meed-logo

line1 line2 line3
SIGN IN / REGISTER

Cop28 focuses energy transition spotlight on UAE

28 February 2023

 

Global climate negotiators, civil society groups, entrepreneurs and journalists will descend on Dubai’s Expo City in November for the 28th Conference of the Parties (Cop28) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, putting the UAE at the centre and in charge of the annual climate talks.

UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, has said Cop28 is the most important event the UAE will host in 2023. It is hard to argue otherwise.

Cop28 is expected to follow through with the implementation of a breakthrough loss-and-damage fund to help the most vulnerable countries address climate change, which was included for the first time in a Cop agreement last year.

It will conclude the first global stocktake, an assessment of the progress each country has made against the goals of the Paris Agreement, signed in 2016 by 195 nations, with the aim of keeping the mean global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius compared with pre-industrial levels.

Contrasting agendas

Under the auspices of a state whose wealth was built for the most part on oil, negotiators are expected to lock horns over the policies, technologies and funding platforms best placed to enable climate mitigation and adaptation, and to wean the world off fossil fuels.

The relevance of the UAE's leadership in this year's Cop negotiations reflects the dilemma between meeting climate targets and a world that cannot yet live without hydrocarbons

It is not the first time an Opec member will host a Cop event – Qatar and Indonesia hosted them in 2012 and 2013, respectively. However, the appointment of Abu Dhabi oil chief and UAE climate envoy Sultan al-Jaber as Cop28 president-designate caused an uproar among environment and climate advocacy groups in January.

“I thought someone from outside the conventional energy sector would have given more credibility to the event,” an independent consultant tells MEED.

Despite this, commentators have also noted the UAE’s strategic clout and potential to act as a bridge between the affluent and developed countries increasingly referred to as the global north, such as the US, EU states, Russia and Japan, and the economically challenged countries in the global south, which includes swathes of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The UAE maintains close economic and political ties with the majority of the countries in both groups, which largely have contrasting geopolitical, economic and energy profiles, as well as climate agendas.

According to Frank Wouters, director of the EU GCC Clean Energy Network and senior vice-president of Reliance Industries, the UAE, as one of the biggest donors of official development aid (ODA), can provide credibility and leadership in the effort to mobilise badly needed global capital towards climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.

For instance, at Cop15 in Denmark in 2009, developed countries committed to a collective goal of mobilising $100bn a year for climate action in developing countries by 2020. 

The goal was formalised at Cop16 in Mexico, and reiterated at Cop21 in France, with the timeline extended to 2025.

The latest available figure in 2020 stood at $83.3bn. “The reality is that this has not happened,” says Wouters. “So more can and should be done.”

With the UAE consistently rated among the countries with the highest ODA against gross national income, Cop28 is expected to provide further impetus to reaching this collective goal – one of the tangible outcomes most negotiators have hoped for at previous Cop events.

Low-carbon fuels as the next LNG

A seat at the table

Despite the somewhat counter-intuitive proposition of giving petroleum-exporting countries a seat at the Cop negotiating table, the move is an important one, another expert tells MEED.

Mhamed Biygautane, a lecturer in public policy at the University of Melbourne, says these countries’ involvement in early discussions and negotiations is critical for any resultant decisions to have a meaningful impact on the ground.

“Petroleum states can make or break any climate-change negotiations because their interests are obviously at stake here,” he says.  

“This is particularly the case for GCC states, whose economies rely heavily on oil rents and any reductions in oil exports will most certainly adversely affect their economies.”

Karen Young, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Centre on Global Energy Policy, also points out the importance of considering the major difference in the politics of energy transition between national oil companies such as those based in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, and international oil companies such as BP and Shell.

“The state and the firm are linked, so energy policy … can include an emphasis on carbon capture and storage (CCS), on cleaner production and simultaneously on investments in renewables and economic statecraft – to deploy investment and technology to partner states that are both profitable and strategic in foreign relations,” Young says.

For example, the UAE has two national champions, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and clean energy firm Masdar, which in a different framework could be seen as a contradiction.

According to Young, the UAE is managing the energy transition with a goal of not just state survival, but of dominance across energy markets, technology and political ties across a broad geography.

This suggests that the UAE sees Cop28 as an opportunity not just to set a climate agenda, but also to put the country in a strong economic and political leadership position for decades.

Greenwashing fears

Significantly, 2022 was a year of record profits for global and national oil majors, as the war in Ukraine depressed supply and inflated prices.

 Aramco earns $42.4bn profit in third quarter

While oil firms around the world will continue to invest in renewables, some experts say they are likely to reinvest a significant amount in conventional hydrocarbons development due to robust oil demand, regardless of climate objectives.

This has reinforced fears of widespread greenwashing, or oil majors walking back on their net-zero targets, an issue commonly raised by advocacy groups at Cop events.

“Greenwashing is real, but ultimately it is not a useful framework,” says Young. “There is oil demand. There will continue to be oil demand. What matters is how we produce and transport it and, simultaneously, with purposeful government policy, reduce demand by creating incentives to use renewable energy and increase the costs of continuing to use oil.”

Biygautane also says stronger monitoring and international conventions with more powers for sanctions and penalties are necessary to deter businesses within and outside the hydrocarbons industry from making promises they will not honour.

Another expert points out the urgent need to focus on deploying clean technologies other than renewable energy, and to decarbonise sectors other than power, such as transport and buildings, along with the need for a bigger focus on transmission and distribution within the power sector.

“The major shortcoming remains in ensuring the required financing is there, which requires collective action from governments, corporates, financing and development institutions, in addition to individual behaviour and action,” says Jessica Obeid, academy associate at think tank Chatham House’s energy, environment and resources programme in London.

“It takes a village to achieve a serious sustainable transformation of our energy systems … requirements are many and efforts are only a few,” she says.

Resource allocation

For the GCC states, where historical data has pointed to a significant discrepancy between hydrocarbons production and clean energy investments, this will mean more resource allocation is required.

For example, data from regional projects tracker MEED Projects shows that the value of wind, solar and waste-to-energy generation contracts equates to a mere 10 per cent of the $254bn-worth of contracts awarded across the GCC states’ oil and gas sectors over the past 10 years, excluding investments made by GCC-based investors and developers overseas.

When it comes to projects in the advanced procurement stage, the ratio of renewable energy projects more than doubles, at 24 per cent against the value of oil and gas schemes. 

This provides a positive market signal that could further improve if a portion of the GCC economic vision-related renewable energy schemes, carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and clean hydrogen projects move into procurement.

While this improvement may not prove to be enough to appease all climate change advocates, the clear policy convergence on clean hydrocarbons production between the UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, Kuwait, is

significant. It could help to further drive the gradual uncoupling of their economies from fossil fuels over the coming years or decades. 

Columbia University’s Young concludes: “Which states ride the coattails of the UAE in this Cop and its subsequent agenda will be interesting to watch.” 

Technology and teamwork are critical if a low-carbon future is to be secured, says Mubadala's Saed Arar

Spotlight on the UAE

The UAE has been building up its green and clean energy base and working on energy transition objectives for some time. It set an energy diversification agenda in 2017 and was the first Middle East country to declare a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. 

The Abu Dhabi Energy Department has launched regulations covering waste-to-energy, electric vehicles and clean energy certificates, along with energy-efficiency initiatives that include building retrofits. 

The UAE’s clean energy installed capacity, including three units of the Barakah nuclear power plant, stood at 7.6GW as of December. It is also finalising its green hydrogen roadmap.

Pragmatic transition

The growing number of new projects involving Masdar, which Al-Jaber chairs, forms part of the UAE’s pragmatic energy transition strategy. This involves developing and expanding nuclear and renewable energy and hydrogen capacity in addition to expanding its hydrocarbons output.

Adnoc and Abu Dhabi National Energy (Taqa) have taken control of Masdar, whose operations have been split into separate renewable energy and green hydrogen businesses. The firm aims to have 100GW of renewable installed capacity and 1 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030.

“Adnoc is the only national oil company (NOC) to pursue renewable merger and acquisition, buying into the H2Teeside hydrogen project in the UK alongside BP,” notes Kavita Jadhav, research director, corporate research at UK-based Wood MacKenzie. “Its investments in low-carbon energy will increase, and it may also make further international acquisitions in hydrogen; CCUS; and solar, in a wave that could be similar to the rush of activity seen in the UK and Europe in the run-up to Cop26.”

Jadhav predicts the UAE and wider Middle East could have a similar eureka moment to the Inflation Reduction Act in the US, which promises a boom time for hydrogen, CCS and solar.

“A lot can happen when you have the spotlight on you,” she says.
https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/10590455/main.gif
Jennifer Aguinaldo

Register for MEED's guest program now to access this article.

Click here to register
Exclusive from Meed
Related Articles
  • Municipality seeks consultants for Dubailand drainage project

    10 December 2025

    Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

    Dubai Municipality has invited consultants to prequalify for a contract to provide supervision services on a major drainage infrastructure project serving developed communities in Dubailand.

    The sewerage and stormwater drainage project, listed under the code DS-204-S1, is being procured through the government’s Sewerage and Recycled Water Projects Department (SRPD).

    The bid submission deadline is 8 January.

    The consultancy contract follows the issuance in November of the related construction package, DS-204-C1, for which the municipality invited contractors to prequalify.

    The scope includes sewage gravity pipelines with diameters of up to 2,200mm, a sewage lift station with a capacity of three cubic metres a second, and a 1,400mm-diameter sewage rising main that will take pumped sewage from the lift station to the main sewer network.

    The bid submission deadline for the construction package is also 8 January 2026.

    The tenders form part of Dubai’s wider investment in sewerage expansion, including the $8bn Tasreef programme, for which several projects have moved into the execution phase in recent months.

    Once completed, the Tasreef system is expected to increase Dubai’s overall drainage capacity by about 700% and provide daily stormwater treatment capacity exceeding 20 million cubic metres.

    READ THE DECEMBER 2025 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

    Prospects widen as Middle East rail projects are delivered; India’s L&T storms up MEED’s EPC contractor ranking; Manama balances growth with fiscal challenges

    Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the December 2025 edition of MEED Business Review includes:

    > BAHRAIN MARKET FOCUS: Manama pursues reform amid strain
    To see previous issues of MEED Business Review, please click here
    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15218750/main.jpg
    Mark Dowdall
  • Riyadh prepares Qiddiya National Athletics Stadium tender

    9 December 2025

     

    Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

    Saudi gigaproject developer Qiddiya Investment Company (QIC) is expected to float a tender soon for the construction of the estimated SR7bn ($1.8bn) National Athletics Stadium at its Qiddiya entertainment city development.

    MEED understands that the prequalification process has reached an advanced stage and the tender for the main contract is likely to be issued within a few weeks.

    The multipurpose stadium will cover an area of approximately 182,000 square metres and its design is inspired by the London Olympic Stadium.

    In September, MEED exclusively reported that QIC had begun the procurement process for the kingdom’s next major sporting destination, having received expressions of interest from contractors for the project.

    UK-based HOK is the project’s lead design consultant. It is supported by Canadian engineering firm WSP and Germany’s Schlaich Bergermann Partner.

    UK-headquartered WT Partnership is serving as the project’s cost consultant.

    The stadium will be located within the Qiddiya Sports Park cluster and is expected to be completed by 2030.

    In December 2020, Saudi Arabia was selected to host the 2034 Asian Games. The 22nd edition of the event will be held in Riyadh from 29 November to 14 December 2034.

    Saudi Arabia is also set to host the Asian Winter Games in 2029. In October 2022, the Trojena development at Neom, in the northwest of the country, was selected to host the ninth edition of the event.

    The National Athletics Stadium is one of several major projects within the wider Qiddiya development. Others include an e-games arena, Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Stadium, a performing arts centre, a motorsports track, Dragon Ball and Six Flags theme parks and Aquarabia waterpark.

    The project is a key part of Riyadh’s strategy to boost leisure tourism in the kingdom. According to UK analytics firm GlobalData, leisure tourism in Saudi Arabia has experienced significant growth in recent years.

    Domestic leisure tourism trips increased to 33.76 million in 2023, up from 16.74 million in 2018. International tourist arrivals for recreational purposes increased by 600% from 2018 to 2023.

    Image: Buro Happold

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15217660/main.jpg
    Yasir Iqbal
  • Contractors submit prices to Adnoc Gas for Ruwais NGL project

    9 December 2025

     

    Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

    Contractors have submitted commercial proposals to Adnoc Gas for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) work as part of a design‑update competition for a project to install a fifth natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation train at its Ruwais gas processing facility in Abu Dhabi.

    The fifth NGL fractionation train will have an output capacity of 22,000 tonnes a day (t/d), or about 8 million tonnes a year.

    Adnoc Gas, the natural gas processing business of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc Group), has adopted the design-update competition model to deliver the Ruwais NGL Train 5 project, MEED previously reported.

    The design-update competition model involves the project operator selecting contractors to execute front-end engineering design (feed) work on the project. The operator selects the contractor with the most competitive feed proposal to execute EPC works on the project, while also compensating the other contestants for their work.

    According to sources, contractors participating in the design-update competition for the Ruwais NGL Train 5 project submitted commercial bids for EPC works by the deadline of 8 December.

    The previous deadline for price submissions was 30 November, sources said.

    Adnoc Gas previously asked contractors to submit their feed technical proposals for the project in September.

    In January, MEED reported that Adnoc Gas had selected the following contractors to participate in the design-update competition for the Ruwais NGL Train 5 project:

    • JGC Corporation (Japan)
    • Technip Energies (France)
    • Tecnimont (Italy)

    MEED previously reported that participants had submitted technical proposals for feed work on 6 October.

    The scope of work on the Ruwais NGL Train 5 project covers the EPC of the following units:

    • NGL fractionation plant with a capacity of 22,000 t/d, including NGL fractionation facilities, downstream treatment units, sulphur recovery units, products storage, loading facilities and associated utilities, flares and interconnection pipelines with existing facilities
    • Two propane liquefied petroleum gas storage tanks and one paraffinic naphtha storage tank
    • Buildings – a central control building, outstations, substations and plant amenities
    • Electrical power connections. Power is to be sourced from the nearby Transco substation via a direct underground cable to the plot location.

    Adnoc Gas requires the feed on the project to be updated based on the design of Ruwais NGL Train 4, which has an output capacity of 27,000 t/d and was commissioned in 2014.

    In December 2021, MEED reported that Adnoc Gas, then operating as Adnoc Gas Processing, had awarded Indian contractor Larsen & Toubro Hydrocarbon Engineering the main contract for a project to enhance the capacity of its NGL trains 1-4 at the Ruwais complex.

    ALSO READ: Adnoc Gas capex budget to rise to $28bn by 2029

    Adnoc Gas business

    Adnoc Group announced the creation of Adnoc Gas through the merger of its subsidiaries Adnoc Gas Processing and Adnoc LNG in November 2022. Adnoc Gas began operating as a commercial entity on 1 January 2023.

    The consolidation of Adnoc’s gas processing and liquefied natural gas (LNG) operations into Adnoc Gas has created one of the world’s largest gas-processing entities, with a processing capacity of about 10 billion standard cubic feet of gas a day across eight onshore and offshore sites, which include its Asab, Bab, Bu Hasa, Habshan and Ruwais plants.

    The company also owns a 3,250-kilometre (km) gas pipeline network to supply feedstock to its customers in the UAE. This sales gas pipeline network is being expanded to over 3,500km through the estimated $3bn Estidama project.

    The company will also acquire its parent Adnoc Group’s 60% share in the Ruwais LNG terminal project at cost in the second half of 2028. UK energy producer BP, Japan’s Mitsui & Co, UK-based Shell and French energy producer TotalEnergies are the other shareholders in the project, holding 10% stakes each.

    Adnoc Gas share sale

    In February 2025, Adnoc Group completed a marketed offering of approximately 3.1 billion shares in Adnoc Gas, raising $2.8bn from the exercise.

    The offering consisted of 3,070,056,880 shares, representing 4% of the issued and outstanding share capital of Adnoc Gas.

    Following the marketed offering of shares, Adnoc Group continues to hold the majority 86% of shares in Adnoc Gas.

    The parent entity listed 5% of Adnoc Gas’ shares on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in March 2023, in an initial public offering from which it raised about $2.5bn.

    Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) owns the remaining 5% shares in Adnoc Gas.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15217598/main2533.jpg
    Indrajit Sen
  • Saudi Arabia and Qatar sign high-speed rail link agreement

    9 December 2025

    Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

    Saudi Arabia and Qatar have signed an agreement to build a proposed high-speed rail line connecting Riyadh and Doha.

    The agreement was signed by Saudi Arabia's Transport & Logistics Services Minister, Saleh Al-Jasser, and Qatar's Transport Minister, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulla Bin Mohammed Al-Thani.

    The high-speed railway line will cover 785 kilometres (km) and will pass through Hofuf and Dammam, while also linking King Salman International airport and Hamad International airport.

    The train's speed will exceed 300 kilometres an hour, reducing travel time between the two capitals to about two hours.

    The project is slated for completion in six years. The project is expected to serve over 10 million passengers annually and create more than 30,000 direct and indirect jobs.

    Riyadh and Doha relaunched a proposed rail link connecting the two countries in 2022, after agreeing to set a date to begin studying the connection. 

    In July of that year, France’s Systra was selected to conduct a feasibility study on the proposed scheme, as MEED reported.

    A rail link connecting Saudi Arabia and Qatar was planned before the diplomatic dispute that froze relations between Riyadh and Doha from 2017 until the Al-Ula Declaration was signed in January 2021.

    In 2016, Qatar Railways Company (Qatar Rail) was planning to tender the design-and-build contract for the construction of regional railways in Qatar, including the link connecting to the Saudi border.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15217463/main.gif
    Yasir Iqbal
  • Oman green hydrogen projects cancelled

    8 December 2025

    Hydrogen Oman (Hydrom), France’s Engie and South Korea’s Pohang Iron & Steel Company (Posco) have cancelled plans to move forward with the $6.7bn HyDuqm green hydrogen project.

    In a joint statement, the firms said they had reached a decision to end the scheme by mutual consent following an “in-depth assessment” of global renewable hydrogen offtake dynamics and investment frameworks.

    The HyDuqm scheme was one of the largest green hydrogen projects awarded under Oman’s first auction round in 2023.

    The proposed development included around 5GW of combined solar and wind capacity, supported by battery energy storage, to power an electrolysis plant producing hydrogen for conversion into green ammonia.

    The facility was expected to deliver up to 1.2 million tonnes of green ammonia a year by 2030, with Posco as the main offtaker to support the decarbonisation of its steel operations.

    The consortium, led by Posco (28%) and Engie (25%), had secured a 47-year concession with the state-owned Hydrom to develop a 320-square-kilometre site near the Port of Duqm.

    Samsung Engineering, Korea Southern Power and Korea East-West Power had a 12% stake, with Thailand’s PTTEP holding the remaining 11%.

    As recently as May, the partners were still targeting a final investment decision in 2027, subject to detailed economic and technical feasibility assessments.

    Separately, a second Hydrogen project in the same area, owned by the UK’s BP, has also been cancelled. BP withdrew its plans for the Duqm green hydrogen project, which had secured land rights for the 1.5GW facility.

    Hydrom managing director, Abdulaziz Al-Shidhani, told the 2025 Green Hydrogen Summit in Oman last week that only seven of the nine original projects that won land tenders were progressing.

    Wider slowdown

    The cancellations come amid a broader slowdown in green hydrogen development globally. Several major schemes have been postponed, scaled back or withdrawn as project economics have tightened.

    In Europe, more than one-fifth of planned hydrogen projects had been stalled or cancelled by the end of 2024, according to research and consultancy firm Westwood Global Energy, largely due to high costs, uncertain demand and slow progress securing long-term offtake.

    A similar trend has emerged in the GCC, where Saudi Arabia’s flagship Neom green hydrogen project has also faced offtake and market pressures despite reaching an $8.4bn financial close in 2023.

    The 4GW scheme, designed to produce about 1.2 million tonnes a year of green ammonia, has reportedly struggled to secure multiple international buyers, with only limited offtake confirmed to date.

    Hydrogen production costs

    Global green hydrogen production costs also remain significantly higher than conventional alternatives, typically in the range of $3-$8 a kilogram compared with roughly $0.5-$2/kg for hydrogen produced from fossil fuels, leaving large export-oriented projects exposed to pricing and demand uncertainty.

    The combination of elevated capital costs, slow offtake development and evolving policy frameworks has created headwinds for investment decisions across the sector.

    In the joint statement, however, Hydrom said it is committed to “developing a competitive hydrogen-centric economy” aligned with Oman’s Vision 2040.

    It added that projects awarded in the first two auction rounds are progressing on schedule towards the country’s target of producing more than one million tonnes a year of green hydrogen by 2030.

    The company also highlighted continued international interest in the sector, noting that the third auction round is under way with strong foreign participation.

    https://image.digitalinsightresearch.in/uploads/NewsArticle/15214080/main.jpg
    Mark Dowdall