Sovereign Wealth Funds as Drivers of Climate Resilience in the MENA Region

This report outlines the findings of a closed-door roundtable convened during Make it in the Emirates (MIITE) Week, bringing together senior representatives from government, industry, academia, and finance to examine how Abu Dhabi can catalyse a national piloting programme for climate-deep tech. Developed in collaboration with Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, the Global Climate Finance Centre, UICCA, Hub71, and PwC Middle East, the report identifies the infrastructure, capital, and regulatory gaps that currently limit the scale-up of hardware-intensive climate technologies critical to the UAE’s future economy, including energy storage, green construction materials, and low-carbon industrial processes. Stakeholders reached consensus on the urgency of creating real-world testing environments, aligning regulatory pathways, and de-risking capital-intensive innovation. The report sets out a three-pillar action framework—enabling piloting infrastructure, mobilising tailored financing, and strengthening governance—to guide collective action and investment. It provides a strategic foundation for stakeholders to collaborate on bridging the deployment gap, ensuring that the UAE remains at the forefront of global climate innovation while advancing its Net Zero by 2050 commitments.

The UAE has set ambitious targets to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. The electrification of commercial fleets, particularly in the last-mile delivery sector, represents a significant opportunity to contribute to this goal. As the e-commerce sector in the UAE continues to grow, there is increasing urgency to transition to EVs for last-mile logistics operations. However, as operators pilot EVs and develop plans to scale up operations, they encounter several challenges that hinder widespread adoption.

This research report analyses challenges and opportunities for UAE industry with the implementation of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) by the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK). This report also provides recommendations on how the public and private sectors in the UAE can adapt to CBAM. CBAM is designed to prevent “carbon leakage,” where manufacturing relocates from countries with stringent emission regulations to those with lax standards. It imposes a tax on the carbon content of imports from certain sectors. The report synthesises data collected over the course of a yearlong partnership between UICCA and the British Embassy in the UAE. This project included three policy dialogues, a stakeholder consultation, and extensive desk research. This report provides actionable recommendations for how the UAE can mitigate the effects of CBAM on local industry, while making policies that promote decarbonisation.

This Report shares insights from the inaugural Policy Hack held under the Waste to Zero Initiative, a joint effort led by UICCA and Tadweer Group to drive decarbonisation across the global waste sector. Centered around six thematic workstreams, the event gathered voices from across government, industry, and civil society to tackle some of the most pressing barriers to waste sector transformation, from financing and legislation to behavioural change and circular innovation. The Policy Hack provided a platform for open dialogue and collective problem-solving, yielding actionable recommendations such as focusing on minimising food waste, introducing robust policy frameworks on recycling and circularity, and building unified waste data infrastructure for the UAE. These proposals and others contained in the Policy Hack Report serve as an important step for advancing toward a circular economy and decarbonised waste system in the UAE.

As the UAE stands at a critical juncture with just 25 years to achieve its bold net-zero ambition, the UICCA Forum convened by the UAE Independent Climate Change Accelerators (UICCA) marked a profound moment in our collective climate journey. This gathering wasn’t merely a discussion—it was a catalyst for the transformative action our region demands.