Heroes of the United Arab Emirates

www.heroesoftheuae.ae

02-634-7117

Ms. Razan Al Mubarak, MD of the Emirates Wildlife Society, and Ms. Kaltham Al Koheij, regional head of corporate sustainability for HSBC, joined me for a conversation about
motivating our youth to be environmentally literate.

Introducing Heroes Of the UAE

It's only in times of crisis that heroes emerge. The UAE has the highest per capita ecological footprint on earth. It faces an impending energy crisis and the impacts of climate change. This will affect every single one of us, unless we seize the opportunity to become a hero and make a difference.

That was the insight and the starting point for the Heroes Of The UAE campaign, jointly developed by The Emirates Wildlife Society in association with the Worldwide Fund for Nature (EWS-WWF) and The Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi; and is endorsed by the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Environment & Water, MASDAR, and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority. Through a major blitz of press, outdoor and radio advertising in early 2009, we are alerting the UAE to the fact that drastic action must be taken now to drastically curb our energy consumption, avert dangerous shortages and become a great deal more energy conscious. But while it makes it clear that this a very real problem that must be seriously addressed by everyone from governments to individuals, it also points out that straightforward, practical, successful solutions are readily available.

The campaign is centred around the www.heroesoftheuae.ae website, where people can find out everything they need to know about the causes of the problem and also find out what they can do to help solve it.

Principal features of the website include an animated sequence that explains the present energy and environment situation in simple, graphic terms, along with a long list of energy saving tips, a calculator that enables households to establish exactly how and where they can make real savings on their consumption, and a unique pledge facility which enables households to positively state their intention to make a difference.

For the sake of the planet, the UAE and our children, we need this campaign. More importantly, we need everyone - including you - to act on it.