IRENA – Masdar City (UAE) – exemplars of innovation into emerging markets

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to highlight efforts of an emerging market economy, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in complementing the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) initiative. This is a growing phenomenon that has brought about a major shift in the international business landscape with emerging markets at the center.Design/methodology/approachThe exploratory nature of the paper prompted the need to draw upon media reports and other official documents in a bid to stimulate academic interest in Masdar City – the world's first zero‐carbon city in Abu Dhabi (capital of the UAE) as a business case illustration.FindingsMasdar City remains arguably the world's acclaimed first zero‐carbon, zero‐waste city fully powered by renewable energy and poised to attract leading international expertise, academics, commerce, and residents. It also sets a standard for other emerging market players to emulate in this resurgent wave in the “internationalisation of innovation into emerging markets”.Social implicationsThe aspiration to live within ecological limits and still improve the quality of people's lives is undoubtedly the cornerstone for sustainable development. Be that as it may, developments at Masdar City would require further monitoring and of course academic and policy research into how it feeds into (as well as feeds off) the international support enjoyed by this emerging market.Originality/valueBy highlighting the efforts made in the UAE, in addition to securing headquarter status for IRENA and the rapid development of Masdar City, it looks quite obvious that the time for reflection is nigh and to learn lessons from the successful communities and emulate the ideas and innovations of these communities by the backward and not so successful nations and regions.

Is the Middle East the land of the future? It is not a given!

“…Consequently, by highlighting the efforts made in the UAE, in addition to securing headquarter status for IRENA and the rapid development of Masdar City, Madichie (2011c) concurred with the remark that ''it is also a time now to learn lessons from the successful communities and emulate the ideas and innovations of these communities by the backward and not so successful nations and regions.'' Be that as it may, developments at Masdar City would require further monitoring and of course academic and policy research into how it feeds into the international support enjoyed by this emerging market.…”

“…The MENA region is home to 6.3 percent of the world's population, but just 1.4 percent of the world's renewable fresh water. Faced with an ever-steepening struggle to meet burgeoning demand in rapidly expanding region, water-stressed states have resorted to innovative methods to quench their thirst (see Madichie, 2011c).…”

“…A recent notable example is the Masdar City project on renewal energy where the UAE ascended as permanent headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the first time a major international organization has been based in an Arab country (see Madichie, 2011c;Madichie and Kolo, 2012).…”

“…From Total's (the oil giant) recent majority-stake acquisition of SunPower at a cost of a US$1.4billion, through Saudi Arabia's plans to install some 18,000 MW of solar power over the next 20 years (Fotuhi, 2011;Palmer, 2011;Madichie, 2011c); to the Abu Dhabi (UAE) government's announcement of its own plans to generate at least 7 percent of the power it uses from renewable sources by 2020 -a long five years past the MDG deadline.…”

ICTs and the Computerised Hijab: Women's Experiences of ICT in the UAE

“…The theme of UAE society revealed a number of contradictions. There is immense pressure within and without the UAE to transform itself into a modern and IT-literate knowledge economy (Gallant & Pounder, 2008;Madichie, 2011). One of the ways this has been realised is through policies towards women and education that have slowly shifted the focus away from tribal and limited education for women to education policies that are specifically focused on increasing the IT literacy for all its citizens and especially women.…”