Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) witnessed a string of major trade and energy deals this week, as the event brought together global leaders, heads of state and company executives.
This year, the annual event attracted 13 heads of state, including leaders from Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Italy and Azerbaijan. More than 140 ministers and government officials from various countries participated in the discussions.
ADSW kicked off with an announcement from Abu Dhabi's clean energy company Masdar about what it called the “world’s first” facility that can provide renewable energy at scale around the clock.
The project will combine 5 gigawatts of solar capacity with 19 gigawatt hours of battery storage to produce 1 gigawatt of “uninterrupted clean power”, Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and chairman of Masdar, said in his keynote speech.
The project, which will be spread across 90 square kilometres in Abu Dhabi, will require investment of $6 billion and is expected to start operations by 2027.
Masdar's operational, under-construction and advanced pipeline capacity reached 51 gigawatts at the end of 2024, compared to its target of 100 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade.
Power deal
On Wednesday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni announced that the UAE, Italy and Albania are joining forces to build a subsea cable that will enable the export of renewable energy across the Adriatic.
As part of the deal, green power produced in Albania will be exported to Italy through the cable, Ms Meloni said at the World Future Energy Summit, ADSW’s flagship event.
The partnership will involve Italian utility Terna and Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, better known as Taqa.
The total value of the deal is €1 billion ($1.03 billion), with the project expected to be operational within three years, according to a report by Italy's Ansa news agency.
Bilateral agreements
The UAE on Tuesday signed bilateral trade agreements with two more countries.
The Emirates, the Arab world’s second-largest economy, signed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (Cepas) with Malaysia and New Zealand.
The deal with New Zealand is expected to boost bilateral trade to $5 billion by 2032, tripling the five-year average trade of $1.5 billion shared between two countries from 2019 to 2023.
Meanwhile, the UAE is Malaysia’s second-largest trading partner in the Arab world, accounting for 32 per cent of Malaysia’s trade with Arab countries.
Since its launch in September 2021 to early December 2024, the UAE finalised 24 Cepas with various countries and international blocs, encompassing about 2.5 billion people – equivalent to about a quarter of the world's population, Wam reported last month.
