United Arab Emirates (UAE) presents an economy-wide emission reduction target relative to BAU. The country projects the BAU scenario to reach 310MtCO2 in 2030. The country  aims to reduce 23.5% by 2030, relative to the BAU scenario (UAE NDC, 2020).

The NDC sets for the electricity sector a goal of 50% share of clean energy (renewables and nuclear) in the installed power capacity mix by 2050, since UAE is investing in solar energy and nuclear energy. UAE is on track to reach 14 gigawatts (GW) by 2030. A grid-based clean power, distributed electricity generation, rooftop solar photovoltaic in particular, is being promoted in the Emirate of Dubai. As a last strategy, regulatory measures and technology deployment are envisioned to increase efficiency of energy consumption with an end goal to reduce it by 40% by 2050 with periodic tariff reforms.

In the building sector, codes and standards are the main instrument, with green building regulations and rating schemes for new buildings. Standards and labels may enable informed consumer choices, thus UAE has established an Energy Efficiency Standardization and Labelling Program which covers a range of household goods and appliances. The approach for the industry sector is based on voluntary targets of carbon usage reduction and looking at the transport one a fuel pricing reform (international prices for gasoline, quality standards for fuel and motor and stimulation of a sustainable transport (shifting transport modals for a public one or electric cars) are the strategy disclosed.

CAT calculates the new target to be 246MtCO2 and highly insufficient  and emphasises that there is no mention of net-zero target (Climate Action Tracker, 2021).