Addressing the Berlin Dialogue Conference on Energy Transition,

Sultan Al Jaber: Thanks to the forward-looking vision of the UAE leadership, we have begun to build a diversified mix of energy sources

The Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and President-designate of COP28, Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, stressed that thanks to the leadership's forward-looking vision and directives to invest in the future of renewable energy, the UAE has begun to build a diversified mix of energy sources including wind and solar energy, and has built the three largest and least expensive single-site solar power plants in the world.

Al Jaber explained the need for the world to triple its production capacity from renewable energy sources over the next seven years, and six times by 2040, to reach 50,<> terawatt hours.

This came in Al Jaber's keynote speech at the Berlin Dialogue Conference on Energy Transition, which is currently being held in the Federal Republic of Germany, where he called on the international community to agree on the goal of achieving a logical, practical and gradual transition in the sector, to ensure global energy security while building the future energy system, expanding partnerships and exploring opportunities to increase the production capacity of all renewable energy sources.

The event is an annual international forum to discuss a safe, environmentally responsible and affordable global energy transition, and this year is attended by a wide range of state, government and business leaders, representatives of civil society organizations, scientists and official delegations from more than 60 countries.

In his speech, Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber stressed that renewables are radically changing the energy sector, providing nearly 90% of the total new capacity for power generation last year.

He pointed to Masdar's plans to quadruple its renewable energy portfolio over the next seven years from the current 25,100 MW of renewable energy to more than 40 GW, explaining that Germany is on a similar path, increasing the contribution of renewable energy to 30% of its electricity generation capacity within <> years.

Underscoring the shared vision of the UAE and Germany to achieve a smart and equitable transition in the energy sector to ensure sustainable economic and social development, Al Jaber highlighted Germany's pivotal role in the establishment of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which inaugurated the Agency's Innovation and Technology Center in Bonn and witnessed the opening of IRENA's headquarters in Masdar City, UAE.

"The UAE and Germany have a close strategic relationship spanning more than 50 years, covering energy security, sustainable industrial development and climate action. As the home of the UNFCCC Secretariat and the host country of three COPs, Germany plays a key role in addressing the climate challenge."

"I call on our German partners, and all our global partners, to work with us to implement economically viable renewable energy projects in every region around the world," he said.

In his speech, Al-Jaber noted the synthesis report of the sixth assessment recently issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, stressing the need for the international community to take urgent action to reduce the repercussions of climate change, and said: "The world needs more efforts to avoid the rise in global temperatures exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels, and we have limited opportunity to radically correct the course of action, so we must strengthen our joint efforts and focus on achieving a logical and practical transition. and gradual in the energy sector."

He stressed the need to reduce global emissions by 43%, and that the only way to do this is to take an approach that takes advantage of all available solutions, calling on climate leaders to actively seek to take advantage of all renewable energy sources, and said: "We need to explore all available options, as we cannot be satisfied with just one solution such as renewables, hydrogen, nuclear energy, carbon capture, or the use of less emission-intensive oil and gas, but we need all He also stressed the important role of hydrogen in sectors that are difficult to mitigate emissions, such as steel, cement and aluminum, praising the bilateral efforts between the UAE and Germany to increase hydrogen production capacity.

He pointed to the need to use proven technologies in conjunction with the development of hydrogen projects and technologies, and gave an example of carbon capture as "a basic technology to reduce emissions", and said that: "The operational capacity to capture carbon worldwide is currently only 44 million tons per year, and this is not enough, and it will be necessary to increase the carbon capture capacity 30 times", and explained that the main obstacle to this goal is "the high cost of this technology", pointing out that the solution is to issue "legislation Smart government to attract private sector investment, as well as explore emerging carbon capture technologies such as direct air use, mining and osmosis."

He called on the energy sector to cooperate constructively with all industrial sectors in reducing emissions that "encompass all industrial sectors, and require a solution that encompasses all these sectors," adding to the attendees: "You may have heard of the call I made for the oil and gas sector earlier this month to redouble efforts, to agree on the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050, and reaching net zero methane emissions by 2030. We need to forge a new relationship between the energy sector and all other sectors, so that the energy sector partners with emission-intensive sectors, technology companies, financial institutions and civil society to find the practical solutions we need."

He also reiterated the need to work on a comprehensive development of the performance of international financial institutions and multilateral development banks to ensure that developing economies are not left behind as the world seeks to expand clean energy solutions, and said: "These institutions were established nearly eighty years ago to stimulate reconstruction processes after the (World War II) war, and we need to modernize their tasks, and develop their operational model to keep pace with the twenty-first century, and we must also expand the scope of concessional financing, and provide more of it at a cost. Appropriate, to reduce risk and attract and multiply private sector financing. If we take the right steps today, we can create a low-emission path to significant economic growth."

During the visit, Dr. Al Jaber will hold a series of bilateral meetings with a number of ministers, senior officials, and representatives of civil society, and will participate in an event on energy transition and sustainability with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Al Jaber is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, German Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection Dr. Robert Habeck, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, German Special Envoy for Climate Action Jennifer Morgan, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Siemens Global Energy Joe Kaiser, and Chief Technology Officer of Airbus Sabine Klauke.