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 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 center 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 praised President 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.