The United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on November 1st, 2022 have signed a major agreement for energy transition in Abu Dhabi. Through the US-UAE Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy (PACE), $100 billion financial support will be made available for clean energy projects in the UAE, the US and other countries across the world. This framework aims to produce 100 additional gigawatts of energy by 2035 globally. The UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology said in a statement “In line with the vision of the wise leadership to unify and join efforts to enhance global energy security, we are pleased to conclude this agreement, which is an essential possibility to achieve this goal, advance climate action efforts, and provide sustainable energy supplies at reasonable prices in each of the UAE, the USA and around the globe.”
The United States and UAE will concentrate on scalable development and specifically on four areas including supply chains, clean energy innovation, carbon and methane management, decarbonization in industrial and transport sectors. The comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the President of the UAE and Amos Hochstein, the Special Presidential Coordinator for the United States. “The close and strategic alliance between the United States and the United Arab Emirates will now join forces to drive the global energy transition to a cleaner and more sustainable future,” said Amos Hochstein, the U.S. presidential coordinator, at the MoU ceremony. He added that the agreement is an evidence of the shared commitment of the two countries for addressing the climate change crisis urgently. The PACE will contribute to ensure a reliable and secure global energy system that would be able to sustainably and effectively power the planet Earth in coming years.
The United States and the United Arab Emirates also emphasized on closing the energy transition gap between developed and emerging economies. The press secretary for the White House stressed on the need of “robust commercial investment and other support for the emerging economies whose clean development is both underfunded and essential to the global climate effort”. The two countries want to achieve climate action goals by pursuing and encouraging investment in renewable energy in under developed countries. It is visible from the Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy (PACE) that the United States and the United Arab Emirates are well aware of the need to reduce the disparity between developed and developing countries investments and importance of use of clean energy in order to reduce carbon emissions. They intend to work together to assist the countries through financial and technical help.
The PACE calls for the creation of energy systems that support sustainable development and the serious consideration of energy security, as well as medium and long-term integrated energy planning strategies, decarbonization goals as well as fundamental legislative and regulatory changes. It is also the appropriate time to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy in order to reduce carbon footprint for the sake of problems related to climate change. To enable the integration of renewable energy sources, promote connection and trade between worldwide power grids, and further reduce costs through economies of scale, steps should also be taken to build regional energy markets. Additionally, efforts should be made to create regional energy markets in order to facilitate the integration of renewable energy sources, promote connection and trade amongst global power grids, and making it affordable for all economies. To conclude, US-UAE clean energy partnership seems promising, but its implementation is importance in order to attain the intended objectives and goals.
Research Associate, Pakistan House