WETEX and Dubai Solar Show: Catalyzing Global Circular Economy Uptake

The Water, Energy, Technology, and Environment Exhibition (WETEX) and Dubai Solar Show (DSS) serve as a dynamic platform highlighting the embrace of a sustainable circular economy within the UAE. This initiative actively encourages worldwide collaboration, fostering investments to bolster innovation and the adoption of sustainable solutions and technologies in this crucial domain.

Through these efforts, a multi-fold impact is realized, encompassing the reduction of risks, curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and trimming costs. Moreover, this drive generates auspicious prospects, novel revenue streams, and productive business models that heighten resource efficiency and effectiveness. By promoting competitiveness and sustainable economic advancement, this movement resonates both in the UAE and across the globe, concurrently safeguarding the environment and advocating sustainable practices.

Held under the visionary directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai, and endorsed by H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, this event is meticulously orchestrated by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA).

Accenture research forecasts the potential generation of an additional US$4.5 trillion in economic output by 2030 through the circular economy. In parallel, the International Labour Organization envisions the creation of six million jobs globally via the transition to a circular economy.

Minister of Economy, Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, articulates the UAE’s resolute commitment to fostering economic diversification within strategically pivotal realms aligned with sustainable development goals. With the circular economy and renewable energy resources positioned as cornerstones for the next half-century, the UAE’s ambitiously aspires to realize net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This journey is further invigorated by the circular economy policy, poised to be a pivotal contributor to the nation’s environmental commitments.

“The past year has witnessed the circular economy policy’s overarching dedication to serving national sustainability objectives and the economy. In synchronization with our mission to buttress national circular economy policy implementation efforts – including evaluating challenges, proposing pertinent policies, and expediting the transition toward an elevated economic model – the Circular Economy Council and its Policies Committee have achieved significant strides in policy realization, in collaboration with private sector and civil society partners,” Bin Touq expounds.

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA, Founder and Chairman of WETEX and DSS, affirms the instrumental role played by these platforms in fortifying the UAE’s pursuit of judicious natural resource management and utilization. By instigating investments in the circular economy, broadening the horizons of present applications, and importing optimal global practices, this endeavor champions positive transformations across the business landscape. It effectively draws local and foreign investments, coalescing the circular economy framework across pivotal sectors, in coordination with both public and private sectors.

Al Tayer elaborates, “These sectors span green infrastructure, sustainable transportation, manufacturing, food production, and consumption. As the foremost exhibition of its kind within the region and an eminent international showcase of energy, water, environment, technology, green mobility, waste management, and recycling, this event provides a comprehensive stage for innumerable companies and organizations to display their cutting-edge products and solutions.”

The event’s sessions prioritize discussions around the circular economy and its integration throughout the economic value chain. This encompasses methods to adeptly engineer global systems for a seamless shift from conventional linear to the circular economy model. The circular economy emerges as a pivotal element in the UAE’s pursuit of decarbonizing various industries, thus accelerating its journey towards achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

Omar Al Suwaidi, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT), underscores the alignment of these endeavors with the UAE’s National Strategy for Industry and Advanced Technology, geared towards bolstering the industrial sector, fueling entrepreneurship, and fostering manufacturing investments. Events of this magnitude, like WETEX, provide an ideal platform for showcasing innovations, entrepreneurial projects, and facilitating connections between startups, potential partners, and investors to elevate sector competitiveness through manufacturing ventures.

“In accordance with our mission to heighten the industrial sector’s competitiveness and solidify the UAE’s stature as a global nucleus for industry and innovation, MoIAT is steadfastly committed to reshaping existing sectors. This entails encouraging and facilitating the assimilation of advanced technologies to achieve sustainability and embrace the trajectory of a circular economy,” Al Suwaidi concludes.