The session drew the participation of His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the Ajman Municipality and Planning Department, His Excellency Abdulrahman Al Nuaimi, Director General of the Ajman Municipality and Planning Department, and Her Excellency Aseela Al Mualla, Director General of the Fujairah Environment Authority.

Convening 70 representatives of federal and local government entities and private sector companies, the event highlighted national endeavors to implement best practices in waste management to accelerate the journey to net zero.

Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed Almheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, emphasized the importance of promoting the adoption of integrated waste management principles through relevant legislation and strategies and supporting economic activities that utilize waste as a resource.

She said: “The waste sector is one of the key enablers of our greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction efforts. In line with our second Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement, we are working to reduce waste generation, expand waste treatment, and transform waste into a clean source of energy.”

Her Excellency added that MOCCAE is preparing the National Agenda for Integrated Waste Management. “The comprehensive framework will focus on accelerating R&D and innovation to develop waste management technologies and solutions that align with the circular economy principles, and can balance GHG emission reduction and waste treatment in a climate-smart way.”

The Ministry is currently executing several waste management projects in coordination with local government authorities in the UAE. These include the Emirates RDF plant in Umm Al Quwain, the first facility of its kind in the country, which treats municipal solid waste generated in the emirates of Ajman and Umm Al Quwain and turns it into refuse-derived fuel (RDF).

MOCCAE has signed agreements with five leading cement factories to partially power their operations with alternative fuel generated by Emirates RDF instead of coal. This will divert more than 800 tons of waste per day from the landfill.

The event included keynote presentations by Emirates Nature-WWF, part of the UAE Alliance for Climate Action (UACA), Dustin Olson, CEO of PureCycle, on ‘Advancing sustainability with digital-first approach’, Vidya Ramnath, President of Emerson MEA, on ‘Innovation and technology as accelerators on net zero journey’, and John Grainger, COO for Environmental Solutions at Dulsco, on the company’s recycling and treatment facilities and carbon footprint offsetting plans.

The NDCA session also witnessed the third round of signings of the UAE Climate-Responsible Companies Pledge that seeks to increase the engagement of the private sector in the country’s decarbonization drive in line with the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative.

Fourteen entities, including the Alserkal Group, Apparel UAE, Dulsco, Jones Lang LaSalle, Saint-Gobain, Siemens, Terrax, WSP, Xoom Volt, EnviroServe, ImpactGulf, Trane Technologies, Energy Management Services, and R-square RiskLab, joined 39 signatories to the pledge, bringing the total number to 53. The companies committed to stepping up their efforts to combat climate change by measuring their carbon footprint and taking concrete steps to reduce it, and by integrating sustainability principles across their operations.

NDCA is a series of industry-specific assemblies aimed at raising sectoral climate ambitions and informing the UAE’s roadmap to net zero by 2050.