Tadweer Group on Wednesday unveiled plans to cut emissions across its operations by 40 per cent by 2035 in support of the UAE's sustainability programmes.
The group announced the key environmental goal for the next decade during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.
Ali Al Dhaheri, managing director and chief executive officer of Tadweer, told The National that the sector is going through a period of evolution, and the group aspires to be a local and regional champion in waste management.
“So whether it is within collection operations, whether it is treatment and recycling or waste to energy plants, there is an opportunity for us to drive and to pioneer new territories such as waste to sustainable aviation fuel,” said Mr Al Dhaheri.
Globally, it is estimated that the waste management industry contributes about 3 to 5 per cent of emissions – something Tadweer is keen to help in addressing.
Tadweer says the pathway aligns with the UAE's third Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) or climate action plan. In the run-up to Cop29, the UAE was one of the first to release new NDCs, setting a target of reducing emissions by 47 per cent by 2035 compared to the 2019 baseline.
In 2024, Tadweer Group, together with partners, announced the development of an advanced waste-to-energy plant in Abu Dhabi.
Set to be completed in 2027, the project will be one of the largest in the region with an expected annual processing capacity of 900,000 tonnes of waste, enabling an expected carbon emissions reduction of 1.1 million tonnes per year.
The project is part of plans to divert 80 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s waste from landfills by 2030 – and instead create an energy source.
Mr Al Dhaheri said the plant will have the potential to power 80,000 homes with clean energy, which otherwise would have been “a huge landfill burden on the environment”.
A consortium led by Marubeni Corporation, which includes Kanadevia Inova and the Japan Overseas Infrastructure Investment Corporation for Transport and Urban Development, has been selected to design, build and operate a new ultra-large waste-to-energy plant on behalf of the Emirates Water and Electricity Company and Tadweer Group.
Speaking at a panel at EcoWASTE Exhibition and Conference, part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, Bruno-Frederic Baudouin, chief executive of Kanadevia Inova said “Waste-to-energy is one piece of what you can do with waste”.
“We are trying to develop additional technologies that go in synergy together with waste. Such as to recover metals, to recover some other chemicals, or bio-digestion of waste.”
Mr Baudouin said there is also the potential for carbon credit generation with such projects – “We are producing green energy. So if you capture then you can enter into the carbon credits. There is lots of value in producing green commodities”
In December, Environment Agency − Abu Dhabi announced that the carbon emissions of large companies are to be tracked and monitored.
The international standard carbon Measurement, Reporting, and Verification programme will require all centres that produce large amounts of carbon emissions to submit reports on an annual basis from 2026. To ensure transparency, the environment agency has mandated that the submissions must be verified by a third party.
The EAD said significant strides have been made towards introducing carbon pricing mechanisms, which traditionally form the basis for carbon emissions to either be taxed or to be offset via trading, in an effort to push towards lower-carbon economies.
Going forward, Mr Al Dhaheri said that the group is exploring ways in which AI can support transformation in the sector, as well as ensuring pricing for green energy from waste is cost effective “our ambition is to make it even more competitive than the conventional power prices.”
