Green oasis rises from desert sands

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates | Imagine a city that emits no carbon, satisfies its entire electricity needs with renewable energy and is home to a world-class “green” university. Gas-fueled cars are banned, replaced with electric vehicles operated by computer, no drivers needed.

A project that could revolutionize urban planning is not being built in the alternative-energy havens of California or Germany, but here in the desert of a Middle East oil-producing titan.

Standing amid a crowd of reporters wearing hard hats, Khaled Awad pointed to a forest of tower cranes on the vast construction site.

In less than 10 years, said Mr. Awad, this site will be transformed into Masdar City, a “vibrant place, full of brains and talent trying to create the best clean solutions that will save the world.”

Mr. Awad oversees development of Masdar City, a green utopia that will combine the latest in sustainable design, renewable energy and low-emission technologies. It is being built by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Co., also known as Masdar, a company founded and funded by the emirate’s government to achieve a single purpose: to turn Abu Dhabi into a “green global player.”

Masdar City is part of the Masdar Initiative, announced a year ago at the first World Future Energy Summit held in this sun-drenched city. The initiative, named after the Arabic word for “the source,” will combine domestic oil revenues with foreign investment to develop technologies for creating cleaner energy and addressing climate change. Masdar City would be the hub for research and development.

Abu Dhabi, seaside capital of the United Arab Emirates, already is a global player when it comes to fossil fuels. It is the fifth-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and has some of the largest natural gas reserves in the world.

Petrodollars have transformed Abu Dhabi from a fishing village into the world’s richest city, complete with eight-lane highways, American-style shopping malls and luxury hotels. Nevertheless, the emirate’s leaders know that the age of oil won’t last forever, and they’re betting on alternatives.

Carbon footprints in the sand

One would hardly call Abu Dhabi a green role model, however. Endless construction, 24-hour air conditioning and a tendency to turn even the bleakest inner-city sandlots into lush green fields eat up vast amounts of natural resources. As a result, the emirate has one of the highest per-capita carbon footprints on the globe - not very comforting, considering warnings that climate change could render large parts of the Arabian Gulf uninhabitable.

Despite these problems, Abu Dhabi’s leaders - Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his half-brother Mohammed, the crown prince - firmly believe they must bring about change. They certainly have no shortage of funding. Sheik Khalifa is chairman of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds with estimated assets of $328 billion at the end of 2008, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

At the second World Future Energy Summit last month, Abu Dhabi announced plans to boost the share of renewable energy from virtually 0 percent to 7 percent of its total power generation by 2020. In addition, the crown prince set up a $15 billion fund last year to invest in clean-technology science projects, energy-efficient research and renewable-energy companies worldwide.

So far, even a global financial crisis has not been able to halt the progress of this movement. Abu Dhabi last week vowed that it will not abandon its clean-technology efforts despite the steep drop in oil prices that has accompanied the worldwide economic slowdown.

“Abu Dhabi is looking beyond the short-term price of oil,” said Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive officer of Masdar, who is said to have close ties to Abu Dhabi’s royal family. “Our world has reached a tipping point when it comes to renewable energy. We are heading in the right direction and it cannot be stopped.”

Abu Dhabi’s most ambitious green project is undoubtedly Masdar City.

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