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near Abu Dhabi International Airport and will sponsor advanced degrees in energy research with leading international universities.

Areas of future leadership in environmental development include smart and energy conscious buildings, construction of artificial reefs meant to encourage revitalization of coral and subsea marine life, expanded greenbelts of trees, and massive solar farms using uninhabited desert areas for the kind of large solar energy generation that is only being developed today with massive subsidies from European governments.

The UAE has come a long way from the days – only a few short years ago – when solid and liquid wastes were simply dumped into the sea and plowed over in the desert; when artificial landfills and entire islands were created using rubble from demolished buildings.

Is the UAE halfway there? Yes, but it is the easy half, the first steps of environmental awareness, the steps requiring minimum economic impact. All of us applaud long-term initiatives like Masdar and the creation of an environment ministry, and few doubt the sincerity of the young UAE leaders in their commitment to bring their new nation into a more mature and confident position in the international community, including global environmental issues.

The United States would do well to support these efforts and to encourage this “next generation” of enlightened leaders. They are under intense pressure to cut corners in the name of economic development – typically at the expense of the environment. More than any other country in the world, perhaps, the U.S. is well positioned to help the UAE leadership to grapple with the complex public policy aspects of coping with the trade-offs of environmental policies that may carry a real price in terms of economic development.

Charles Kestenbaum, President of BKI Inc., a strategic intelligence and consulting firm, served as Commercial Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi and U.S. Consulate in Dubai on three separate assignments between 1980 and 1997.

Mubadala Development Company

Mubadala Development Company was established by the Government of Abu Dhabi in 2002 with a mandate to invest the Emirate’s oil wealth locally, regionally and internationally. In only five years, Mubadala has made strategic investments in a wide range of sectors, including energy, utilities, real estate, information technology, basic industry and services.

The Chairman of Mubadala is H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. Day-to-day operations are overseen by Mubadala’s CEO, H.E. Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, who notes that Mubadala “is at the forefront of the UAE’s economic development. As a developer, an investor and an international partner of choice, Mubadala is taking advantage of an array of local and global economic opportunities.”

Two of Mubadala’s most ambitious investment projects are close to home. One is an innovative gas project developed by Dolphin Energy, which is 51 percent owned by Mubadala. Known as the Dolphin Project, it involves shipping natural gas from neighboring Qatar’s huge North Field, processing the gas at a plant in the UAE to extract valuable by-products, and then transporting the remaining dry gas by a


Mubadala investments run the gamut of sectors.

Dolphin-owned pipeline to customers in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and, eventually, Oman. The project has the capacity to transport as much as two billion cubic feet of gas per day. It is the first cross-border gas project in the region.

The other regional project involving Mubadala is a $6 billion joint venture with Dubai-based DUBAL to construct the world’s largest aluminum smelter in the new Khalifa Port and Industrial Zone in Abu Dhabi. The UAE has been a significant aluminum producer for years, due to its relatively inexpensive and abundant energy supplies. But the world has never seen an aluminum plant of the size and scope envisioned by Mubadala and DUBAL. Using the latest technology, the two firms plan to construct and operate an aluminum smelter complex with the capacity to produce 1.4 million tons per year.


An artist’s rendering of Yas Island, a Mubadala priority.

31   US-Arab Tradeline • June 2007

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