The buzz around Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week is one people can buy into

Young people take part in Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. Victor Besa / The National

In the early days of “sustainability”, when it didn’t even have a name which everyone could agree on, our efforts to setup the sustainability practice at Accenture often resulted in frustration and confusion.

Our senior leaders wanted to know, was it “risk management”, “innovation”, “the brand”? They all universally agreed it was “great for attracting talent”, even if they couldn’t precisely define what “it” was. But I can still see their eyes roll when we’d try to explain it was all those things, and more.

While we persevered seemingly in vain in the mid-Noughties, I’d often hear of a part of the world that needed little convincing. The Zayed Sustainability Prize or the early plans for Masdar City appeared to be a fairytale and the critics also treated it as such. According to them back then, the latter could not scale and was doomed to be a modern ghost town. And the Zayed Sustainability Prize wasn’t impactful enough in the face of the serious environmental issues we face.

Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week begins with Zayed Sustainability Prize

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Having been in Abu Dhabi this week 17 and 20 years on from the birth of these initiatives to celebrate the latest innovations, investments, partnerships and winners at the now much-vaunted Sustainability Week, it was easy to notice the confidence, can-do attitude and capital all at play.

I did pop by Masdar to see if it was indeed a ghost town somewhere in the desert (as those critics predicted) but instead it is now a fully integrated suburb of Abu Dhabi and inspiring other competing initiatives in the region.

As for Sustainability Week itself, it has been a while since I have felt a buzz at a gathering like this. Often at these events the mood is set by the opening keynote from leadership. Under the heading “Nexus of Next”, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Masdar chairman Dr Sultan Al Jaber outlined a bold vision for clean technology powered by partnerships.

For me, the epicentre of this vision was very much found within the Youth 4 Sustainability movement. If you want hope and to believe in humanity again, Y4S is the place you’ll find it. One of the Young Leaders told me that 10 years ago young people were not involved in events like this, anywhere in the world. Now it has become normal for them to take part, but that "the next 10 years must be about us taking over"! I couldn’t agree more!

President Sheikh Mohamed is joined by senior government figures, visiting dignitaries and Zayed Sustainability Prize winners during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre on January 14. Present are Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, Vice President and Deputy Prime Minister; Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council; Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister of New Zealand; Anwar bin Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia; Yoweri Museveni, President of Uganda; Wavel Ramkalawan, President of Seychelles; William Ruto, President of Kenya; Kassym Jomart Tokayev, President of Kazakhstan; Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan; Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of Nigeria; Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda; Shavkat Mirziyoyev, President of Uzbekistan and Petteri Orpo, Prime Minister of Finland. Abdulla Al Neyadi / UAE Presidential Court

President Sheikh Mohamed speaks to a representative of Merryland International School (UAE) during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. Ryan Carter / UAE Presidential Court

Sheikh Mohamed with, from right, Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan, Kenyan President William Ruto and Kassym Jomart Tokayev, President of Kazakhstan. Abdulla Al Bedwawi / UAE Presidential Court

Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, managing director and group chief executive of Adnoc and vhairman of Masdar, delivers a speech during the 2025 Zayed Sustainability Prize at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. Mohamed Al Hammadi / UAE Presidential Court

President Sheikh Mohamed waves at young performers during the 2025 Zayed Sustainability Prize ceremony at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. Mohamed Al Hammadi / UAE Presidential Court

Performers participate during the 2025 Zayed Sustainability Prize at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre on January 14. Ryan Carter / UAE Presidential Court

Rhett Butler, representing SkyJuice Foundation of Australia celebrates winning the 2025 Zayed Sustainability Prize for Water during an award ceremony at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. Abdulla Al Bedwawi / UAE Presidential Court

Winners of 2025 Zayed Sustainability Prize at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. From left: Veena Moktali representing Periwinkle Technologies of India; Abullateef Olaosebikan representing NaFarm Foods of Nigeria; Mustafa Momin representing Palki Motors of Bangladesh; Rhett Butler representing SkyJuice Foundation of Australia; Innocent Maholi representing OpenMap Development of Tanzania; a representative from Centro de Estudios Tecnologicos del Mar 07 of Mexico; a representative of Sakafia Islamic Senior High School in Ghana; a representative from Merryland International School in the UAE; a representative of Presidential School in Tashkent in Uzbekistan; representatives from Janamaitri Multiple Campus in Nepal and Te Pa o Rakaihautu in New Zealand Abdulla Al Neyadi / UAE Presidential Court

President Sheikh Mohamed honoured Zayed Sustainability Prize winners at the opening of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. All photos: Victor Besa / The National

Sheikh Mohamed awards Monica Akkineni of Abu Dhabi's Merryland International School the regional winner in the global schools category of the Zayed Sustainability Prize

Sheikh Mohamed presents Mustafa Al Momin of Palki Motors, Bangladesh, with the energy award

Sheikh Mohamed presents Rhett Butler of SkyJuice Foundation, Australia, with the water award

Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, speaks at the opening ceremony

The event, at Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec), was also attended by heads of government and their representatives, experts and specialists in sustainability, as well as distinguished guests from around the globe

Symbolically, too, Mubadala, an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, is as of last year the top performing fund of its type globally and more diverse and better at taking calculated risk than much of its peer group.

I found myself wondering, when was the last time I had felt a vibe like this in the UK that everyone could buy into with real confidence and optimism? For me, it was the months around the London Olympic Games, epitomised through Danny Boyle’s opening ceremony providing us with a refresher in all that was and had been Great about Britain. The performances on the fields, tracks, pools, rivers, seas and trails were bettered only by the performance of the nation as a whole, happily discovering its best purpose on the global stage again.

I’m not a fan of GDP as a measure of progress or success but the social benefits of the London Games were seismic, the legacy clear in the swagger and confidence of the nation. For physical evidence, the rejuvenation of Stratford and the intangible but more powerful Spirit of the Games Makers (volunteers) that for many was the magic of that summer. The immeasurable confidence and togetherness of a nation cannot be captured by GDP, but you could feel it. If you look at the UK economy in the surrounding decade, it did not reflect the social sentiment or the legacy from the Games with the compound annual growth rate from 2010 to 2020 trickling around 1.2 per cent.

The inspiring leadership from two decades ago is translating into one of our brightest spots in the world's embrace of clean technology

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi was seeing strong double-digit GDP performance, with one government report citing 28.5 per cent growth in non-oil GDP in the decade leading up to 2024.

It is clear this story is becoming one of the odysseys of our times and the inspiring leadership by Dr Sultan Al Jaber and others from two decades ago is translating into one of our brightest spots in the world's embrace of clean technology.

I come away from this week incredibly grateful to have been invited by my friend Omar Mir to take part in commemorating the past 20 years of action over deliberation and have bottled some of that Y4S spirit, not just for the dark winter months ahead of us in the UK but in case I am called in once again to attempt to influence some of our leaders in London.

Because it turns out it always was all those things, and more!