel discussion with Khaleej Times Chief Content Officer Ted Kemp at The Journey to Net Zero event hosted by KT Events, Al Nuaimi noted that since the Paris Agreement, the world has managed to generate only 10 per cent of its energy from clean sources, with 85 to 90 per cent still coming from fossil fuels.

The Paris Agreement, an international treaty signed by 195 parties to tackle climate change, was adopted on December 12, 2015, nearly a decade ago.

“In the next 50 years, gas and oil will not be with us,” Al Nuaimi said. “I’m afraid that we might end up going back to coal at some point if we do not rationalise the usage of what we have today.” He added that even renewable minerals are finite, just like gas and oil.

UAE’s pledge 

The UAE is planning to grow the largest mangrove farm in the world and build the biggest solar park. However, Al Nuaimi cautioned that such efforts are not “a fraction of enough” because climate change is “not a regional issue, but a global one. You cannot reduce while others are increasing,” he said, referring to decarbonisation efforts.

The UAE leads the Mena region in climate action, implementing the Net Zero 2050 Strategy, which aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

According to the United Nations, net zero means reducing carbon emissions to a small amount of residual emissions that can be absorbed and durably stored by nature and other carbon dioxide removal measures, leaving zero in the atmosphere.