Dubai real estate is key to UAE’s net zero goals – JLL

Dubai real estate is key to UAE’s net zero goals – JLL

More than 80% of the 170,000 buildings in Dubai will still exist in 2050, so finding ways to decarbonise them is important for the journey to net zero.

The UAE’s journey to net zero has real estate at its heart, and using advancing technology to find ways to be more energy efficient will be a key part of that, JLL experts told a roundtable.

Louise Collins, JLL’s head of project and development services, UAE, and head of engineering and energy, MEA, said as an example that chillers produced today are far more efficient than they were just three years ago from the same manufacturer.

She said 35% energy bill cost reductions were possible through improvements such as window rehabilitation and insulation. Onsite renewable energy production is another way to make buildings more energy-efficient and create lower carbon emissions.

Older buildings will not necessarily perform less well, she said, noting that Mashreq Bank’s 40-year-old building in Abu Dhabi is one of the best performing JLL had ever seen. 

That real estate accounts for 40% of global carbon emissions and 36% of energy consumed was one of the key statements at JLL’s launch of its white paper, "The Green Revolution: A Call