UAE’s triple triumph at Davos 2024
Sustainable growth, AI and peace made the country more prominent than ever at WEF
The headquarters of the World Economic Forum (WEF) is a three-floored glass mansion located in a suburb of Geneva, entirely invisible from the road outside the gate that leads to it. On the other side of the glass mansion is an exquisite Japanese garden overlooking a lake. When I joined as an employee at the WEF exactly 13 years ago, the intrigue and power reflected in my workplace seemed to me to also represent the public perception of the WEF’s mission and work.
My visits to the Middle East to meet with the WEF’s active community of regional government leaders and prominent private sector chief executives in the UAE were the most frequent.
Last week at the 2024 annual meeting of the WEF in Davos, there were at least three themes that made the UAE more prominent than ever. One is sustainable growth, an area where the UAE has sprang into action and has quickly taken the clear lead in the region. The second is Artificial Intelligence (AI). The third theme that put the spotlight on the UAE, is peace.
All these three themes come together in the UAE. Indeed sustainable growth in the UAE is characterised by innovation and the usage of new technologies such as AI as well as stable governance. Recently I was assessing the Middle East and Africa’s most sustainable companies, and the common factor across companies in all sectors in the UAE is the companies’ courage to come up with innovative solutions that are both pro-climate and pro-growth.
For example, Aldar stands out among construction companies globally with its detailed plan to reach netzero emissions to achieve 90 per cent reduction in its Scope 1 & 2 emissions and a 45 per cent reduction in Scope 3 emissions intensity by 2030.
In the future, the sustainable growth of the UAE’s economy will increasingly be underpinned by the sustainable lifestyles of its people. There is already a strong emphasis on sustainable infrastructure and usage of sustainable materials in the country.
Further, the recent cabinet reshuffle in the first week of 2024 resulted in Dr Amna Bint Abdullah Al Dahak Al Shamsi, formerly from the UAE’s Ministry of Education, becoming the Minister of Environment of the UAE, thereby pointing towards the increased importance that environment-related education will play in the country. The incorporation of a green learning curriculum within existing school, university, and executive education in the UAE will lead to consumer demand for more sustainable products and services.
The UAE’s strides towards sustainable growth shares its vision with the WEF’s emphasis on future-proof industries for the 21st century. It is no wonder, therefore, that the representation of the UAE at Davos strengthens each year. The large representation of more than 100 leaders from the UAE at Davos this year has been impressive and so has the UAE pavilion on the Promenadenstrasse, which aptly displayed the theme that indeed “Impossible is Possible” here.