The UAE is taking aggressive action to meet the global climate challenge and believes low-carbon investments will help reach sustainability goals while supporting economic growth and job creation.
Partnerships between the UAE and US are driving advances in sustainability and clean energy technology. At a governmental level, Emirati experts and officials also work with the US and other international partners to strengthen cooperation around shared sustainability goals. The UAE highlighted these shared objectives when it hosted the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in December 2023.
UAE-US Collaboration
- Under the Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy (PACE), UAE and US partners are mobilizing investment in clean energy and deploying advanced nuclear technology, sustainable aviation fuel, carbon capture and more. In a meeting at the White House in September 2024, UAE President HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and US President Joe Biden reinforced PACE as a key platform for bilateral cooperation and commercial agreements to advance the energy transition.
- UAE company Masdar first invested in the US in 2019 and now has a portfolio of utility scale wind, solar and storage assets totaling over 3 GW across Texas, New Mexico, Nebraska, and California. Most recently, Masdar announced the closing of its acquisition of a 50% stake in Terra-Gen, one of the largest independent renewable power producers in the US.
- Alongside these initiatives, regular government-to-government coordination advances shared priorities on climate action. Cooperation between the two countries was key to delivering commitments at COP28 to cut methane emissions and triple renewable energy.
Click here to learn about the UAE’s actions and initiatives to address the climate crisis.
“The US and the UAE are cooperating on a number of initiatives and we’ve had a real partnership on this whole issue of the climate crisis.”
– Former US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, October 2022
UAE Adoption of Clean Energy
The UAE is rapidly expanding its use of renewable energy to reach net-zero by 2050.
- The UAE is home to three of the largest and lowest-cost solar plants in the world, placing it among the top 10 countries globally for installed solar capacity per capita, according to a 2024 report by Solar Power Europe. The country’s solar energy capacity is only growing.
- Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) is working with GE to build the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park in Dubai, the world’s largest single-site solar project. At its planned total capacity, it will power up to 1.3 million homes. The solar park will use GE’s liquid-cooled solar inverters to convert solar panel output to grid-ready electrical currents.
- With the support of US partners, the UAE also successfully integrated civilian nuclear power into its energy grid. The Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant’s four reactors will supply 25 percent of the UAE’s electricity.
