Underlining the importance of the UAE Innovation Month, Eng. Aisha Al Abdooli, MOCCAE's Chief Innovation Officer, said: “Following the success of UAE Innovation Week 2015 and 2016, UAE Innovation Month was announced to celebrate innovation across the nation. It significantly contributes to strengthening the country's position as a global hub for innovation.”

She stressed that MOCCAE pays utmost attention to fostering innovation among young people to ultimately create a widespread culture of innovation. “Realizing future environmental sustainability goals relies heavily on the young people’s ability to provide out-of-the-box solutions.”

Within this context, Eng. Al Abdooli added, the Ministry organized last January the Climate Innovation Exchange (CLIX), on the sidelines of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, as a platform to connect young entrepreneurs and innovators with potential investors to forge business partnerships. The platform was a huge success, as participating investors expressed their intent to initially invest $17.5million in the presented ideas within the first year, while the total investment value is expected to reach $45.5million within three years.  

She continued that around 11 innovation activities are being organized by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment across the emirates in February to celebrate the month. Two of these activities are running consecutively across all emirates, for two days in every emirate. The first is the ‘e-Portrait of the Man of Environment’, which is an interactive activity where youngsters color environmental-themed digital images on mini tablets. These images are later joined together to form a portrait of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The second is ‘1000 Ideas’, aimed at engaging all community members by encouraging them to voice their ideas on how to reduce ecological footprint through a digital screen. Applicable, feasible ideas will be announced and considered for implementation by the end of the month.

The rest are emirate-specific activities. Activities being held exclusively in Dubai include: ‘Our Environment through Ages’; to shed light on various environmental sectors now and in the past, ‘Our Virtual Environmental Cities’; to draw a virtual picture that vividly shows future eco-cities on land and under water, ‘Atlas of Eco-Tourism’; to showcase eco-tourism sites to encourage the public to pay them a visit, ‘Sustainability Hub’; to harness innovation and employ cutting-edge interactive technologies to instill a culture of sustainable use of natural resources, and ‘Zayed Al Khair Frond’; to innovatively highlight environmental initiatives led by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and announce a national environmental initiative to continue on the initiatives of Sheikh Zayed.

In Sharjah, the ‘Innovative Services Capsule’ initiative is being held, where a high-tech transparent chamber will be installed to help customers do business with the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment. By simply clicking on virtual icons, customers can request MOCCAE services, get the total cost for the services they request and can make direct payments as well. Once completed, a copy of the transaction will be emailed to the customer.       

Ras Al Khaimah is seeing the ‘Eco Millennial’ activity, which is raising awareness of environmental issues amongst the youth through the ‘Future Environmental Cities Foresight’; a platform bringing together academicians from the Emirates Scientists Council with students to brainstorm and put forth innovative ideas to mitigate the impacts of environmental challenges, and the ‘Future Green Jobs’; helping the youth to picture how future green jobs will be like.

The ‘Green Agenda 2030 Innovative Platform’ initiative is being carried out in Umm Al Quwain, which highlights the progress made regarding the 2030 Green Agenda.  

Moreover, MOCCAE activities during the Innovation Month comprises an online contest, titled ‘A Gift to the Environment’, where the public can share short videos of positive and innovative environmental practices. A panel of judges will select top 5 videos that will be open for public voting. The 3 videos that receive the most votes will be rewarded.