Today's Edition
ABU DHABI (WAM)
The National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) has recommended integrating human rights considerations in all stages of climate technology development, and conducting human rights and environmental impact assessments throughout the entire technology lifecycle, beginning at the research and development stage and continuing through deployment.
The recommendations were outlined in a report submitted by the NHRI to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Climate Change on climate technologies and their implications for human rights.
The NHRI’s recommendations included ensuring the participation of affected communities and their access to information, protecting workers’ rights, promoting technology transfer and equitable access, and strengthening partnerships among governments, the private sector, scientific institutions and national human rights institutions.
The report was submitted in response to a call for input from the Special Rapporteur. It provided substantive input examining the UAE’s experience in developing and deploying these technologies, and highlighted the relationship between climate technologies and the protection of human rights.
Dr Salem Suhail Al Neyadi, Chairperson of the NHRI, said that the relationship between technology and human rights in the context of climate change is reciprocal. Technology can contribute to protecting the rights to life, health, water, food, housing, a sustainable environment and development, while some of its applications may have implications for human rights and the environment, making it necessary to assess them throughout their lifecycle.
Dr Al Neyadi stressed that a technology should not be considered safe or sustainable merely because it is described as “low-carbon.” Rather, decisions concerning such technologies should be grounded in science, risk assessment, transparency and accountability, while safeguarding privacy and personal data and taking into account impacts related to land, water, biodiversity and working conditions.
He emphasised that technology is a means of protecting people and strengthening their ability to address climate risks, rather than an end in itself, and that the transition to a low-emissions economy should be just and inclusive, leaving no one behind.
The report also highlighted the UAE’s national framework linking climate action, innovation and clean energy, including the UAE Energy Strategy 2050 and the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative. It reviewed examples from the UAE’s experience, including Masdar’s renewable energy projects, the Al Reyadah carbon capture project, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the development of low-emissions hydrogen, and AI applications in energy efficiency, water and agricultural technologies, and early warning systems.
The NHRI affirmed that technology is one of the most important tools for addressing climate change, but that it is not neutral from a human rights perspective. The success of innovation, it stressed, should be measured by the extent to which it contributes to protecting people and the environment.
