The UAE's waste targets for 2031, and what they mean for a fuel plant

The national targets

The Ministry of Climate Change and Environment's National Agenda for Integrated Waste Management, launched with the local authorities, sets targets for 2031: treating 80% of municipal solid waste, 99% of hazardous waste and 80% of non-hazardous waste, and 90% of landfills meeting sanitary standards. It rests on three strategic directions: minimising waste production, adopting circular economy practices, and improving landfill management. WAM reports an extended producer responsibility framework launched under it.

Abu Dhabi: 80% diversion, and where it stands

Tadweer Group, responsible for waste management in Abu Dhabi, is working to divert 80% of the emirate's waste from landfill by 2031. Its 2025 sustainability report puts the diversion rate at 37.7% in 2025, up from 31.9% in 2024, with hazardous waste diversion at about 99.1%. The gap between 37.7% and 80% in six years is the size of the task, and it is why officials describe the system in three layers: collection, material recovery and energy generation.

Sharjah: already past 90%

BEEAH reported in December 2023 that its zero waste strategies had taken Sharjah to a 90% landfill diversion rate, and that landfill emissions account for 60% of the greenhouse gases emitted by the UAE's waste management sector. Its complex combines collection, an integrated waste management complex and a waste to energy plant.

Dubai

Dubai's Warsan waste to energy plant is covered in the RDF or waste to energy guide. At its 2021 announcement the municipality said it would treat 45% of the emirate's municipal waste volume.

What this means for a fuel plant

• Treatment counts. The national target is 80% of municipal waste treated. Sorting and converting waste into fuel is treatment, and the fuel displaces coal in a kiln rather than going to landfill.
• The gap is large and dated. Where an emirate is at under 40% diversion with a 2031 target, capacity has to come from somewhere, and not all of it will be incineration.
• Feedstock is contested. A waste to energy plant and a fuel plant want the same combustible fraction. The municipal partnership, which for AERC is in development and not signed, is the commercial foundation, before any site or permit.

This is the context for the funding seat: a policy direction with a date, and a project at concept stage with its consortium agreements signed. The funding seat.

General information, checked 14 November 2026. Figures are quoted from the sources listed at the end; the source in force prevails. AERC is at concept stage: nothing here is an offer of securities or a promise of returns.