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Pavegen plans to plant 1000 mangrove trees in UAE

Pavegen is planning to plant 1000 mangrove trees around the UAE to highlight the importance of sustainable development and environmental conservation in the fight against climate change…reports Asian Lite News

Pavegen, renowned for its fascinating technology that coverts human footsteps to renewable, made headlines by planting 279 mangrove plants during the third day of the World Future Energy Summit. Hosted by Masdar at ADNEC from April 16th to 18th, 2024, the summit provided the perfect platform for Pavegen’s innovative interactive installation. This initiative seamlessly converts human movement into a tangible means for mangrove tree planting, exemplifying the fusion of sustainability and cutting-edge technology.


Pavegen is planning to plant 1000 mangrove trees around the UAE to highlight the importance of sustainable development and environmental conservation in the fight against climate change.

Laurence Kemball-Cook, CEO of Pavegen, told the Emirates News Agency (WAM) that:’’As attendees walk over Pavegen’s tiles, their movements are converted into energy. The energy is used to illuminate LED lights, with a display providing real-time feedback on the real amount of energy generated. For this edition of the World Future Energy Summit, the footsteps and subsequent energy produced will be tied to an environmental cause – planting mangrove trees in the UAE. This will provide a tangible sense of the impact of each participant’s contribution.’’
This initiative is part of Pavegen’s broader mission to blend technological innovation with environmental stewardship, offering solutions that empower communities and promote sustainability. By focusing on smart energy generation and ecosystem conservation, Pavegen is paving the way towards a more sustainable future.

The mangrove planting initiative is part of the UAE’s Climate Change Strategy with a goal of planting 100 million mangrove trees by 2030 to achieve climate neutrality. Mangroves are critically important to many tropical and sub-tropical ecosystems, providing habitat for thousands of species, stabilising shorelines, preventing erosion, and protecting land from waves and storms. Their unique ability to absorb and capture carbon makes them a vital component in the fight against climate change.

‘’Our installation is more than a technological demonstration – it’s a call to action, inviting everyone to take a step towards improving our planet’s future,” he added.

This initiative is part of Pavegen’s broader mission to blend technological innovation with environmental stewardship, offering solutions that empower communities and promote sustainability. By focusing on smart energy generation and ecosystem conservation, Pavegen is paving the way towards a more sustainable future.

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World Future Energy Summit begins with call for climate action

heikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, President and CEO of the UAE Independent Climate Change Accelerators (UICCA), commended the recent collaborative launch of the Roadmap to 1.5°C…reports Asian Lite News

With tempestuous Gulf rains acting as a timely reminder of the need for urgent climate action, the 16th edition of the World Future Energy Summit, hosted by Masdar, opened in Abu Dhabi with calls for collaborative action to ensure average global temperatures do not exceed that of pre-industrial times by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Delivering a keynote speech to open the three-day event at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC), Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, President and CEO of the UAE Independent Climate Change Accelerators (UICCA), commended the recent collaborative launch of the Roadmap to 1.5°C by the COP Presidencies Troika, which consists of the UAE and the next two COP hosts, Azerbaijan and Brazil. Sheikha Shamma warned, however, that limiting global climate change to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels will “require unprecedented finance”.

“We know that effective climate action cannot take place if we work in silos,” the UICCA said. “Instead, we believe in the power of convening diverse voices to promote dialogue, knowledge exchange, and creative problem-solving. Forums such as World Future Energy Summit offer crucial opportunities for actors from different sectors to exchange views, sparking ideas and collaborative action.

“The UAE prides itself on building bridges to everywhere and I’m so pleased to hear of the COP Presidencies Troika. I am full of confidence that this new coalition will be an important steward on our collective pathway to keeping global warming below the 1.5°C threshold… [yet it] will require unprecedented climate finance.”

As a solution, Sheikha Shamma highlighted the potential of “Blended Finance”, which can be broadly defined as a combination of public concessional finance with public or private capital. The model is being increasingly recognised as a key mechanism to deliver the financial resources needed to fight climate change. A new analysis by UICCA in cooperation with Convergence and HSBC into Blended Finance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) found the financial model to be in its infancy, with a total committed financing of US$14.2 billion. Such a figure represents seven per cent of global blended transactions, while climate-related blended transactions amount to roughly $7 billion.

Also speaking as part of the opening keynote programme was Francesco La Camera, Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). According to La Camera, priorities for the energy transition and immediate steps to accelerate progress towards tripling renewable power capacity to at least 11 terawatts (TW) by 2030 need to be explored.
Despite 2023 marking the largest surge in renewable power generation to date, IRENA’s latest capacity data shows the world is still falling short, with last year’s record 473 gigawatts (GW) some distance off the almost 1,100GW required annually.

“The energy transition is accelerating rapidly, but it clearly remains off track, with an unacceptable and uneven distribution of renewable growth that disproportionately affects the Global South,” said La Camera. “We need an urgent global course-correction to address this growing disparity, or we risk our collective climate goal to triple renewable power capacity by 2030 becoming simply unattainable.”

Meanwhile, addressing the opening of the Green Hydrogen Summit, a Masdar-hosted event running as part of the World Future Energy Summit, Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, praised the UAE as “one of the world’s great centres of technological innovation”, before citing the country’s hosting of COP28 last year as a “triumph” for reversing net-zero sceptics.

Following Johnson’s keynote, Swiss explorer and clean technology pioneer Dr. Bertrand Piccard, Chairman of Climate Impulse, revealed his latest renewables-fuelled globetrotting expedition: Circumnavigating the globe in an aircraft powered by green hydrogen. The new flight, which Piccard hopes to complete in 2028, follows his historic 23-day journey around the world in a solar-powered aircraft in 2015 that started and concluded in Abu Dhabi.

While Dr. Piccard stressed his renewable-powered flying machine is not yet complete, he reiterated the importance of ambitious projects to curtail reluctance surrounding what he dubbed the “limitless potential” of green hydrogen.

“We are at the edge of a new energy revolution,” said Dr. Piccard. “People say we will never be able to produce enough clean energy, but the impossible does not exist in reality; it exists only in the mindset of people who believe the future is an extrapolation of the past. The future requires us to be disruptive and invent completely new ways to think. We need solutions and flagship projects that show what we can do. This is why the Green Hydrogen Summit is important, we must show what is possible.”

Leen AlSebai, General Manager of RX Middle East and Head of the World Future Energy Summit, added, “Once again, this event has proven its ability to bring together some of the industry’s leading minds, with the opening day filled with critical discussions on what is required to enact genuine change as we look past the mandates outlined at COP28. This in-depth analysis of global energy solutions will continue tomorrow with the inaugural Green Finance Forum, which will comprehensively examine topics such as incentivising regional pathways to green financing and financing global approaches to low carbon economies.”

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World Future Energy Summit opens in Abu Dhabi today

The Summit will host its most comprehensive knowledge-sharing programme to date, featuring more than 350 of the energy sector’s leading international experts…reports Asian Lite News

The World Future Energy Summit 2024, hosted by Masdar, opens today at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). Set to begin a three-day run, the 16th edition of the leading event for future energy and sustainability has a strong focus on advancing the change agenda laid down at COP28 in Dubai last November.

The Summit will host its most comprehensive knowledge-sharing programme to date, featuring more than 350 of the energy sector’s leading international experts, policymakers, academics, and future shapers. Each will deliver insights on how to navigate COP 28’s frameworks through five probing conferences and three dynamic forums.

“The combined speaker platform represents a high-density gathering of the industry’s foremost minds, each of whom will discuss and suggest potential pathways to achieving sustainability and renewable energy goals based on technology, changing policies, and evolving economics,” said Leen AlSebai, General Manager of RX Middle East and Head of the World Future Energy Summit.

“With a keen focus on the theme ‘The Energy To Lead’, this year’s Summit has emerged as a global think tank. Empowered by innovation, these experts and sector pioneers will bring to light solutions to our most crucial problems and cutting-edge solutions, which will inform the blueprints for a sustainable future. It will also firmly underline the UAE’s robust commitment to global sustainability and environmental cooperation.”

The Summit will feature six conferences focussing on Solar, EcoWaste, Water, Clean Energy, Smart Cities, and Climate & Environment, as well as a dedicated “Pathway to 1.5C” forum focused on outcomes from COP28 and two forums addressing Green Finance and e-Mobility.

The speaker platform reads like an almanac of the energy, commercial, and industrial sectors, featuring ministerial policymakers, scientists, financiers, business titans, digital disruptors, and agenda-setting climate change advocates. Together they will probe ways to unlock investment and find innovative instruments to close the climate finance gap, how to further private sector engagement with regulators and governments, integrate carbon into decision-making and asset valuation, and increase adaptation and resilience financing. They will also dig deep into various ways certain industries and sectors can contribute to tripling renewable power generation capacity to 11,000 GW, tripling nuclear energy by 2050, doubling energy efficiency this decade, reaching near zero-methane emissions by 2030, as well as cutting fossil fuels from the world’s energy production plans.

Delivering the opening address on guiding nations to a 1.5°C climate pathway will be Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, President & CEO of the UAE Independent Climate Change Accelerators, followed by Francesco La Camera, Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency.

A running theme for day one, the Pathways to 1.5°C conference will also see Simon Birkebaek, Partner at BCG, discuss clean energy outcomes from COP28 and the road ahead, alongside a presentation by Mary Burce Warlick, Deputy Executive Director, International Energy Agency on delivering energy commitments and what actions are needed to meet Troika: Mission 1.5.

“To keep the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C within reach, countries must quickly build on the important energy pledges they made at COP28. Now is the time to transform promises into actions,” said Warlick. “With even stronger international cooperation needed through COP29 and COP30, this Summit provides a crucial opportunity to share the latest data, best practices and toolkits to tackle common challenges on the road to a more secure and sustainable energy future.”

Other panel discussions will see speakers such as H.E. Eng. Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, Group CEO, Emirates Steel Arkan; Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO, Emirates Global Aluminium; and Eng. Ali Al Dhaheri, MD and CEO, Tadweer Group discuss how to meet a 1.5°C climate threshold.

The Solar & Clean Energy Conference, also opening on day one, will see H.E. Eng Sharif Al Olama, Undersecretary for Energy and Petroleum Affairs at the UAE Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure (MoEI) open proceedings, with H.E. Ahmed Alkaabi, Undersecretary Assistant for Electricity, Water & Future Energy Sector at MoEI delivering the keynote address at the Water Conference.

This year’s knowledge programme also features its largest female participation, with women speakers set to bring a critical perspective to a range of issues from climate change to sustainable tourism, smart city technology to circular economy integration, workplace diversity to learnings from COP28. It will also host a dedicated panel discussion on female entrepreneurs leading decarbonisation innovation, and a dedicated area for its Climate Innovations Exchange (CLIX) initiative – a curated platform where female-led, run, or founded startups, as well as SMEs and innovators, can demonstrate game-changing products and solutions to a global audience.

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