Climate Resilience and Green Recovery
H.E. Dr. Abdullah Al Nuaimi
Cabinet Member and Minister of Climate Change and Environment, UAE
The ABLF Talks | The ABLF City | March 9, 2021
Speaker Introduction
His Excellency Dr. Abdullah Al Nuaimi serves as the UAE’s Minister of Climate Change and Environment, spearheading the country’s transformative environmental agenda and its pursuit of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With decades of experience in infrastructure development, environmental engineering, and public policy, Dr. Al Nuaimi has been a central architect of strategies that blend green growth with economic diversification. At the ABLF Talks Live, he outlined how the UAE is positioning sustainability not as a parallel track but as the foundation of post-pandemic recovery, championing a model that binds fiscal resilience, technological innovation, and ecological stewardship into a unified vision.
Moderator: Eithne Treanor, Founder and CEO, E Treanor Media
Prepared by: The ABLF Research Council
Date: March 9, 2021
Event: The ABLF Talks, hosted virtually at the ABLF City
Executive Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the fragility of global systems, food supply chains, energy markets, and climate governance, threatening progress toward the SDGs. For the UAE, this disruption became a strategic inflection point. As Dr. Al Nuaimi explained, the nation leveraged recovery planning to integrate climate action into every dimension of economic policy, reframing “resilience” as a function of environmental integrity and diversification.
This vision rests on channeling stimulus into renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and a circular economy. Flagship measures include large-scale solar expansion, green hydrogen investment, and the adoption of climate-smart agriculture technologies such as vertical farming and hydroponics, which reduce water consumption by up to 90% while strengthening food sovereignty. These initiatives are anchored in legislative frameworks, namely the Sustainable Finance Framework 2021–2031 and the UAE Circular Economy Policy, that mobilize private capital and embed sustainability into long-term economic planning.
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Turning Crisis into a Catalyst
While the pandemic posed an economic shock, it also accelerated climate urgency. Dr. Al Nuaimi underscored that recovery spending must lock in low-carbon pathways, resisting the temptation to revert to pre-crisis patterns. The UAE’s approach aligns with a growing global consensus that “building back better” is not a slogan but a policy imperative, as seen in the European Green Deal, the Biden administration’s climate-linked infrastructure agenda, and ASEAN’s post-pandemic sustainability frameworks.
Sign in to unlock the library of the ABLF Insightfolio
The ABLF Insightfolio features researched, knowledge-led whitepapers that capture the strategic perspectives and insights of Asia’s foremost thinkers, policymakers, business leaders and social scientists.
Derived from the impact-led dialogues at the ABLF Talks, these policy-shaping documents are designed to inform, inspire, and ignite action across all sectors, from inclusive growth and sustainability to innovation and digital transformation.
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