Dubai: The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) recently conducted the 6th National Dialogue for Climate Ambition (NDCA) which explored the role of nature-based solutions in climate change mitigation and adaptation.
About 50 officials of pertinent public and commercial sector organizations attended the meeting.
The Office of the UAE’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economy, the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), and the Emirates Green Building Council were among the federal government authorities.
The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD), the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, and Dubai Municipality addressed local government. Emirates Nature-WWF, Zayed International Foundation for the Environment, and the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) were a few of the other organizations present.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Mubadala, ADQ, TAQA, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC), Essa Al-Ghurair, Aldar, Farnek Services, HSBC, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Distant Imagery were among the hand full of national and international businesses that participated in the event.
The series’ 6th Episode focused on the UAE’s initiatives to use blue carbon ecosystems, like mangrove forests, salt marshes, and seagrass meadows, to combat climate change. The Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Ms. Mariam bint Mohammed Al-Mheiri, commended EAD for their excellent work in this area.
Mangrove forests offer significant climate change mitigation and adaptation co-benefits. They protect our coasts from rising sea levels and storm surges and provide critical habitats for biodiversity. They also serve as effective carbon sinks. To strengthen our blue carbon ecosystems, we proactively work to expand our mangrove cover. In December 2020, we submitted our second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement which included planting an additional 30 million mangroves by 2030. And less than a year later, at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow in November 2021, we announced an increase in our mangrove-planting target to 100 million by 2030.
Ms. Mariam bint Mohammed Al-Mheiri remarked.
The Minister of Climate Change and Environment highlighted that, “The UAE is home to more than 63 million mangroves that form forests spanning 183 square kilometers and capture 43,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. The new target, captured in the country’s updated second NDC, will bring up its total mangrove forest area to 483 square kilometers and increase the CO2 sequestration rate to 115,000 tonnes per year,”
“We aim to work closely with NGOs and the private sector to fulfill our commitment to safeguarding the sustainability of our mangrove forests.” Ms. Mariam further added.
Mr. Steven Lutz, Senior Program Officer and Blue Carbon Lead at GRID-Arendal, a Norwegian foundation and Associate of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), provided a comprehensive overview of the use of ocean-based CO2 capture techniques in the event.
The schedule also included reports on projects targeted at converting absorbed CO2 and mineralizing it into rock, an introduction to the National Carbon Sequestration Project, and a discussion of EAD’s initiatives. The participants also completed the 100 Million Mangroves Plantation Plan, the method for carrying out the most recent mangrove planting goal.
The NDCA is a series of sector-specific meetings with the goal of boosting sectoral climate goals and guiding the UAE’s path to net zero by 2050.