The Tenth Session of World Urban Forum, the world’s most important conference on cities convened biannually by UN Habitat has just concluded. For the first time, it took place in an Arab country, the United Arab Emirates, and the host, Abu Dhabi, had much to contribute to the conversation. Throughout the week-long event, representatives of […]
The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (likened to USAID and the UK and German’s foreign aid) announced last week that it will provide renewable energy loans to 8 projects around the world. The projects will go to building resilience, mainly in island communities which will be able to repay the loans after the renewable energy […]
In a bid to make the future of the United Arab Emirates more sustainable Google has recently sponsored a local community project called Innovation Hub. While the UAE is far from being a Startup Nation like its Middle East neighbour Israel, the new UAE hub will train young people and teachers in the region in […]
WASHINGTON — Israel is the best-prepared country in the Middle East for climate change, followed closely by the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey, according to data released Nov. 5 by the University of Notre Dame Global Adaptation Index (ND-GAIN). Publication of the 2014 index was followed only a week later by the signing of […]
Battling obesity and illnesses like diabetes and hypertension this Arab country is now looking to ban the sale of energy drinks to minors, teens and young adults until the age of 20. All energy drinks will be banned for sale to those under 20 starting January 2015 according to some sources.
Some countries like Canada are trying to say goodbye to human-delivered postal mail forever. But a new initiative from the United Arab Emirates puts a little 21st Century technology into the old mail carrier.
Remember how exciting it was when we first saw pictures of Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates. Masdar is the futuristic terra-cotta curvy buildings designed by Foster & Partners? Well, the same design team is behind the United Arab Emirate’s solar-powered 2015 Milan Expo Pavilion and it features a host of groundbreaking technology.
Commercial and private real estate development in the United Arab Emirates threaten whales, dugongs, coral reefs and all marine life in the Arabian Gulf. Now some 80 regions in the Arab world are being tracked by satellite to show us how much environmental destruction happening is man-made.
How relevant will OPEC be 10 years from now? Does the rapid expansion of new technologies like fracking threaten the future of eco-friendly energy alternatives such as wind and solar energy?
A tiny two-person electric car may be the last choice for Formula One race car drivers, but that was the electric ride of choice last week as Formula One drivers rode around Dubai. With massive luxury cars as the status quo, the Twizy was an unusual choice. But alas, it was all about promotion by Renault.
Nothing says ‘swim to me’ more than Blue Flags. The international symbol is a prestigious sign that a beach is clean, accessible, and eco-friendly. Where the Middle East is known for its extravagance (think gold-plated Mercedes?), there is also a silver lining that the planet loves:
Nuclear energy is a low carbon power source, but whether or not it should be considered a renewable energy source is long debated and fought over –- even in the Middle East where the industry is nascent.
Planning on a trip to Dubai before intense summer heat hits? Brush up on behavioral norms to avoid holiday disasters far worse than sunburn and frizzy hair. Among the seven member states of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai – if it was a Disney dwarf – could be called “Tolerant”. That’s modern Middle East tolerant, a term […]
The United Arab Emirates is planning to ban non-biodegradable plastic products beginning next year, and it is possible it can work with the latest technological invention from WMS Metal Industries now working locally. And the best part of this machine may be that it makes money!
Green Prophet interviews Dieter Moor, the CEO of ertex – a building integrated photovoltaic company which recently completed a roof-based system for the the Sheik Zayad Learning Center at the Al Ain Zoo.
The UK Green Investment Bank and the United Arab Emirates Masdar have inked a new agreement that will see the UAE-based company work toward new investment opportunities in the United Kingdom, taking their expertise in renewable energy to Britain.
While some in the United Arab Emirates insist on developing unsustainable vehicles like this solid gold mercedes car powered by biofuel, engineering students from Dubai have been hard at work designing a more modest vehicle that should be able to travel as far as 1,000 kilometers on just one liter of fuel. Ironically, the team […]
Saudi Arabia announced its Kingdom Tower, a skyscraper aiming for a new world height record of over 1 kilometer high in the sky. Boys, boys, boys, when will you learn that size doesn’t matter as much as performance? Next Azerbaijan broadcast plans to top that with their own mile-high cloud-puncher. Then Pakistan upstaged both with […]
Everything old is new again in Abu Dhabi’s Central Market “The Souk” where developers are inspired by the emirate’s not-so-distant past. Kinda crazy that the 1970’s can be viewed as olden times, but in the rapidly developing United Arab Emirates, thirty years represent radical transformation. Nestled in the base of the Emirate’s new World Trade Center […]
The Shams 1 Concentrated Solar Plant (CSP) in Abu Dhabi is the largest of its kind in the world and it has finally gone live. Green Prophet visited the 100MW plant in the western region of the United Arab Emirates earlier this year as part of a Masdar-sponsored media tour during the World Future Energy […]
Is red tide a man-made pollutant or a natural phenomenon? Is it a plant, animal or chemical? The answer is all of the above. The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Environment and Water indicates that red tide may be present in the waters of the Gulf of Oman. As a precautionary measure, Sharjah Electricity and […]
Water scarcity has already become a fact of daily life for Egyptians The world’s driest region, the Middle East* and North Africa (MENA), is getting drier at an alarming rate. And yet, despite massive population growth (the Middle East’s population grew 61 percent from 1990 to 2010 to 205 million people) predictions of so-called “water […]
A 90-minute yoga class in the great outdoors? Piece of cake, some yogis will say. But with Bikram yoga, a form created by Calcutta-born Bikram Choudhury, there’s a catch: class is conducted in a studio that’s heated to 105°F or approximately 40.6°C. When you are doing yoga like this in the Arabian Desert there is […]
There’s a lot of mingling afoot at conventions, and news of resulting hook-ups (including those we made there) at last week’s Abu Dhabi World Future Energy Summit are starting to hit the press. Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company and host of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) has signed a framework agreement with Jordan to help […]
The UAE’s Masdar looks to create renewable energy from desert fog. The search for fresh water is on and United Arab Emirates-based Masdar Institute of Science and Technology believes that its new collaboration with the region’s National Research Foundation (NRF) will help detect fog and monitor the precipitation for the expansion of renewable fresh water […]