UAE businesses could soon have some ESG (Environmental Social Governance) benchmarks to comply with.
Rather than leave it to businesses to decide how to make their contribution to sustainability, a set of unified benchmarks will make it easier for them to follow – and help with the UAE’s own path to Net Zero on carbon emissions by 2050.
COP28 will be the latest edition of the UN’s Climate Change Conference, which the UAE will play host to. The event is scheduled for late 2023 and Expo City Dubai will be the venue.
Currently, the UAE and its various government agencies have set clear targets on their plans towards getting to the Net Zero point. Energy giant ADNOC is already several years into developing processes that would reduce the impact of operations on the environment. Leading business groups have also integrated ESG practices as part of their operational goals, and green/sustainable financing is starting to catch on.
UAE-based investment firms, at least the big ones, are following global practices in what and where they put their monies. This has meant greater inflows into renewable/clean energy initiatives and the like.
But the impression is that while these efforts have the government and the big private players leading the way, the ESG movement needs to get more broad-based. This is where it needs to get past voluntary efforts, and which requires regulatory requirements to be brought in – and adhered to.
– source, Gulf News
