U.A.E. pushes its 'green' ambition as COP28 gets underway in Dubai

In the vast Arabian desert, 35 kilometres south of Abu Dhabi, nearly four million solar panels shimmer in the blazing sun. Al Dhafra PV is touted as the largest single-site solar plant in the world, covering 21 square kilometres. 

It's a highlight of the United Arab Emirates' green energy ambition — one its leaders say is bringing new energy to a petrostate.

"What's unique about this plant is it's allowing us to showcase the ability and capability of scaling up," says Abdulaziz Alobaidli, the chief executive officer of Masdar, the U.A.E.'s renewable energy company. 

"When we started building similar projects in 2009, we built a 10 megawatt plant — that was the largest in the Middle East," he says. "This plant is 200 times bigger."

Al Dhafra is designed to produce enough energy to power 160,000 Emirati homes with high air conditioning demand in this hot climate.

It was officially opened earlier this month — just in time for the U.A.E. to host COP28, the world's largest UN-sponsored climate talks, attracting an estimated 70,000 delegates to Dubai. The conference opens on Thursday.

Hosting COP28 is a key diplomatic strategy of the U.A.E., allowing it to showcase its message that it can transition away from oil and gas, which has made this country rich.

The Emirates has a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, and Al Dhafra will help it reach that target, Alobaidli says.

"Phasing out from fossil [fuels] is something that will happen," he says. "No one can question that fact; the question is, at what pace?" 

The U.A.E., part of the OPEC bloc of oil-producing countries, is building a parallel energy track to establish itself as a green energy powerhouse. Masdar has operations in 40 countries with deals worth about $30 billion USD.

But its national oil company is also rushing to expand oil and gas production, hoping to pull out five million barrels of oil per day — an uptick from 4.6 million now.

The International Energy Agency says there should be no fossil fuel production increases if the world is to keep global warming below 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels. Harmful carbon dioxide emissions are already causing catastrophic climate emergencies and spiralling global heat.

Alobaidli, an energy engineer who's risen up the ranks at Masdar, is sharing the message the U.A.E. wants the world to hear: that the focus should be on the Emirates' green ambitions, not on its oil-producing history or its reserves of oil and gas. 

But critics say those ambitions don't square with reality.