Setting sustainability and environmental targets (4): Masdar city in Abu Dhabi

Jan 3, 2009

Setting sustainability and environmental targets (4): Masdar city in Abu Dhabi

Also in the December 6 2008 Economist is an up-date on the most ambitious sustainable project in the world today: Masdar city in Abu Dhabi.

In 2006 Abu Dhabi's development agency unveiled the Masdar Initiative, to pursue "solutions to some of mankind's most pressing issues: energy security, climate change and truly sustainable human development". The initiative consists of a research institute to develop environmental technologies, an investment arm to commercialise and deploy them, and an eco-city to house these two outfits and to serve as a test-bed for their ideas. All this, it is hoped, will turn Abu Dhabi into the Silicon Valley of clean technology, where green-minded academics, entrepreneurs and financiers will rub shoulders.

Some specs:

• Seed funding from Abu Dhabi: $15 billion
• Partners for the research institute: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Partners for commercialization: Credit suisse ($100 million), British Petroleum, Rio Tinto
• Anticipated population: 40,000 residents
• Strategic focus of technologies: no green house gases and no waste through next generation solar power, desalination, “personal rapid transit”. In fact, the city is expected to export 2% of its energy.

This is a refreshing change from other United Arab Emirate energy-guzzling mega-projects, such as the Dubai Ski resort built in 2005, the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 racetrack, or the proposed project to create an air contitioned beach in Dubai, as reported yesterday in the New York Times.

1 comment:

Unknown said...: Glad to learn that the United Arab Emirates, a major player in tomorrow's economy, has starting to think Green.; January 7, 2009 at 2:51 PM

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Our project: Making it happen - the transition to a sustainable society

This blog is a continuation of a project at the University of Ottawa Telfer School of Management dealing with innovation, public policy, and climate change. We are not developing another vision for a sustainable society. We want to focus on the implementation and the barriers to change and innovation, hence the title "Making it happen". (See Post “The start of a new project”)

We have divided the project into two broad steps. The first step is to review various sustainable visions for regions. See our following Posts:
Setting sustainability and environmental targets (1): Recent announcements on GHG emissions
Setting sustainability and environmental targets (2): the dimensions of sustainability
and
Setting sustainability and environmental targets (3): Ottawa’s “Choosing our future”

The next broad set of activities is to parse out what needs to happen if we are to achieve these visions and identify the barriers - institutional, social, behavioural - to make the change happen, i.e. “What’s stopping us from becoming a sustainable society?”

The intent is to design improved policy interventions.

So, in addition to continue looking at sustainable visions, our posts have examined through past examples and case studies how various technologies and changes are implemented. And we will look at barriers and obstacles.

We invite you to share your experiences with the difficulties of implementing new technologies and changes to address the challenge of climate change, and how these can be overcome. Post a comment!

Our Team

ANDRE POTWOROWSKI is an adjunct professor at the Telfer School of Managemnent at the University of Ottawa, and a management consultant in environmental research management, innovation, and environmental policies. He has been working in the environment field since the mid-70s, when he was part of the original Conserver Society study at the Science Council of Canada. He is president of TMA Technology Management Associates, and Managing Partner, Science and Technology of the Professional Development Institute

TOM BRZUSTOWSKI, Chair of our Advisory Board during the project, was the RBC Chair in Innovation and Technology Commercialization at the Telfer School, and is the past President of Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. He authored a book on productivity and innovation, "The Way Ahead: Meeting Canada's Productivity Challenge", and more recently "Why we need more INNOVATION IN CANADA: and what we must do to get it."

Making it happen - the transition to a sustainable society

Jan 3, 2009