The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) updated NDC sets an emissions reduction target of up to 23.5%, below business as usual by 2030. This translates to emissions of around 246 MtCO₂e/yr (excluding LULUCF) in 2030, which is 13% above its 2015 levels.¹

¹ Climate Action Tracker. CAT Climate Target Update Tracker: UAE December 2020 Update. (2020).

² Government of UAE. Second Nationally Determined Contribution of the United Arab Emirates. (2020).

³ IEA. World Energy Balances 2019. (2019).

⁴ International Energy Agency. Energy data and statistics. (2021).

⁵ US.Energy Information Administration (EIA). Country Analysis Executive Summary: United Arab Emirates. (2020).

⁶ International Renewable Energy Agency. Statistics Time Series. (2021).

⁷ Power Technology News. Barakah nuclear plant’s first unit begins operations. (2021).

⁸ While global cost-effective pathways assessed by the IPCC Special Report 1.5°C provide useful guidance for an upper-limit of emissions trajectories for developed countries, they underestimate the feasible space for such countries to reach net zero earlier. The current generation of models tend to depend strongly on land-use sinks outside of currently developed countries and include fossil fuel use well beyond the time at which these could be phased out, compared to what is understood from bottom-up approaches. The scientific teams which provide these global pathways constantly improve the technologies represented in their models – and novel CDR technologies are now being included in new studies focused on deep mitigation scenarios meeting the Paris Agreement. A wide assessment database of these new scenarios is not yet available; thus, we rely on available scenarios which focus particularly on BECCS as a net-negative emission technology. Accordingly, we do not yet consider land-sector emissions (LULUCF) and other CDR approaches which developed countries will need to implement in order to counterbalance their remaining emissions and reach net zero GHG are not considered here due to data availability.

⁹ In some of the analysed pathways, the energy sector assumes already a certain amount of carbon dioxide removal technologies, in this case bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS).

Under current policies, emissions are projected to increase by 29-40% above 2015 levels.¹

In 1.5°C compatible pathways, GHG emissions (excluding LULUCF) would need to reach a level of 18-30 MtCO₂e/yr, or 82-92% below 2015 levels by 2050.⁸ These emissions reductions would be driven primarily through the decarbonisation of the energy sector, but also waste and industry processes, which will likely be the last sectors to decarbonise.

On the road to net zero emissions, the UAE will need to balance its remaining GHG emissions through the development of carbon dioxide removal approaches, either from the land sector or technological approaches. Analysed pathways show that the power sector could contribute negative emissions of up to -40 MtCO₂/yr in 2050 mostly based on bioenergy from carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Achieving a high share of renewable generation would allow the country to rely less on CDR technologies, which are prohibitively expensive and not yet available at scale.