The commissioning of a power plant rarely changes the numbers a corporate sustainability team reports. Barakah is the exception. With all four reactors in commercial operation, the emission intensity of the UAE grid has moved structurally — and it shows up in the Scope 2 disclosures of any company drawing power from that grid.
One correction to a claim that circulates widely, and it is the most actionable part of the story: the certificate mechanism for nuclear-origin power is not under development. It has been operating since 2021 and runs quarterly auctions.
The plant, in numbers
Barakah is developed and owned by the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) and operated by its subsidiary Nawah Energy Company, in the Al Dhafra region of Abu Dhabi. On 5 September 2024 ENEC announced that Unit 4 had entered commercial operation, completing the four-unit fleet.
| Item | Figure |
|---|---|
| Reactors | 4 × APR-1400 pressurised water reactors, built by KEPCO |
| Total capacity | 5,600 MW |
| Annual generation | 40 TWh |
| Share of UAE electricity | Up to 25% |
| Emissions avoided | 22.4 million tonnes CO₂ a year |
| Operating licences | 60 years, issued by FANR |
| Commercial operation dates | Unit 1 April 2021, Unit 2 2022, Unit 3 2023, Unit 4 September 2024 |
The avoided emissions are equivalent to removing 4.6 million cars from the roads and contribute roughly 24% of the UAE’s 2030 decarbonisation commitments. Since Unit 1 began operating, the plant has generated more than 120 TWh. Abu Dhabi’s power-sector natural gas consumption has fallen to a 13-year low despite growing demand, and the displacement is credited with saving the UAE over USD 9 billion in liquefied natural gas costs.
How the power reaches the grid — and why that matters for accounting
The commercial structure is important for anyone reasoning about Scope 2, and it is usually skipped.
In 2016, EWEC (Emirates Water and Electricity Company) signed a power purchase agreement with Barakah One Company, ENEC’s commercial subsidiary, to purchase all electricity generated at the plant for 60 years. That power then feeds the national grid in the same manner as any other plant. Nuclear is classified alongside solar, wind and hydro as clean energy under the UAE’s National Energy Strategy 2050.
So the chain is: ENEC generates, EWEC offtakes the entire output, and it enters the grid everyone draws from.
Location-based Scope 2: the grid average improves
Most companies report Scope 2 under one of two GHG Protocol methods. The location-based method applies the average emission factor of the grid a facility draws from. The market-based method reflects specific contractual instruments — power purchase agreements or energy attribute certificates.
For a company without specific clean-energy contracts, the location-based figure is the default, and it is recalculated as the underlying grid mix changes. A quarter of the grid’s supply now carrying essentially zero operational emissions is a structural, permanent shift in that average.
One practical gap should be stated plainly. Realising this benefit requires a published grid emission factor for the reporting year, and no publicly available UAE national factor was identified for this article. Companies reporting location-based Scope 2 for UAE operations should obtain the current factor from their utility, from the Department of Energy, or from the emission-factor database their reporting framework specifies — rather than assuming the improvement without a documented figure to apply.
Market-based claims: the mechanism already exists
This is where most coverage is out of date.
Abu Dhabi operates a Clean Energy Certificates programme under the Department of Energy, managed by EWEC as the single registrant. Certificates are issued by the DoE in units of 1 MWh and conform to the International REC Standard. They are described by EWEC as the only recognised mechanism in Abu Dhabi for organisations to verify clean energy consumption and accelerate Scope 2 decarbonisation.
Three features matter for a buyer:
- It covers nuclear. The certificates are called Clean Energy Certificates rather than renewable certificates precisely to cover both renewables and nuclear. Abu Dhabi’s scheme is described as the first in the world to certify nuclear-generated electricity, and Barakah backs around 85% of the emirate’s issued certificates.
- It runs on quarterly auctions. EWEC opens registration for each quarterly auction; the Q2 2026 round was open until 30 April 2026. Timing is therefore a procurement variable, not an open-ended availability question.
- It is already in use at scale. ADNOC, Emirates Global Aluminium and EMSTEEL all use the programme. ADNOC’s partnership with EWEC, launched in October 2021, covers up to 100% of its grid power from nuclear and solar sources with I-REC validation from January 2022.
The programme sits within the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy’s Clean Energy Strategic Target 2035, which sets a 60% clean energy target for electricity production in the emirate.
A tension worth understanding before claiming both benefits
There is an accounting question the enthusiastic version of this story tends to skip, and it deserves a straight answer where one exists and an honest flag where it does not.
If EWEC offtakes all of Barakah’s output and sells the environmental attributes of that output as certificates, those attributes are allocated to the certificate purchasers. Under standard market-based accounting, attributes that have been sold and claimed by one party should not also be counted in the untracked pool available to everyone else — which is what a residual mix calculation is designed to prevent.
The practical implication is that the grid-average benefit and the certificate benefit may not be fully additive, and the size of the location-based improvement depends on how the applicable methodology treats attributes that have already been claimed. This does not make either benefit unreal; it means a company should not assume it captures the full effect of Barakah twice.
Anyone building this into a disclosure should confirm with the Department of Energy or their utility whether a residual mix is calculated for Abu Dhabi and how the published grid factor treats certificated volumes.
What this means for buildings and industrial assets
For developers, industrial landlords and corporate tenants, a demonstrably lower grid emission factor strengthens building-level and portfolio-level ESG disclosures used in green bond frameworks, sustainability-linked loans and tenant reporting.
The distinction to hold onto: a lower grid average is something a building inherits; a nuclear-specific claim is something an organisation buys, at auction, on a quarterly cycle, with certificates issued per megawatt-hour. Lenders and investors applying green taxonomy criteria increasingly ask which of the two is being asserted.
Frequently asked questions
Does Barakah lower a company’s Scope 2 emissions in the UAE? Indirectly, yes. Four reactors supplying up to 25% of national electricity lower the grid’s average emission factor, which reduces the location-based figure for any grid-connected company. Applying that reduction requires a published emission factor for the reporting year.
Can a company claim nuclear-specific clean energy in its reporting? Yes, through Abu Dhabi’s Clean Energy Certificates programme, managed by EWEC under the Department of Energy and conforming to the I-REC Standard. Certificates are purchased through quarterly auctions and cover nuclear as well as renewables.
How much of the UAE’s electricity comes from Barakah? Up to 25%, from 40 TWh of annual generation across 5,600 MW of capacity.
Is the certificate programme new? No. It has been operating since 2021, and Barakah backs roughly 85% of the certificates issued in Abu Dhabi.
Conclusions
The completion of the Barakah fleet is a milestone for the UAE’s energy programme. Its more durable significance for corporate buyers is narrower and more procedural than the headline suggests.
Two distinct benefits are available, and they should be pursued differently. The grid-average improvement arrives without action but requires a documented emission factor to be applied — and that factor is not straightforward to obtain publicly. The nuclear-specific claim requires participation in a certificate auction that runs on a quarterly calendar, is already used by the emirate’s largest industrial consumers, and is backed roughly 85% by Barakah’s own output.
The one thing not to do is assume both benefits accrue in full and independently. Confirm how the applicable methodology treats attributes already sold, and update the baseline in the disclosure rather than the narrative around it.
Information purposes only — not technical, financial or regulatory advice. Certificate programme terms, auction schedules and eligibility rules are set by the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy and EWEC and change over time; confirm current details directly before relying on them. No publicly available UAE national grid emission factor was identified in preparing this article.