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Industrialization has always seemed to be the key to wealth and better living, but it affects the environment and ultimately contributes to climate change. Now, the UAE has set out an action plan to cut 90 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually to address this.

The Industrial Decarbonisation Roadmap, designed by The Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, aims to reduce industrial carbon emissions by 2.9 gigatonnes by 2050 and focuses on manufacturing such as cement, iron, steel, and aluminum.

“The roadmap focuses on developing and adopting advanced technology to drive a phased carbon reduction of 93% by 2050 across the national industrial sector. It includes a set of pathways around monitoring and addressing challenges as well as developing and adopting the latest technologies,” says Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology.

“It also focuses on promoting the competitiveness and development of the national industrial sector,” she adds.

Three phases are included in the decarbonization roadmap, with the first involving the reduction of emissions by 5% by 2030. Meanwhile, the second phase works to achieve a 63% reduction by 2040, and the third phase aims to see a reduction by 93% by 2050.

The roadmap comes after a national study between the ministry and its partners, who have examined and evaluated the feasibility of more than 50 advanced technologies and innovative solutions, such as clean electricity, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), manufacturing efficiency, alternative fuels, recycling, and hydrogen.

Depending on the sector, different technologies are assigned, with the roadmap showing that CCUS, clean electricity, and efficiency improvements alone could lead to a 70% carbon reduction by 2050. Similarly, clean electricity could contribute 41% of the targeted reduction by 2050.