International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Director General Adnan Amin praised the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday as a pioneer in energy transition and geopolitical adaptation, adding that several gigawatts of renewable capacity would become available over the next five years thanks to the country's efforts
ABU DHABI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th January, 2019) International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Director General Adnan Amin praised the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday as a pioneer in energy transition and geopolitical adaptation, adding that several gigawatts of renewable capacity would become available over the next five years thanks to the country's efforts."For energy producers, the nature of the industry is going to change and the adaptation of these countries to be able to have more hi-tech economies that are based on new technologies will be decisive in how they adapt to geopolitical change. Some of them, like the UAE, are making very foresight decisions about this. UAE is one of them," Amin said at the Future Sustainability Summit in Abu Dhabi.
He also praised the country for the amount it invested in innovations.
"What we are seeing right now is huge investment into technology innovation, in capacity addition of renewables several gigawatts of renewable capacity will come on stream in the next five years. They are actually reducing their own dependency on fossil fuels, but they have also positioned themselves for the next stage of evolution of fossil fuels which is going to be much more in the petrochemical industry," Amin said, asked how the UAE succeeded in energy transition.
He stressed that while some oil dependence would still be in place in the near future, the industry would change.
"It's not like we will not have oil anymore as of tomorrow, it's that the nature of the industry is going to change and trade in commodities is going to change, which is going to have geopolitical implications in terms of those who are in competence and benefitting from it, unless they are able to adapt. And the UAE is one of them," Amin noted.
The Future Sustainability Summit started in Abu Dhabi earlier on Tuesday and will last through Wednesday. The international forum is focused on joint international efforts aimed at helping the world meet its sustainability challenges.
