Net zero targets
Summary
We evaluate the net zero target as: Average
In January 2024, just weeks after COP28, the UAE submitted its first long-term strategy (LTS) to the UNFCCC, including its 2050 net zero target (Government of the UAE, 2024). The LTS officially communicates longer-term targets beyond 2030. In 2021 the UAE had already announced its intention to reach net zero by 2050, as part of the UAE Net Zero 2050 Strategic Initiative.
The LTS significantly improves the clarity of the UAE’s net-zero target and covers most key elements considered important by the CAT to enhance transparency, target architecture, and scope. For example, the government has enshrined the target into law, provides a transparent assumption on the use of carbon dioxide removal in the target year, and establishes a legally-binding review process of the target in five-year intervals. We evaluate the comprehensiveness of the UAE’s net zero target as ‘average’, an upgrade from the ‘poor’ rating ahead of the LTS submission.
Despite this progress, the UAE has several avenues to improve the scope, target architecture and transparency of its net zero target. For example, the government could include F-gases, international aviation, and international shipping under its target coverage, or explain why its net zero target is a fair contribution to the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels, and transparently address any existing gap between its net zero target and what would be a fair target.
Additionally, it is concerning that the UAE's plans to increase use of fossil gas to meet its net zero target, and also has a heavy reliance on carbon capture and storage (CCS), a technology that is neither commercially viable, nor one that reduces emissions to zero (Climate Action Tracker, 2023a). The UAE’s major oil and gas expansion plans are clearly not in line with a global transition to net zero emissions. According to the IEA (2023), there should be no new investments into oil and gas projects under a net zero scenario.
Ten key elements
Good practice
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