UAE unveils industrial decarbonisation roadmap

The UAE has launched its Industrial Decarbonisation Roadmap with the aim of reducing industrial carbon emissions by 2.9 gigatonnes until 2050.

The initiative, which was announced on the sidelines of COP28, focuses on manufacturing and hard-to-abate sectors, including cement, iron, steel and aluminium.

The Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology built the roadmap alongside strategic partners in the government and private sectors.

Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology said: "The roadmap focuses on the development and adoption of advanced technology to drive a phased carbon reduction of 93 per cent by 2050 across the national industrial sector."

"It includes a set of pathways around monitoring and addressing challenges as well as developing and adopting the latest technologies. It also focuses on promoting the competitiveness and development of the national industrial sector," she added.

Three main phases

The roadmap comprises three phases. The first aims to reduce emissions by 5 per cent by 2030, while the second targets a 63 per cent reduction by 2040. Through the scaling and decreasing cost of technologies, emissions reduction is expected to reach 93 per cent by 2050.

The ministry and its partners have examined and evaluated the feasibility of more than 50 advanced technologies and innovative solutions.

These include clean electricity, carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), manufacturing efficiency, alternative fuels, recycling, clinker substitutes, and hydrogen.

Within the roadmap, there are separate decarbonisation timelines for different hard-to-abate sectors, including iron, steel, aluminium, cement, and petrochemicals.

Various technologies are mapped against the different industries, based on how much each solution could contribute to decarbonisation in that particular sector.

The roadmap indicates that CCUS, clean electricity and efficiency enhancements alone could be responsible for a 70 per cent carbon reduction by 2050, with the remaining 23 per cent made up by other solutions.

The action plan set out in the roadmap will cut 90 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Clean electricity alone could contribute to 41 per cent of the targeted reduction by 2050.