Today's Edition
SARA ALZAABI (ABU DHABI)
As the UAE advances its UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative – a national drive to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 – technology leaders have highlighted the need for innovation that delivers practical, scalable and cost-effective solutions to accelerate the next phase of the nation's sustainability journey.
Speaking to Aletihad, industry representatives said emerging technologies are helping governments and businesses reduce emissions, improve resource efficiency and build more resilient economies, with progress increasingly driven by AI, smart infrastructure, circular economy models and data driven innovation.
Affordability Key Challenge
Prof. Phil Hart, Chief Researcher at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Research Centre (RSERC) at the Technology Innovation Institute (TII), said the technologies needed to achieve the next phase of sustainability are already available, but affordability remains the key challenge to widespread adoption.
Prof. Hart argued that the sustainability sector had wrongly assumed consumers would be willing to pay more for greener alternatives.
"A sustainable future should not be based on an ideology. To succeed, it must fundamentally be the better option, which means it needs to outperform the other options and be cheaper, with being good for the planet almost a by-product," Prof. Hart said.
He stressed that this focus should be the central pillar of all technology development goals.
"That is certainly the case within our team at the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) here in the UAE, where we are developing technologies that make solar PV last longer and produce more energy [avoiding the near 20% loss induced by UV over 2 years], solutions that desalinate water using less energy and cut down harmful chemical usage, and cooling technologies that reduce power consumption by around 70%."
Tech-driven Sustainability
Sameer Bhatia, Senior Regional Director for India, the Middle East, Türkiye and Africa at Seagate, said technology will be central to the next phase of sustainability, provided innovation keeps pace with the rapid growth of AI and digital infrastructure.
Citing Seagate's Decarbonising Data report, he said growing data volumes require innovation across data centre infrastructure to improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact: "The challenge is not to limit this growth, but to ensure it happens as efficiently and sustainably as possible."
Bhatia noted that progress on this front will also depend on collaboration between governments, industry, and innovators to build resilient digital infrastructure that can scale these solutions responsibly.
"Through the UAE Net Zero 2050 Strategy and continued investments in AI and digital infrastructure, the country is creating an environment where innovation can support both sustainable development and economic growth," he added.
Circular Economy
Lavina Punjabi, Sustainability Lead for the Middle East and Africa (MEA) at HP Inc, said one of the most significant sustainability challenges facing the world today is the growing volume of electronic waste.
"The solution is not simply producing more sustainable devices. It is about moving towards a circular economy that extends the life of technology and rethinks how devices are managed throughout their lifecycle," she said.
She said HP is supporting this transition through refurbishment, repair, recovery and responsible recycling: "Sustainability goes beyond environmental impact. It is also about creating a more equitable and inclusive future."
Sustainability, she added, also includes equipping people with digital and AI skills: "In the UAE, HP has invested significantly in digital literacy programmes, AI and future-skills development, Gaming Garage initiatives, and education leadership programmes."
Intelligent Clean Energy Us
Bipin Chandra, Founder and Group CEO of Esyasoft, said the future of sustainability depends on using clean energy more intelligently rather than simply generating more of it.
"The UAE is proving this out, with sustained investment in renewables, AI, and digital infrastructure that ties generation, transmission and consumption into a single intelligent system," Chandra said.
"At Esyasoft, we see sustainability as an engineering problem now, not just an environmental one. Data, software and resilient infrastructure are what let utilities and governments move faster on the energy transition, without trading away reliability or efficiency," Chandra added.
Climate Technology
El-Medhi Abdat, Chief of Staff at VentureOne, said climate technology is delivering measurable results in addressing challenges such as water scarcity, soil degradation and food security in the UAE.
He highlighted VentureOne's AI-powered climate venture, which uses AI and autonomous drones to restore ecosystems across coastal and dryland habitats: "The real advantage lies in how it uses data: identifying where restoration is most likely to succeed to maximise survivability, restore ecosystem functionality, and reduce cost and time compared to manual methods."
Nabat surveyed more than 4,000 hectares and dispersed over 1.5 million mangrove seeds in its first year, he said.
Abdat added that the company is also developing water and agricultural technologies to improve desalination, reduce water use and strengthen food security.
