Abu Dhabi: Decree No. (1) of 2024 on environmental data reporting was released by Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Chairman of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) and the Ruler’s Representative in the Al Dhafra Region.
The decree creates guidelines, standards, and procedures to safeguard the environment from pollution by detecting, tracking, and assessing the kinds and amounts of pollutants that different projects and facilities release into the environment, as well as assessing the degree of their commitment.
The regulation also makes it easier to create an all-encompassing, uniform environmental database that will help identify the locations, amounts, and contents of all environmental discharges.
The decree applies to all businesses and initiatives operating inside the emirate that have an EAD license or are mandated by the organization to abide by the decree. In cooperation with the appropriate authorities, EAD will oversee the decree’s implementation through enforcement processes, environmental audits, and extensive environmental monitoring programs.
The decree mandates that the facility and project, whose operations result in environmental discharges, compile an environmental data report and submit it to EAD in accordance with the EAD’s standards by the first quarter of every year. The report has to contain information on how much energy and water they use, as well as measurements demonstrating how pollutants are released into the environment in a way that complies with licensing and environmental standards.
The facility or project’s data, any operational procedures, machinery, equipment, and technology utilized in the project or facility, as well as the applicable operational methodology, are all included in the required reporting. The regulation also requires data on any discharges to be supplied, along with a comparison statement against the upper limits of allowable discharges. Along with raw materials utilized as manufacturing inputs and discharge control processes, the data should also include measurement sites, periodicity and mechanisms, outcomes and accidents related to the measurement activities, and remedial actions.
The order states that EAD will establish guidelines for identifying which projects or facilities are required to report on their data and discharges, as well as create systems for measuring and monitoring discharges and identifying the environmental data that has to be shared. In order to enable the facilities or projects to identify laboratories, approve measurement mechanisms and devices to be used, and prepare and issue technical measurement guides and tests to be followed in coordination with the competent authorities, this will supplement cooperative action with all relevant authorities.