Sustaining Sustainability in the Long Run

Where should we redirect our climate-friendly investments?

2020 will be regarded as one of the best years from a sustainability perspective. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many factories and manufacturing sites were forced to shut down as part of government-mandated measures to flatten the curve. The result was a record-breaking seven percent reduction in the global CO2 emissions.

While these results look promising, the biggest challenge for 2021 (and beyond) is to prevent the CO2 emissions from reaching pre-COVID levels. To ‘sustain’ this sustainability drive for years to come, climate-friendly investment in batteries, synthetic fuels, and fuel cells seems like a viable long-term strategy.

Batteries

As more countries join the race to decarbonize electricity generation, driving emissions are expected to fall. Currently, approximately half of all emissions relating to battery manufacturing come from the electricity that is used in assembling batteries. Hence, if batteries are designed in factories that are powered by renewable energy, these emissions are likely to reduce.

When it comes to supplying renewable energy to the manufacturing sector, microgrids play an important role. Microgrids create an efficient electrical grid that facilitates the distribution of renewable energy, such as solar energy, to manufacturing plants. The utilization of microgrids will not only enable battery production with low emissions, but it will also help the region comply with the UAE Energy Strategy 2050.

Synthetic fuel

Earlier in 2020, six countries from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), started exploring alternative forms of clean, renewable, and synthetic energy. Since then, green hydrogen has emerged as one of the best types of fuels that can power entire regions at only a fraction of the cost of fossil fuels.

Green hydrogen is produced using carbon-free renewable energy, such as solar and wind energy. In the UAE, Abu Dhabi has been experimenting with green hydrogen and it intends to supply this type of energy to Egypt, Morocco, and Jordan.

Fuel cells

The global automobile sector has been investing in fuel cells, hybrid vehicles, and electric cars for some time, and 2020’s sustainability results should serve as a motivation for this industry to speed up their efforts.

In 2019, the Emirates Authority for Standardisation and Metrology (ESMA) completed its technical regulation of hydrogen cell vehicles in the region. These vehicles are designed to be eco-friendly and they only emit water vapors. With the implementation of the technical regulation standards, the UAE is poised to become the first country in the Middle East to establish a long-term regulatory framework for fuel cells and environmentally-cars.

Currently, ESMA is pushing nationwide legislative efforts at three levels, which will be implemented in a sequence. These levels include hybrid semi eco-friendly cars, electric vehicles, and zero emissions vehicles.

The UAE’s push for zero emission vehicles should foster competition among automobile companies to produce fuel cells and fuel-efficient cars that push the sustainability benchmark to the next level.