The UAE's Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure convened the first Executive Technical Roundtable of the Global Energy Efficiency Alliance (GEEA) during Middle East Energy 2026 in Dubai, marking a shift for the alliance from setting targets to building actual projects.
Themed 'Moving Energy Efficiency from Commitments to Action,' the roundtable brought together governments, companies, technology providers, and financial institutions to work on practical energy-efficiency projects that can be scaled up.
Why this matters for the UAE
Sharif Al Olama, Undersecretary for Energy and Petroleum Affairs at the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, said energy efficiency had become strategically important not only for reducing consumption but also for strengthening energy security, competitiveness and sustainable economic growth.
The roundtable builds on groundwork the UAE has been laying since it first proposed GEEA at COP29 in Baku in November 2024. The alliance was designed to support the energy-efficiency goal reached at COP28 in Dubai, where governments agreed to double the global average annual rate of energy-efficiency improvements by 2030.
The gap between targets and reality
That COP28 commitment requires lifting the annual improvement rate from a historical average of around 2 percent to more than 4 percent by 2030. Progress so far suggests there is significant ground to cover: the International Energy Agency estimates the global rate accelerated to around 1.8 percent in 2025, up from 1 percent in 2024, but average annual progress since 2019 has run at roughly 1.3 percent, well below the 2 percent pace recorded between 2010 and 2019.
The IEA has also estimated that meeting the doubling goal would require energy-efficiency and electrification investment to reach around 1.9 trillion dollars annually by 2030, underscoring the scale of financing needed to close the gap.
How GEEA has developed
Since the UAE announced its intention to establish GEEA at COP29 in November 2024, the initiative has moved through several stages. The Cabinet approved GEEA and its detailed framework was presented in April 2025. The UAE then assumed the presidency of the alliance for a three-year period during the IEA's 10th Global Conference on Energy Efficiency in Brussels.
GEEA held its first ministerial meeting during the World Governments Summit in February 2026, where it presented its charter and launched a digital, AI-powered platform intended to facilitate cooperation among members. By the end of 2025, more than 40 countries and international organizations were participating in the initiative.
The Dubai roundtable represents the alliance's move into its technical, implementation phase, with the aim of translating the commitments made in Baku, Dubai and Brussels into projects that governments, companies and financiers can actually deliver.