Abu Dhabi: The Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) has introduced a self-reporting program to standardize environmental monitoring and reporting requirements in the emirate. The program seeks to develop a comprehensive and unified environmental database to identify the sources, quantities, and components of emissions to the environment.
The new program will further support the UAE’s strategic climate neutrality initiative of Net Zero by 2050 and the Abu Dhabi Climate Change Strategy, which was launched by EAD in July 2023.
The program consists of organizational and technical measures and is financed by facility operators. This will facilitate the monitoring and reporting process as well as ensure the collection and management of valuable environmental data. Reporting entities will keep records of the monitoring data and provide periodic reports to the competent authorities in a duly aggregated form.
The self-reporting program will allow us to collect relevant and valuable environmental information about the regulated community in order to understand the significance of the residual environmental impacts on the emirate of Abu Dhabi. It will also provide us with valuable environmental data about what can be used to identify major environmental concerns and, following this, guide the development of required policies and regulatory instruments to eliminate or mitigate those concerns.
Mr. Faisal Hammadi, Executive Director of the Environmental Quality Sector at EAD, shared.
“There are economic benefits too, such as helping to identify and reduce environment-related costs and minimize environmental liabilities, providing indications of where cost savings are possible, and avoiding unnecessary expenses for irrelevant parameters or excess monitoring requirements. It will also facilitate investment across the industrial sectors by providing clear monitoring requirements,” Mr. Hammadi added.
According to the Executive Director, the program will enhance the environmental compliance of facilities and projects, leading to the implementation of best environmental practices to ensure that all emissions and discharges are within allowable limits.
The program is applicable to those in the regulated community, such as industrial facilities, commercial facilities, and development projects. All facilities holding an environmental permit are required to submit their annual monitoring reports according to the requirements set in the self-reporting program.