ABU DHABI, 19th January, 2023 (WAM) -- Business France, the national agency supporting the global development of the French economy, led a business delegation from France to the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) in Abu Dhabi to build transformational relationships through innovation and technology and create a sustainable and energy-efficient future.
The first edition of the French Cleantech Days took place during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, hosted by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company "Masdar", to set the agenda for climate action and create the blueprints for a sustainable future. The French business delegation enjoyed a three-day programme with their participation in the WFES.
The French Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher visited the WFES and met with the delegation to learn more about their latest innovations and technologies driving the energy transition forward. The newly appointed Ambassador of the French Republic to the UAE Nicolas Niemtchinow, was also part of the delegation.
The second day was followed by a breakfast with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office, ADNOC, Masdar City and Masdar Clean Energy sharing their sustainable development projects.
During an exclusive round table centred around the topic “UAE & France on the road to COP28”, panellists comprising representatives from DEWA, Masdar Energy and BEEAH Group, shared insights about their climate commitments and ongoing sustainable projects. The purpose of this round table was to highlight the UAE’s sustainability roadmap and introduce the sustainable solutions brought by the French delegation.
As part of a knowledge session about the UAE’s trends and developments towards sustainability, Ahmed Samir Elbermbali, Sustainability Market Leader at Bureau Veritas, highlighted that within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia are at the forefront in diversifying their energy mix and adopting clean energy solutions to reach net zero in 2050.
The UAE Net Zero by 2050 strategic initiative is a national drive to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, following the Paris Agreement, making the Emirates the first Middle Eastern country to do so. The deployment and use of clean energy solutions is one of the main pillars of the UAE’s model of addressing the challenge of climate change, having invested more than US$50 billion in renewable energy projects across 70 countries.
Sharjah-based public-private company BEEAH Group has created the region’s first commercial-scale waste-to-energy in Sharjah in partnership with Masdar and French company Veolia, also part of the French delegation. Veolia, established in the Middle East 35 years ago, walked the audience through their many projects in water, waste, and energy management in the UAE, creating the first free-of-charge door-to-door recycling service in the country, RECAPP with more than 50,000 users.
The GCC has emerged as a hotspot for renewable energy investments that have the potential to make the region a world leader in the industry. The UAE is making progress on its targeted share of renewables, which is set to be 44 percent by 2050. Developments around nuclear energy in countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, the adoption of waste-to-energy plants, the evolution of the hydrogen economy, the development of solar systems, and investments in technology improvements for effective management of the existing infrastructures open a lot of opportunities for cross-collaborations.
For water management, 90 percent of daily drinking water comes from desalinated seawater in the Middle East. The GCC is the biggest producer of desalinated water globally with the UAE and Saudi Arabia considered market leaders. Raincatcher, a French water retention growth accelerator, highlighted water productivity management as a key growth opportunity for the Middle East’s water sector. Nine French companies pitched their innovative solutions to help the UAE reach zero waste and net-zero carbon emissions.
French company Energy pool, as a smart energy manager, insisted on the importance of optimising the energy consumption of complex systems (industrial sites, distributed generation, renewable energy, storage asset, etc.) for more sustainable use of energy. They are currently working with NEOM for The Line project in Saudi Arabia.
Tikehau Capital, a global alternative asset manager, runs one of the largest decarbonisation strategies with €1.4 billion of AUM and more than €1 billion invested in companies active in the clean energy generation, low-carbon mobility, and energy efficiency sectors. They are also a majority shareholder of Egis and Amarenco, which were a part of the delegation. Egis specialises in consulting, infrastructure engineering, and operations and maintenance shared supporting multiple sustainable project developments in the UAE with wide expertise ranging from rail, road, water, urban mobility, and urban development.
Amarenco, a global solar energy producer, shared its expertise in developing distributed renewable energy and agri-photovoltaic solutions. Codra, also presented its digital solution to go carbon-free. Atos, talked about their solutions to digitalise carbon data collection and combine datasets for net zero acceleration. John Cockerill, specialising in environmental engineering, shared great collaborations with key local players such as DEWA with the solar thermal power plant project.
The delegation ended the programme by visiting Masdar City along with Masdar Tech Park to discover their high-performing sustainable buildings and urban ecosystem.