阿联酋将巨资打造环保城

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“Imagine a place where the challenge of living in an extreme climate is overcome at no cost of the environment.”

Imagine such an eco-friendly project emerging from the sands which also produce much of the world's polluting hydrocarbons, a place that has ten percent of global oil resources.

‘Imagine Masdar’.

A 15-billion-dollar government-funded drive to make the Emirate of Abu Dhabi an epicenter of green technology.

“Masdar city is trying to develop a platform for the highest possible quality of life, where people can wake up in the morning and say, my environmental footprint today is zero.”

The building site today is just a fraction of what is planned, a 6-square-kilometer or roughly two-square-mile green cluster, an eco-community being built under the punishing Arabian sun over the next 8 to 10 years.

Ultimately, 40,000 people will live in Masdar, another 50,000 or so work here, and this animation promises their energy will come from the sun and wind, and biofuels refined from plants and waste. Water will be purified by solar power and recycled from the sea for both consumption and farming. There'll be computerized electric pods and monorails for transport. Zero carbon emissions, zero waste. Organizers admit their goal is ambitious.

“When you set the bar too high, whatever you achieve will be excellent.”

The project is getting support from beyond the Emirate, the World Wildlife Fund has endorsed Masdar city and Abu Dhabi`s wider project to include green technologies in its explosive growth. America’s prestigious MIT University has also signed up, creating the first graduate school and research institute focused exclusively on renewable energy.

“Their acceptance that this thing has to be done, with the highest quality possible, was really gave us the impetus to come here. It’s no longer the issue of pumping oil out of the ground, it’s the issue of competing globally for the same issues. And that they need the highly-trained people.”

Through the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology or MIST, Abu Dhabi wants its stamp on the clean technology chain from concept to product. It’s not all about philanthropy and green credentials.

“Imagine a place which will be the global center for the future of energy, a place …”

When its old fuels begin to run out, Abu Dhabi wants to be a world leader in harnessing new fuels.

Jennifer Eccleston, cnn, Abu Dhabi.