Labworx

Last month, the UAE witnessed the heaviest rainfall since records began. On Tuesday 16th April, over 250mm of rain fell on Al Ain in a 24-hour period. In Dubai, by far the largest city in the country and home to one of the world’s busiest airports, around one-and-a-half years’ worth of precipitation fell in a single day.

The freak event caused social media platforms to buzz with conspiracy t...

The Year of Sustainability Initiative has unveiled its first venture of 2024: the Sustainability Champions Society. The open-access platform invites Emiratis and ex-pats of all ages to share their own personal experiences with regard to sustainability, as well as participate in the extensive lists of activities planned for the coming year.

The Society is just the latest part of a year-long p...

UAE innovators were out in force at the International Horticultural Expo in Doha, Qatar, this year. The six-month event came to a close at the end of March, with a raft of companies exhibiting their exciting new technologies in the horticultural sector.

The UAE has long prided itself on being a pioneer in terms of sustainability and future-proofed farming techniques, so its little surprise t...

The twin phenomena of global warming and climate change have increased awareness surrounding our environmental obligations, with most governments around the world agreeing on the need to transition to sustainable sources of power generation.

But while green energy does produce lower (or no) emissions, it’s also generally intermittent by its very nature. The sun doesn’t always shine and the w...

Water is the most precious resource on planet Earth. Some regions of the world, such as the Middle East, find themselves constantly seeking to conserve it, since an arid climate and minimal rainfall means it is always at a premium. With that end in view, desalination techniques have been developed to generate plentiful water for all.

However, existing methods are not cost-effective when depl...

The UAE has announced it will soon introduce a new early warning system for sand and dust storms (SDS), with the intention of giving vulnerable residents advance notice that an incident is imminent. This will allow them to deviate their transit routes away from the affected area, stay indoors or otherwise take evasive action, thus mitigating the impact of the extreme climate events on human hea...

In November and December of last year, the UAE played host to COP28, the climate summit which draws world leaders, decisionmakers, industry experts and various other stakeholders together to try and address the challenges of global climate change. Many good things came out of the conference, such as the creation of a new fund to help vulnerable nations meet their needs and the inclusion of the ...

The UAE’s 44th Planting Week saw the government launch a week-long campaign to plant an additional 50,000 mangrove trees in the country. The initiative, entitled “Together, Let’s Plant the UAE”, ran from the 26th of February to 3rd of March and encompassed a wide range of different social groups from all emirates of the UAE.

Mangrove trees play a crucial role as a natural solution in mitigat...

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), which is the state-affiliated oil and gas company of the UAE, has announced it will step up decarbonisation efforts over the next six years by ploughing more money into relevant research and development projects.

The company’s board, which includes several prominent politicians and decision-makers in the country, gave the greenlight to increase inv...

With its arid landscape, scorching heat and minimal rainfall, the UAE in particular and the Middle East in general is an inhospitable climate for most flora and fauna. Nonetheless, there are certain plants and animals which have specially adapted to not only withstand but even thrive in such conditions. The humble ghaf tree is one such specimen.

Named the National Tree of the UAE in 2008, th...