Essay Example on Sustainable Development in UAE: Past to Present

Several definitions try to state the true meaning of sustainable development. The most recent definition defines sustainable development as the development that addresses the need of the current generation with minimal effect on the ability of future generations (Nilsson, Griggs & Visbeck, 2016). In the United Arab Emirates, the idea of sustainable development has been present ever since the country started developing after discovering its oil reserves. The need to grow sustainably has existed as current leaders try to secure the future of the coming generations.

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The immediate and historic steps taken by the UAE concerning sustainable development was environmental sustainability. The main goals of this plan were to create a greener country. With their primary resources being natural oil, the country focused on preserving the oil fields by adopting renewable energy sources like wind. More land was also put under irrigation for agricultural purposes as an effort to feeding the country's population. The notion of sustainable development was first propelled in June 2012, in a conference held by the United Nations in Rio, Brazil. In 2010, the government of UAE established the country's Vision 2021, which aimed at making the country one of the best in the world by 2021. The UAE launched the Centennial 2071 plan in 2017 to achieve the government's goals of making the nation of the best.

Currently, in matters of sustainable development, the UAE is working tirelessly to achieve the goals identified by the UN in the Rio+20 conference. According to a report, UAE ranks 60th out of a possible 156 countries concerning the achievement of the set sustainable development goals. The country has improved by 17 ranks as compared to 2017, and it's the best-ranked nation in its region. The report says that the UAE has performed extemporary well in goals related to governance and social matters (Al-Naqbi & Alshannag, 2018). With UAE now being able to access natural resources, challenges of poverty are no longer experienced in the country. There is no single individual in the UAE who lives in poverty or let's say below the poverty line which is set at $1.25 by the World Bank Group. To implement SDGs effectively, the nation has employed a holistic approach which involved the creation of a National Committee comprising of 17 federal entities, each responsible for a specific SDG. The public sector in UAE is one of the best performing sectors in the world working openly and transparently. For the easier accomplishment of goals, the SDGs are fully merged into the government's performance framework and attached to the state's five year operational and strategic plans.

In regards to sustainable development, UAE has lined up the expected future changes in different fields such as infrastructure, science, education, and tourism. The country is set to inaugurate the first "human settlement on Mars by 2117 ". The 2071 Centennial Plan provides a clear plan for the project to secure the nation's standing and its soft energy (Jayaraman et al., 2017). By then, the country will have already achieved the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy, which is set to ensure that over 75% of the country's energy is extracted from clean sources.

Conclusion

From the recent past, current leaders started to care about the well-being of the coming generations. Through this, the idea of sustainable development as a way of development that doesn't compromise the ability of future generations has become common. In the UAE, current leaders have continued to make plans on using natural resources sustainably for the benefit of future generations.

References

Al-Naqbi, A. K., & Alshannag, Q. (2018). The status of education for sustainable development and sustainability knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of UAE University students. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ali_Al-Naqbi/publication/322331935_The_status_of_education_for_sustainable_development_and_sustainability_knowledge_attitudes_and_behaviors_of_UAE_University_students/links/5a54f652aca272bb696225bf/The-status-of-education-for-sustainable-development-and-sustainability-knowledge-attitudes-and-behaviors-of-UAE-University-students.pdf

Jayaraman, R., Colapinto, C., Liuzzi, D., & La Torre, D. (2017). Planning sustainable development through a scenario-based stochastic goal programming model. Operational Research, 17(3), 789-805. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Raja_Jayaraman/publication/298905822_Planning_sustainable_development_through_a_scenario-based_stochastic_goal_programming_model/links/591d72eeaca272d31bcd744b/Planning-sustainable-development-through-a-scenario-based-stochastic-goal-programming-model.pdf

Nilsson, M., Griggs, D., & Visbeck, M. (2016). Policy: map the interactions between Sustainable Development Goals. Nature, 534(7607), 320-322. https://www.nature.com/articles/534320a