The Emirates Environmental Group Corporate Social Responsibility Network hosted its second
workshop for this year on 14th June, 2006. The workshop called ‘Corporate Social Responsibility
and the Energy Challenge’ focused on issues such as energy consumption, climate change,
global warming and renewable energy.
This workshop had prominent speakers from The Climate Group, Energy Management
Services, UAE, WSP, BP and DEWA who spoke about the challenges we face today in the
energy sector, role of businesses and government in tackling these and strategies that need to
be adopted to make renewable energy a necessary and viable option.
Speaking on behalf of Mrs. Habiba Al Marashi, EEG Chairperson, Mr. Farid Ahmed, EEG
Honorary Member and Advisor emphasized in his opening speech that ‘Energy is a prerequisite
to achieving sustainable development and specifically it can strengthen the three pillars of
sustainable development, the economy, social welfare and the environment. He stressed on the
point that while oil revenues have definitely been the key to our amazing journey from a small
sleepy country to a flourishing hub of tourism and commerce, an unprecedented rate of growth,
transient population and a high consumption lifestyle have resulted in our energy consumption
increasing by leaps and bounds which represents a crucial challenge not only in terms of
energy availability and affordability also in terms of its adverse impact on our environment.
Talking about the need and opportunities for renewable energy in the UAE he said that this
country has all the necessary ingredients i.e. sun, wind, money and capacity to create and
adopt new technology to become world leaders in renewable technology. But this he reiterated
will require intention, will and most importantly action on the part of business, governments and
other stakeholders to develop major renewable energy programmes.
The Key Note Speaker for this workshop was Mr. Jim Walker, Chief Operating Officer, The
Climate Group who gave an overview on Climate Change, current and future trends and
its implications. He also spoke more specifically on the opportunities for governments and
businesses to lead on the issue. In his presentation he also covered a research by Princeton on
scaling up of current technologies to solve the climate & energy issue until 2055.
Mr. Khalid Bushnaq, CEO, Energy Management Services and Mr. Ken Wade, Technical
Director, WSP both spoke about the energy scenario in UAE and the role of renewable energy
to address this.
The other speakers for the day was Mr. Mohammed Al Jariri, Senior Manager Quality Systems,DEWA who spoke about DEWA’s corporate social responsibility programme, legislative
measures and how the government is looking at addressing the energy issues through
partnerships and initiatives and Ms Dana Al Marashi, Communication & External Affairs
Manager, BP Middle East also made a case presentation on BP’s corporate social responsibility
programme.
This event signified the need to build strategic partnerships between the government, business
and civil society and highlighted the fact that the engagement of business and government with
their significant operational, technological and financial capacity in energy policy development
and implementation is essential for sustainable delivery and consumption of energy. Around 60
delegates from government, business and academia attended the event held at the Sofitel City
Centre, Dubai.
