Water, energy ‘not cheap anymore’

Neither our water nor our energy can be considered cheap anymore and the significant increase in the price of natural gas in the GCC has made water costlier too, delegates at the closing conference session of the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) and International Water Summit (IWS) in Abu Dhabi heard on Wednesday.
Opening final day’s last session, Thani Al-Zeyoudi, director of energy and climate change at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the first permanent representative of the UAE to IRENA, remarked that a significant increase in the price of natural gas in the GCC had made water costlier too, which could limit economic growth if left unchecked. But the region is “starting to see a cultural change” as forums such as WFES and IWS continue to raise awareness of water and energy challenges and the action needed to address them.
The session, moderated by Frank Wouters, deputy director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), invited a panel of industry experts to forecast future efforts to manage world energy and water demand sustainably.
“Things are changing. We are standing in front of the second gold rush — in photovoltaics,” said Eicke Weber, a winner in this year’s Zayed Future Energy Prize and director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy,
“The link in the Gulf region between water and energy is very strong,” added Mahmoud Dawoud, water resources adviser at the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD), noting that 30-40 percent of energy consumption in the GCC is for water production.
“To tackle this problem, Abu Dhabi is exploring the potential of solar-powered water desalination and projects to reclaim wastewater,” he added.
“If we don’t do something about climate change all of these issues will become much harder to solve,” warned Samantha Smith, director at the WWF.
Altogether this year’s WFES and IWS received more than 800 exhibitors, hosted more than 200 speakers and unveiled hundreds of new products and technologies. The inaugural EcoWASTE exhibition, also hosted by Masdar, was held alongside both summits.
The three events were the main part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, an annual platform that addresses the interconnected challenges impacting the widespread adoption of renewable energy and the acceleration of sustainable development. The event received an estimated 30,000 attendees from 172 countries.