Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has celebrated National Environment Day with the theme ‘Sustainability is our Past and Present’ at its head office. National Environment Day is observed every 4 February, with this year’s theme being ‘Sustainable Production and Consumption.’ The activities included an awareness exhibition that highlighted sustainability in the UAE between the past and the present.
HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, inaugurated the celebrations along with DEWA’s Executive Vice Presidents and Vice Presidents, staff, and customers.
“Sustainability has always been an integral part of our culture in the UAE. Our ancestors attached great importance to the environment and realised the importance of preserving natural resources and using only what they needed. They followed environmentally-friendly practices and used natural materials to build houses that adapted to the climate. Today, we continue this path in line with the vision and directives of our wise leadership to protect the environment, preserve natural resources, and reduce the carbon footprint. This supports the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 to produce 75% of Dubai’s total power output from clean energy by 2050, making Dubai the city with the lowest carbon footprint in the world, and the Carbon Abatement Strategy to reduce carbon emissions by 16% by 2021, as well as encouraging the rational use of resources in line with the Demand Side Management Strategy to reduce energy and water use by 30% by 2030,” said Al Tayer.
“In line with DEWA’s vision to become a leading sustainable innovative global corporation, we are committed to implementing the highest standards of sustainability in all our operations, as well as increase the share of clean and renewable energy in the energy mix. This is achieved through the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the largest single-site solar park in the world with a production capacity of 5,000 megawatts (MW) by 2030. DEWA also launched a number of pioneering initiatives that involve society in conservation efforts. These include the Shams Dubai initiative to encourage building owners to install solar panels to produce clean energy and connect them to DEWA’s grid. Shams Dubai has been very successful with 1,227 buildings connected to the grid with a total capacity of 75MW. DEWA also launched the Green Charger initiative to provide electric vehicle charging stations. DEWA installed 200 charging stations throughout Dubai to encourage the public to use environmentally-friendly electric vehicles. DEWA is also implementing a 250MW pumped-storage, hydroelectric power station in Hatta, which is the first of its kind in the Arabian Gulf. It will make use of the water stored in the Hatta Dam. We also broke ground for the Green Hydrogen Project, the first of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa to produce hydrogen using solar power. DEWA is implementing the project in collaboration with Expo 2020 Dubai and Siemens. It is part of DEWA’s efforts in sustainability, and research and development in energy storage,” added Al Tayer.
DEWA organises several environmental programmes, initiatives, and awareness campaigns throughout the year. These efforts achieved significant savings over the past few years. DEWA’s activities involved all members of society who took part by assisting the national and global efforts to curb the effects of climate change and global warming. National Environment Day is an important event where society and the public and private-sectors cooperate to show their commitment to protect the environment and preserve our natural resources, for generations to come.
DEWA’s efforts resulted in it receiving many global environmental awards. These include the Five Star Environmental Audit and the Globe of Honour from the British Safety Council seven years in a row, with full marks. This puts DEWA at the forefront of sustainable institutions by fully complying with all local and international environmental requirements with zero environmental violations.