UAE's Abu Dhabi announces new projects to contribute to country's climate initiative

Abu Dhabi's Department of Energy announced nine new projects that will contribute to the United Arab Emirates' Net Zero by 2050 Strategic initiative, the Emirate's media office said in a statement on Friday.

The planned projects, along with existing ones, are expected to reduce CO2 emissions from power generation and water production in Abu Dhabi by at least 50% over 10 years, the office added.

Abu Dhabi is expected to cut power generation emissions from 40 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2020 to approximately 20 million tonnes in 2025, the statement added, citing Awaidha Al Marar, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy.

The emirate aims to reach a total clean power generation capacity of 8.8GW in 2025.

The UAE initiative comprises existing and planned projects from Abu Dhabi's energy sector which includes UAE's first nuclear power plant Barakah, Noor Abu Dhabi and Al Dharfa solar plants, the statement added.

The Gulf state last month announced a plan for net-zero emissions by 2050 and would oversee 600 billion dirhams ($163 billion) in investment in renewable energy.

The country, a major oil producer, has in the past 15 years invested $40 billion in clean energy, the government said. Abu Dhabi's Barakah nuclear power plant has been connected to the national grid and the UAE aims to produce 14 GW of clean energy by 2030, up from about 100 MW in 2015, it said.