ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 658

tures and rainfall levels during two periods; (1) 1900-1930 and (2) 1990-2009 (The World Bank Group
2015). It is clear that there is a rise in the mean temperature value.
2.1 The UAE Built Environment
UAE has been late in providing buildings with energy conservation regulations. It began in 2003
with Decree 66 in Dubai, where the municipality enforced the energy saving practices usage,
such as glazing and thermal insulation materials. In the same year, a similar approach was followed in Sharjah. In Abu n Dhabi, the building regulations were not decreed until 2010. The ESTIDAMA building regulations with several energy requirements have been established. Based on
previous information, it is obvious that the majority of buildings in the UAE lack consideration to
energy saving, or have minimal ones. Those buildings have demanded for high-energy operation
cost. Even federal buildings suffered from this problem until 2012 (AlAwadhi 2013). According to
the UAE’s harsh climate, while taking into consideration the poor thermal characteristics in existing buildings, it was suggested that a large portion of energy consumption was related to cooling
purposes (Fig.3).

Figure 3: Electricity end use for commercial sector in Abu Dhabi (EWS-WWF 2015)
A survey in 2012 had been conducted in the UAE in order to collect information regarding the
nature of the construction of existing buildings before the insulation regulations were implemented in 2003. The team admitted that the task was more difficult than anticipated due to the
different used practices that nearly changes every decade (1970s, 1980s, and 1990s). The final data
of this survey showed that around 12.8% and 27% of the residential buildings in Sharjah and Dubai respectively, had been constructed without adhering to any regulations regarding thermal
insulation. Moreover, for Abu Dhabi, available data shows that the first thermal insulation was
provided to buildings before 2011. The rest of the emirates showed the lack of any provided regulations regarding thermal insulations (AlNaqabi et al. 2012). Based on the latest statistics, there are
120,000 Buildings in Dubai, amongst which there are 30,000 buildings identified with high energy
saving potential. Etihad Super ESCO currently focuses on the few thousand buildings related to 28
governmental authorities, the balance buildings remain unexploited (Thomas 2014).

3. Methodology
An extensive review of literature has been utilized to highlight the experience of some developed
countries such as the United States (US) and the