UAE and U.S. Officials Highlight New Projects to Expand Clean Energy, Reaffirm Bilateral Climate Cooperation

WASHINGTON, 30 October 2024 – Highlighting new investments and initiatives to speed up the energy transition and decarbonize industry, UAE and U.S. officials met last week in Washington to sustain the momentum from COP28 and deepen cooperation on climate action.

COP28 Director-General Ambassador Majid Al Suwaidi and Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Energy and Investment Lyndsey Merrill underscored the Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy (PACE) as an important platform for bilateral government and business cooperation to advance the energy transition. 

“We are proud of the results PACE is delivering to address climate change,” said Ambassador Al Suwaidi. “The initiative reflects our countries’ shared commitment to expand clean energy and create economic opportunity through government partnerships and collaboration with the private sector.”

“The United States has taken significant steps to help address the climate crisis and to assist developing countries in accessing climate finance, reducing greenhouse gases and increasing clean energy access,” said Merrill. “PACE has provided an avenue for our countries to collaborate on opportunities to expand clean energy access in developing countries, notably with the U.S. government’s Power Africa initiative that seeks to expand clean energy access in sub-Saharan Africa with the help of public and private partnerships.”  

As deputy co-chairs of PACE, Ambassador Al Suwaidi and Merrill highlighted that several projects announced as part of the initiative during UAE President HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed’s visit to Washington and other new projects will have a substantial impact to reduce emissions and promote sustainable energy, including:

• Working with the U.S. government’s Power Africa initiative, UAE-based Averi Finance intends to facilitate $5 billion in investments, build 3 GW of power generation projects and connect 500,000 homes in sub-Saharan Africa to advance clean energy solutions. UAE-based AMEA Power has also partnered with Power Africa in targeting 5 GW of renewable energy capacity in Africa by 2030 through mobilizing $5 billion in capital.
• UAE clean energy company Masdar acquired a 50% stake in Terra-Gen, one of the largest independent renewable power producers in the U.S. This deal expands Masdar's U.S. renewables portfolio with the addition of more than 3.8 GW of wind, solar and battery storage projects, including 5.1 GWh of energy storage facilities. These are located across 30 renewable power sites throughout the U.S., predominantly in California and Texas.
• UAE energy company ADNOC announced a 35% stake in ExxonMobil's proposed low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia production facility in Baytown, Texas. The facility aims to produce up to approximately 900,000 tons of low-carbon ammonia per year, enabling the transition to cleaner fuels in hard-to-abate sectors.  
• UAE-based AI firm G42 and Microsoft announced a $1 billion comprehensive package of digital investments in Kenya, including the development of a state-of-the-art green data center campus, run entirely on renewable geothermal energy and designed with state-of-the-art water conservation technology. 
• UAE-based Emirates Global Aluminum, the largest ‘premium aluminum’ producer in the world, acquired 80% of Spectro Alloys, a leading recycled aluminum producer in the United States.

Ambassador Al Suwaidi highlighted several additional PACE projects, including an agreement between Emirates and Boeing to implement sustainable aviation fuel, and an investment by the UAE’s early-stage fund Plynth Energy in Zap Energy that is building scalable and commercially-viable fusion energy. 

During their discussion, the officials also reviewed other significant areas of bilateral cooperation to address climate change, including climate finance, methane reduction and sustainable agriculture. Ambassador Al Suwaidi thanked Merrill for her continued partnership to deliver on the outcomes of COP28.

Launched in November 2022, the Partnership for Accelerating Clean Energy (PACE) aims to catalyze $100 billion in financing, investment and other support and deploy 100 GW of clean energy globally by 2035. Building on five decades of energy cooperation, the UAE and United States established PACE to promote projects and new technologies that will quicken the energy transition and create economic opportunities.