The UAE unveiled its Industrial Decarbonisation Roadmap during COP28, intending to collectively reduce industrial carbon emissions by 2.9 gigatonnes by 2050. The Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology, in collaboration with government and private sector partners, developed the roadmap with a primary focus on challenging sectors such as cement, iron, steel, and aluminium.
Aligned with the UAE’s Net Zero 2050 initiative, the roadmap follows the nation’s third update of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Climate Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology, emphasized the roadmap’s focus on advanced technology adoption to achieve a phased 93% carbon reduction in the national industrial sector by 2050. It encompasses pathways to address challenges, deploy cutting-edge technologies, and promote the competitiveness and growth of the national industrial sector.
Decarbonisation Roadmap’s Ambitious Phases: From 5% to 93% Emissions Reduction by 2050
The three-phase decarbonisation roadmap sets a target of a 5% emissions reduction by 2030 in its first phase, followed by a 63% reduction by 2040. By leveraging technology scalability and cost reductions, the roadmap anticipates a 93% reduction in emissions by 2050. The initiative involves assessing over 50 advanced technologies, including clean electricity, carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), manufacturing efficiency, alternative fuels, recycling, clinker substitutes, and hydrogen.
Different hard-to-abate sectors, such as iron, steel, aluminium, cement, and petrochemicals, have distinct decarbonisation timelines within the roadmap. Technologies are strategically mapped to sectors based on their potential contributions to decarbonisation. Notably, CCUS, clean electricity, and efficiency improvements alone could achieve a 70% carbon reduction by 2050, with the remaining 23% attributed to other solutions.
The action plan outlined in the roadmap aims to reduce 90 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, with clean electricity anticipated to contribute 41% to the targeted reduction by 2050.
