This must be good news
Abu Dhabi is positioning itself to become a clean energy leader.
The New York Times reports that Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates which has 10 percent of the world's known oil reserves and is OPEC's fourth largest oil producer, wants to become a leader in the development of clean-energy technology.
The Emirate plans on investing hundreds of millions of dollars in a new program called the Masdar Initiative and is enlisting the help of major oil and technology companies, and leading universities from around the world to help it develop new forms of energy.
As the Times reports:
At first, the Masdar effort drew skepticism and a few snickers. The United Arab Emirates has been singled out as one of the world’s highest per capita emitters of carbon monoxide and other greenhouse gases.But Abu Dhabi as the Times reports:
From its gleaming high-rise towers to its $3 billion marble-encrusted Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi has long prided itself on being an example of what oil money, put to good use, can do. Oil helped turn Abu Dhabi from desert fishing village into an influential Arab capital. It helped build a citizens’ trust fund that is estimated to be worth up to $300 billion, whose investments are estimated to bring the emirate almost twice income as its oil sales do.As Fred Moavenzaden, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told the Times, “This is the first oil-producing state that has accepted and agreed with the concept that oil may not be the only source of energy in the future.”
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