The UAE’s environment is characterized by an extreme climate and severe water scarcity. This contributes to high energy demand both for cooling and for desalinated water production to meet industrial and residential water use, on top of normal baseload demand and a growing industrial sector. The UAE faces challenges creating work for its youth population to address an increasingly younger demographic in the nation and a steadily rising youth unemployment rate.70 The country has a highly decentralized federal system and there is an increasing gap in development between Abu Dhabi and Dubai and the other emirates.

The UAE sees green growth as an approach to address this complex set of challenges and is pursuing its Federal Vision 2021 and its Green Economy for Sustainable Development Vision as a framework for long-term sustainable development. The UAE, with the support of GGGI, has strived to close identified gaps in achieving these visions through systematically building a national framework where inter-emirates and cross-sector coordination and collaboration can effectively take place and progress can be monitored. These renewed policy frameworks now need to be implemented and made fully functional.

Building on the UAE’s success in developing and mainstreaming green growth and drawing on the understanding of the need for collective action to address common regional challenges, the UAE wishes to share its experience with other countries in the region. This will be part of GGGI’s South-South Cooperation program.

GGGI’s work in 2015-16 has contributed to the adoption of the National Green Growth Strategy (NGGS) and Green Agenda, which is a policy and institutional framework to mainstream green growth in the UAE. GGGI is currently working with the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) to develop a renewed policy framework that integrates enhanced climate elements with existing Green Growth Strategy programs, and is piloting an implementation support mechanism.

In 2017-18 work plan’s outputs will support the government to implement the renewed policy framework for green growth. Within the framework of South- South cooperation, GGGI will continue to expand the capacity development program into the youth sector, as well as policy practitioners and government officials of the UAE, aligned with emerging national priorities.

PROJECT OUTPUTS FOR 2017-18:

• Establish and operationalize a support mechanism to assist the government in implementing the National Green Growth Strategy
• Establish and operationalize a Green Business Council to provide private sector perspectives and advice to the Emirate Green Development Council
• Deliver training and knowledge sharing initiatives relating to green growth
• Establish an online knowledge sharing platform for the Green Growth Middle East north Africa (MENA) Network

PROJECT OUTCOMES FOR 2017-18:

• Government is able to effectively implement its green growth and climate change policies, including the National Green Growth Strategy and the forthcoming Climate Resilient Green Growth Plan

The overall outcome of the project is to support the government to implement its green growth and climate change policies. This will be achieved through a combination of support mechanisms, training, knowledge platforms and knowledge sharing events, described in further detail below:

Implementation support mechanism established and operationalized. GGGI will offer a systematic support mechanism (“G-support”) to fill in the immediate capacity and data gaps in implementing various elements of the NGGS. G-support will be an implementation support tool specific to the NGGS and open to government officers through Emirates Green Development Council (EGDC). The support packages are expected to include the items in the identified project pipeline: the establishment of a national green economy data system, a GHG emission reduction target and mechanism, a climate resilient water management system, a waste-to-energy pilot and a risk mitigation methodology and advisory service to hedge against instability in the conventional energy market. The packages will be finalized with the involvement of MOCCAE and the EGDC. GGGI will manage each package from inception and assist with the development of policy recommendations, and advise on policy enactment and pilot program development. Responding to the e-government movement in the UAE, GGGI will offer an online interface of the G-support mechanism.

Green Business Council established. As green growth implementation efforts mature, proactive engagement of the private sector will become increasingly important. GGGI will set up and operationalize a Green Business Council bringing together key local, regional and global business stakeholders and with a capacity to advise the EGDC and MOCCAE.

Under South-South Cooperation Framework and In-country Integrated Capacity Development Program (for further details, see the global project), the following outputs will be delivered.

Green growth training and knowledge sharing delivered. As part GGGI’s integrated in-country capacity development program, GGGI will continue to deliver tailored capacity building and training programs for government officials and the youth group to enhance national ownership, ensure long-term viability among key stakeholders and contribute national talent to implementation projects. GGGI will specifically perform the needs assessment and design the training programs, mobilize facilitators and define training methodologies, organize trainee participation and implement the programs.

Online knowledge sharing platform established. To leverage the UAE green growth experience and facilitating dialogue amongst regional governments on common challenges and solutions, GGGI will set up the Green Growth MENA network (GGMN). This will be an online regional knowledge sharing platform and is intended to encourage a community of practice amongst government officials and professionals. The annual World Future Energy (WFES) summit will be used to further reach out to regional partners.