In 2021, the United Nations Climate Change secretariat chose Egypt to host the 27th annual Conference of Parties (COP) in 2022, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the 28th conference in 2023. Since the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, the 197 “parties” (states) have adopted a Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) whose core objective has been the stabilisation of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The diplomatic delegations have negotiated the application of the treaty. Since Kyoto in 1997 and Paris in 2015, the COPs have become a forum for change-oriented discourse on global environmental issues involving the various stakeholders: the states primarily responsible for greenhouse gas emissions and the states most vulnerable to the consequences of such emissions, the scientific community, NGOs, transnational companies, climate activists and international media.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum stated that COP28 would be the most important event for the UAE in 2023. Consequently, observers paid particular attention to the federation’s involvement in Sharm-El-Sheikh during the two-week session (Nov. 6-18, 2022).
Continuity between the COPs
In January 2022, Masdar, the planned carbon-free city in the suburbs of Abu Dhabi, hosted the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW). 45,000 delegates from 175 countries participated in discussions about the global energy transition. The ADSW acted as a “catalyst” for the COP in Egypt, building on the exchange of ideas and initiatives from Glasgow and preparing the discourse for the coming COP. At the same time, Sheikh Abdulla bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mariam Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, and especially Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Special Envoy for Climate Change at the COPs (Glasgow and Sharm El-Sheikh), Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology and Managing Director of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) – aimed to bring the UAE voice in environment conferences in 2022. In Bonn, Munich, Baghdad and New York, for the General Assembly of the United Nations in September, the three affirmed the importance of the continuity between the COPs while still focusing on the Sharm-El-Sheikh meeting.
The ambition reflected the national agendas. At the Bonn Climate Conference on June 10, 2022, Mariam Almheiri highlighted the UAE’s newly launched National Dialogue for Climate Ambition (NDCA) with a focus on ‘Cementing a Decarbonised Future’. She indicated that the UAE has placed ‘climate action’ at the centre of its economy regarding sustainable growth and new orientations outside the hydrocarbon sector. The updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC – strategy to lower the carbon reduction defined by the countries themselves by 2050) prepares the COP27 and is aligned with the Glasgow engagement. This national continuity was also underlined by the COP28 Supreme Committee, held for the first time in March 2022. This committee was created to oversee the preparations in Dubai and manage the preparations for COP27. Sheikh Abdulla confirmed that the UAE would closely work with the UK and Egypt to ‘build the current momentum and enhance efforts to host COP28’. The cooperation with Egypt posed no significant issues because the two countries have been long-term partners.
‘Egypt and UAE - One Heart’
The partnership between the UAE and Egypt was always reaffirmed in public discourse. For instance, when mobilising the interest of the youth and civil society in the COPs, the UAE authorities emphasised Arab solidarity. This stance was reiterated, by both sides, prior to the opening, although with slight differences. Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Environment and Ministerial Coordinator and Envoy for the COP27 for Egypt, pointed out that the COP28 would be the continuation of the COP27, whereas Sameh Shoukry, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt, agreed on shared aspirations and goals.
The UAE and Egypt spoke with one voice regarding Emirati investments in the Egyptian market. Before the conference, Egypt announced projects related to sustainable mobility, waste recycling, women’s health and the transition to clean energy. Indeed, after the official round of discussions between the states, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the UAE, and President Abdel Fattah El Sisi witnessed the signing of an agreement between Masdar, Infinity Power (the leading developer of renewable energy in Egypt) and Hassan Allam Utilities (one of the oldest engineering companies in Egypt). The partners are working to develop one of the largest onshore wind farms in the world, with a capacity of 10 Gigawatt. When completed, the wind farm will produce five times more clean electricity (47,790 GW) than the initial project and offset 23.8 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Showing a similar security profile, the UAE kept a wary eye on the organisation of the Sharm-El-Sheikh conference. Sameh Shoukry expressed the overall philosophy on security in an interview for WAM, the UAE press agency. The Egyptian authorities effectively pulled the conference out of the ongoing political and economic polarisation, leading to a successful conference. Far from the Glasgow protests, the COP27 muted the radical claims on the environment. However, COP27 became a focal point for the Global South countries demanding compensation from the Global North.
Before going to Sharm-El-Sheikh, the UAE delegation knew what to expect regarding environmental achievements. As many Emirati officials verbalised, the federation aimed to assess the priorities of the international community, particularly regarding increasing financing for climate initiatives and more clarity on the main motto of COP27, ‘loss and damage’.
Maintaining a Leading Position
The role of the UAE in the COP27 should be understood not only with regards to the two weeks in Egypt but also against the backdrop of the federation’s environment diplomacy. Presented as a leader in the energy transition – with a total of $50 billion invested over the past ten years (in the UAE and abroad) – the commitments announced in the conference are indicators of future obligations.
While there were no significant fundings apart from the wind farm in Egypt, symbolic gestures were made to communicate future initiatives. In Glasgow, the different UAE statal and parastatal entities pledged $1 billion (out of $4 billion) to Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate) as well as up to $400 million (out of $1 billion) to Energy Transition Accelerator Financing (ETAF). No project in Sharm-El-Sheikh was in the range of the COP26. The participation in desalination plants in Jordan and in Israel was announced but without a delineated budget. Moreover, the Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy (PACE), between the UAE and the United States was defined in the Egyptian city for $100 billion ‘by 2035’, but no details were released. Instead, two initiatives were highlighted during the conference. The first day of the conference, Mariam Almheiri announced the launch of the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC) with Indonesia as the primary partner alongside five other countries (Australia, India, Japan, Spain and Sri Lanka). The objective of this program is to expand and rehabilitate mangrove forests. Last year, in Scotland, the government of Abu Dhabi defined an ambitious project of replantation of 30 million mangroves and consequently maintained its leadership in the field. A few days after the MAC project, on the sideline of the COP, the minister of Climate Change and Environment also promoted a project of the Third Pole-Himalayan region to mitigate the threats of melting glaciers and water insecurity in this subregion.
‘Implementation’ is a word that came back like a leitmotiv during the conference. The Egyptian authorities emphasised that the ‘Green transition’ (transition to clean energy and regeneration of existing global ecosystems) needed pledges and, equally important, the implementation of the projects. President Sisi stated that COP27 should move away from negotiations and focus on the planning for implementation. The issue of ‘loss and damage’ epitomised the concerns of states, particularly from the Global South, for which economic losses from climate change have become inescapable and urgent concerns.
For the UAE, Sharm-El-Sheikh was a delicate exercise in equilibrium. As a major player in Global Environmental Governance, seeking the leadership of a G7 (group of 7) for the countries deeply committed to the environment, the UAE was able to be in the right position in COP27. At the same time, the delegation succeeded in becoming an ‘enabler’ country on environmental issues, faithful to multilateralism. Therefore, if COP27 was a stepping-stone, COP28 remains the main milestone.
