Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Chairman of Masdar, opened Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) 2026, highlighting the tectonic shift in the world’s economy, driven by AI; the UAE’s leadership in providing energy to power growth; and the country’s radical approach to partnership.
Dr. Al Jaber was speaking in the presence of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and addressing an assembled audience that included heads of state, ministers and government officials.
At the first major international event of the year, Dr. Al Jaber hailed a new era of human progress powered by computational power and digital capability, all underpinned by energy.
“Artificial intelligence is rewiring every industry, reshaping every sector and resetting expectations for global growth,” Dr. Al Jaber said. “While the world is changing around us, one constant remains. And that is energy. Every algorithm, every data center, every breakthrough in advanced technology needs power to drive it. Simply put, there is no artificial intelligence without actual energy.”
Over the next 15 years, data centre power demand will increase sixfold, Dr. Al Jaber said. Energy demand will accelerate across all other sectors, with air travel doubling and 1.5 billion more people set to live in cities, driving increased need for cooling, heating, mobility, and industrial production.
“Meeting all this demand responsibly, reliably and affordably means coming to terms with reality,” Dr. Al Jaber said. “Over 70 percent of this energy will still come from hydrocarbons.” This should be seen not as a constraint, he told the assembled audience, but rather as a catalyst. “Sustainable progress is not about slowing down growth, it is about designing a better engine.”
The UAE has structured its economy to meet this new reality, Dr. Al Jaber said, being a nation where “that engine for growth is grounded in pragmatism, guided by farsighted leadership, powered by ambition and built for the long term. We are a nation that plans with patience, acts with prudence, and invests with discipline.”
Dr. Al Jaber highlighted a “foundational truth” in his address, that “the world still needs molecules to make electrons. That is why we have always invested in both and fused them into a single integrated system: from the carbon-efficient molecules of ADNOC to the clean gigawatts of Masdar; from the largest solar projects ever built, to the first solar plants that work around the clock; from nuclear energy to custom-tailored wind turbines that work at low speed.”
The UAE also applies technology “system-wide,” Dr. Al Jaber said. “AI is no longer a tool we add at the margins; it has become the operating system of our industrial strategy. We are embedding AI across our energy and industrial base to optimize every barrel, every megawatt, every production line.”
Dr. Al Jaber praised President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his vision in founding Masdar, the host of ADSW. “Exactly 20 years ago, Your Highness, you took a bold strategic decision to invest in renewables” he said, adding that Masdar has gone on to develop renewable energy projects in more than 40 countries globally and play a key role in driving renewable energy costs down more than 90 percent.
Dr. Al Jaber revealed that Masdar is now more than two thirds of the way to its target of 100 gigawatts (GW) portfolio capacity.
“Twenty years of Masdar is proof of what’s possible when visionary leadership sets a clear direction, does not waver and stays the course.”
Critically, the UAE is “an open platform for partnership,” practicing “radical collaboration,” Dr. Al Jaber said. “We are never distracted by the noise of the moment. We are always focused on the work of a generation. Our word is our currency. Our consistency is our strength. Our record is our credibility.”
Dr. Al Jaber called out directly to the “CEOs, technologists, investors and policymakers” in the audience, highlighting that the UAE offers “what serious investors value most: stability; steady leadership; long-term vision; policy clarity; advanced logistics; world class financial services; and smart capital.”
The UAE can provide access to energy and high-tech infrastructure “in abundance” and its “ease of doing business is backed by good governance and rule of law”.
“If you want to engineer the future, this is where that work is happening,” he declared. “The corridor to the future runs through here: where gigawatts of power meet terabytes of data, where energy meets intelligence, and where progress is not promised – it is delivered.”
The UAE has chosen to be “a nation of peaceful coexistence,” based on substance and action, Dr. Al Jaber said. “We move forward with confidence because we know who we are and what we seek to achieve. We believe the future is shaped through wisdom, hard work and sound stewardship. And we believe people are the ultimate purpose. In a world shaped by technology, it is our values that remain our North Star, guiding how we invest, how we build and how we partner.”
Dr. Al Jaber reflected on the legacy of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the first president and Founding Father of the United Arab Emirates. “Sheikh Zayed defined progress by one standard alone: human dignity,” Dr. Al Jaber said. “He believed that leadership is measured not by wealth or power, but by the difference made in people’s lives.”
The Zayed Sustainability Prize, which holds its Award Ceremony today, was established in the late Sheikh Zayed’s honor in 2008 to continue his legacy of promoting sustainability, inclusivity and global development. To date, the Prize has positively impacted the lives of more than 400 million people across the world, Dr. Al Jaber noted.
“This prize is not symbolic, it is practical, and it is deeply human,” he said. “The Prize has saved lives, and it has changed lives – permanently, for the better. That is the power of legacy multiplied through action.”
Dr. Al Jaber concluded with a direct call to the audience: “Bring your ambition, your ideas, your capital and your technology, and put them to work where progress is powered, opportunity is operationalized and partnerships are permanent. The future of sustainable human progress is waiting, and its address is Abu Dhabi.”
