By: Hisham El Assaad
- The real estate and construction industries are responsible for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions
- True net zero now goes beyond operational efficiency to include full lifecycle emissions, including embodied carbon
- Companies that embed ESG into their DNA will thrive
As the world pivots towards a net-zero future, the UAE is deploying national strategies and plans to lead this shift. With COP28 having put a global spotlight on climate ambitions in the region, the onus is now on the private sector to transform intent into impact. And this presents an economic opportunity and a strategic advantage.
I believe that the future of urban growth lies at the intersection of green innovation, purposeful design, and bold leadership. The real estate and construction industries, responsible for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions, must move beyond the traditional frameworks of sustainability and embrace a regenerative, circular model. It is time for the UAE’s private sector to shift from reactive compliance to proactive leadership in this net-zero transition.
From greenwashing to green building
Net-zero must begin at the blueprint. The UAE’s real estate sector is rapidly transitioning from isolated green initiatives to enterprise-wide net-zero strategies, driven by regulatory momentum, investor demand, and the financial benefits of sustainable development. True net zero now goes beyond operational efficiency to include full lifecycle emissions, including embodied carbon. It is a benchmark only a few regional projects have met. With the introduction of tools like Dubai’s Rental Star Rating, which ties property value to environmental performance, sustainability is becoming a core driver of asset valuation. As developers adopt portfolio-level decarbonization roadmaps, early movers are poised to lead the shift from concept to scalable, climate-positive real estate across the region.
The UAE’s construction sector can reinvent itself through passive design principles that leverage natural light, ventilation, and thermal mass to reduce reliance on energy-intensive systems. And in a region characterized by harsh climatic conditions, designing buildings that work with nature rather than against it is both a technological challenge and a creative frontier.
Addressing embodied carbon
With all these shifts happening, it’s time to address the elephant in the room, which is embodied carbon. For too long, the focus has been solely on operational emissions, ignoring the immense carbon footprint of materials, manufacturing, and construction processes. The use of low-carbon concrete, recycled steel, and prefabrication techniques must become the new norm, not the exception. We need lifecycle thinking embedded into every phase of development.
ESG as a strategic driver of growth Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) frameworks must evolve from checkboxes to core business philosophies. Companies that embed ESG into their DNA will thrive in a landscape where investors, regulators, and customers increasingly reward purpose-driven growth. The UAE’s leading developers, banks, and logistics firms should treat ESG as a long-term risk mitigator and value generator. True leadership lies in measuring what matters, tracking resource use, social impact, and supply chain integrity.
National policies
The UAE’s government has laid the groundwork through visionary policies such as the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative and the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy, which aims to produce 75% of Dubai’s energy requirements from clean sources by 2050. But private sector action must be accelerated through tangible incentives, such as green finance mechanisms, expedited permitting for sustainable developments, and preferential treatment for climate-positive infrastructure.
For the real estate and construction sector, these initiatives directly reinforce the UAE’s existing green building regulations, such as Estidama, Al Sa’fat, and the Dubai Green Building Regulations, by accelerating adoption of low-carbon materials, circular construction methods, and high-performance waste and water systems. By embedding decarbonization targets into upstream supply chains (cement, steel, glass) and downstream operations (retrofits, building management, end-of-life recovery), the roadmap pushes the market toward true lifecycle carbon reduction. This alignment helps developers and asset owners quantify embodied and operational emissions, qualify for green finance, and compete on measurable performance. By converging regulation, market incentives, and climate-positive design, the UAE can move from incremental improvements to transformative change, future-proofing assets, crowding in green capital, and setting a global benchmark for low-carbon, circular urban development.
Incentivizing the future
We need climate venture capital, blended finance, and sustainability-linked loans to flow into clean tech, building retrofits, and climate-resilient infrastructure. The PwC–ADSW white paper from Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week early 2025 highlights how the UAE is rapidly positioning itself as a global leader in climate technology, with renewables aiming to generate 55% of Abu Dhabi’s electricity by 2025 and climate-tech investments soaring 138% between 2023–24 to reach $2.3 billion, despite a global investment slowdown. However, seven critical barriers remain. These include fragmented regulations, limited finance and R&D funding, inadequate piloting infrastructure, procurement challenges, talent gaps, weak collaboration, and absence of offtake agreements. Yet progressive actions propose bold opportunities. These include unified regulatory frameworks and expanded financial incentives to centralized testing hubs, procurement reform, public–private partnerships, talent development, innovation networks, and structured offtake deals, to accelerate climate-tech deployment at scale.
A call for private sector leadership The path to net-zero is not paved by governments alone and requires visionary leadership from businesses, investors, and developers who see climate responsibility not as a catalyst for innovation, competitiveness, and long-term value creation. The UAE’s private sector has the talent, capital, and ambition to shape a new narrative, one in which green construction, circular development, and ESG-led strategies become the backbone of national progress. By embracing climate leadership today, we can future-proof our economy, elevate our global standing, and ensure that the UAE is the engine driving the transition.
About the Author
Hisham El Assaad is the Founder and CEO of OSUS Properties, bringing over 23 years of experience in the real estate sector. His career has been defined by innovation, leadership, and operational excellence.
Before establishing OSUS Properties, Hisham played a key role in expanding AX CAPITAL’s sales team from 70 to over 400 professionals, driving the company’s impressive growth and performance. Earlier in his career, he optimized operational processes and supported the launch of major developments at Dubai Properties, and contributed to the success of several landmark residential projects at Select Group.
Today, through OSUS Properties, Hisham continues to shape the future of real estate in Dubai and beyond..
