Abu Dhabi’s World Future Energy Summit Pledges To Become Net Zero by 2040

Abu Dhabi, UAE – xx January 2023: Ahead of the opening of the World Future Energy Summit 2023 - the 14th leading business event for future energy and sustainability being held at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) from January 16-18 - organiser RX Middle East has announced plans for the event to become net zero by 2040, a full decade ahead of industry targets.

“The World Future Energy Summit is a driver for sustainability transformation, and it is highly appropriate, and a moral imperative, to lead the campaign to ensure the events industry, including trade shows, conference festivals, live music concerts and sporting tournaments, not only talk the talk, but walks the walk,” said Leen AlSebai, Head of World Future Energy Summit and General Manager of RX Middle East. 

“We have adopted this industry-leading position to reflect our alignment with our presenting partner Masdar, our integral role in Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, the UAE’s global-oriented initiative to accelerate sustainable development, its clean energy leadership and commitment to hosting COP 28 this year.”

World Future Energy Summit and Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week will this year run on 100% carbon free energy powered by the Emirates Water & Electricity Company (EWEC), but the new RX Middle East net zero commitment will see organisers bring in a series of initiatives to rapidly scale up its sustainability posture. This includes ensuring the use of recyclable woodchip in the World Future Energy Summit infrastructure build, recycling of single-use plastic, reducing the perimeter build environment, facilitating reusable stand build and use of biodegradable materials, the recycling of stands and waste after event breakdown and the introduction of air-to-water machines.

“These measures pave the way to a more environmentally friendly events sector and demonstrates the commitment of RX Middle East, Masdar and Abu Dhabi to lead by example,” commented of Masdar. 

“Sustainable planning will be an essential criterion for all events which Masdar will support in the future. The initial World Future Energy Summit pathway will be enhanced as we move along the journey and consider the footprint of every event component and attempt to reduce them as much as possible. We intend together to examine more ways of reducing the event’s energy output, materials, and paper waste which will, in turn, further build stakeholder awareness and support while hopefully also influencing their own contributing behaviours.”

In 2021 the global events sector, representing over 390 organisations across 55 countries, launched its ‘Net Zero Carbon’ initiative setting the industry on a common Net Zero goal by 2050.

The Summit will now look to fulfil other industry net zero pathway requirements, including collaboration with partners, suppliers, and customers to drive change across the value chain, to measure and track its emissions according to industry best practice, and report on progress at least every two years.

“With each edition of the World Future Energy Summit and as the impact of these sustainable measures take hold, the entire operational structure of the events industry will evolve as others look to emulate the achievements and gain a greater understanding of the impact the sector can have,” added AlSebai.

RX Middle East will present its Net Zero pathway at upcoming Summit, which is bringing together global energy leaders and policy makers to explore the technology and innovation needed to address today’s huge power supply resilience and sustainability issues as well the furthering of the circular economy.

“We hope the World Future Energy Summit commitment will accelerate this transition which has begun with the powering of this year’s events with totally carbon-free energy,” commented of EWEC. “We believe the leadership strides taken here will have wide-scale repercussions across not only other event organisers but hosting venues and stadiums and the sectors many multi-faceted stakeholders.”

The 2023 Summit will be a powerhouse of inspiration and hope across key sustainability sectors through six exhibitions and five dedicated forums individually addressing today’s vital energy and energy-impact challenges and multi-sectoral impacts. The exhibitions and forums individually focus on energy, water, eco-waste, solar, smart cities as well as, for the first time, climate and the environment. New to the Summit is the Hydrogen Innovation Hub which will be at the heart of the Energy Expo & Forum, and which will look into the current and future solutions enabling hydrogen to play a critical role in energy transition. 

There’s been strong international response to the event, which will host 11 country pavilions. Industry heavyweights that rank among the exhibitor profile include the UAE Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, ADNOC, edf, AMEA, Mitsubishi Power, Samsung C&T, GHD, Rolls Royce SMR, BP Exploration and Operating Company Limited, Engie, Huawei Technologies, the GCC Interconnection Authority, the Gulf Renewable Energy Laboratory, Japanese Business Alliance for Smart Energy Worldwide and HT Italia and Tadweer, Abu Dhabi’s waste management centre.

The forums’ speaker line-ups include local, regional, and international public and private sector strategists, advisors, planners, and C-suite decision makers from across the world who are at the forefront of planning and delivering the future energy landscape and the insights they will deliver will be incisive markers to the industry of tomorrow.

The World Future Energy Summit is hosted by Masdar and is part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, a global platform for accelerating the world’s sustainable development. The event is also, for the first time ever, held in partnership with ENOWA.

For more information, please visit: https://www.worldfutureenergysummit.com/