Reviewed by the editorial team of Energypoint Holding Limited
Model example, built only from the values published below: two offices metered at 1,000 MWh each in 2025, one on the Abu Dhabi grid and one on the Dubai grid, each needing a grid emission factor before its megawatt-hours become location-based Scope 2 tonnes. The Abu Dhabi value is 187.0 g/kWh for 2025, from the Statistical Report 2025 of Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC), uploaded on 29 September 2026. The Dubai value is 383.3 g/kWh for 2025, from the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA). The two offices come to 570.3 tonnes, with Abu Dhabi counted in CO2 and Dubai in CO2 equivalent.
On the single national value in the Ember yearly electricity dataset, 469.7 gCO2e/kWh for the UAE in 2025, the same two offices come to 939.3 tonnes.
Location-based Scope 2 for two offices on the newest published grid emission factors
For two offices of 1,000 MWh each in 2025, the power intensity of Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) prices the Abu Dhabi office at 187.0 tonnes of CO2, and the grid emission factor of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) prices the Dubai office at 383.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. The pair sums to 570.3 tonnes, both values for 2025 but on different gas bases.
The Abu Dhabi value is the 2025 actual in the table of CO2 intensities on page 40 of the EWEC Statistical Report 2025, which prints 2021 to 2025 as actuals and 2026 to 2035 as forecast. It describes the EWEC system, the single buyer of power and water for Abu Dhabi, rather than any one distribution network.
The Dubai value comes from the DEWA Sustainability Report 2025, which states “Carbon intensity based on Grid Emission Factor for Electricity: 0.3833 tCO2e/MWh”. One tonne per MWh equals 1,000 g per kWh, so the figure reads as 383.3 g/kWh.
| Factors applied | Years | Gas counted | Abu Dhabi office, tonnes | Dubai office, tonnes | Both offices, tonnes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EWEC power intensity in Abu Dhabi, DEWA grid emission factor in Dubai | 2025 | CO2 in Abu Dhabi, CO2e in Dubai | 187.0 | 383.3 | 570.3 |
| The same two series, year before | 2024 | CO2 in Abu Dhabi, CO2e in Dubai | 243.0 | 404.5 | 647.5 |
| Ember national intensity for both offices, newest year | 2025 | CO2e, lifecycle | 469.7 | 469.7 | 939.3 |
Within 2025 the Dubai office carries 2.05 times the Abu Dhabi figure, 383.3 against 187.0 tonnes, and the national value 2.51 times, 469.7 against 187.0 tonnes. The national series covers all generation in the UAE and counts lifecycle rather than direct emissions.
EWEC, DEWA and Ember series side by side, 2021 to 2025, with cut-off dates
Set side by side for 2021 to 2024, the series of EWEC, DEWA and Ember move differently: EWEC’s power intensity runs 231.0, 251.0, 227.0 and 243.0 g/kWh, DEWA’s electricity factor dips to 0.3979 tCO2e/MWh in 2023 and rises to 0.4045, and only Ember’s national intensity falls every year. For 2025, EWEC gives 187.0, DEWA 0.3833 and Ember 469.7.
| Series and unit as published | Grid | Basis | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | Newest value quoted | Document and cut-off |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EWEC CO2 intensity of power, g/kWh | EWEC system, Abu Dhabi | CO2, power share of cogeneration (method not stated) | 231.0 | 251.0 | 227.0 | 243.0 | 187.0, 2025 actual | Statistical Report 2025; actuals to 2025; uploaded 29 Sep 2026 |
| DEWA electricity, tCO2e/MWh | DEWA grid, Dubai | CO2e, electricity | 0.4293 | 0.4035 | 0.3979 | 0.4045 | 0.3833, 2025 | Sustainability Report 2025, pp. 53 to 54 (103 pp., file dated 16 Apr 2026) |
| DEWA electricity and water, tCO2e/MWh | DEWA grid, Dubai | CO2e, combined | 0.4834 | 0.4606 | 0.4542 | 0.4572 | 0.4425, 2025 | Sustainability Report 2025, pp. 53 to 54 (103 pp., file dated 16 Apr 2026) |
| Ember emissions intensity, gCO2e/kWh | UAE, all generation | CO2e, lifecycle | 607.5 | 556.4 | 489.3 | 477.3 | 469.7, 2025 | Yearly electricity data; UAE rows run to 2025; file modified 6 Oct 2026 |
Between 2023 and 2024 both utility series rose while the national series fell: the EWEC value by 16.0 g/kWh, or 7.0%, and the DEWA value by 0.0066 tCO2e/MWh, or 1.7%, against a fall of 12.0 gCO2e/kWh, or 2.5%, for Ember. For 2025 all three fall: EWEC by 23.0%, from 243.0 to 187.0 g/kWh, DEWA by 5.2%, from 0.4045 to 0.3833 tCO2e/MWh, and Ember by 1.6%, from 477.3 to 469.7 gCO2e/kWh.
The DEWA series labelled electricity and water sits 15.4% above the electricity series in 2025, 0.4425 against 0.3833 tCO2e/MWh, so a Dubai inventory has two DEWA values for the same year to choose between.
EWEC’s 187.0 g/kWh for 2025 and the power share of cogeneration emissions
The figure of 187.0 g/kWh that Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) reports for 2025 is CO2 per kWh of power, printed beside a water intensity of 10.6 kg/m3 and total emissions of 33.5 million tonnes. Its Statistical Report 2025 does not say how cogeneration plants, which make power and desalinated water from the same gas, split emissions between the two; its Decarbonisation Report 2023 states the method for 2019.
The fall of the EWEC power intensity from 243.0 to 187.0 g/kWh, 23.0%, coincides with a rise in total emissions. Page 87 of the Statistical Report 2025 gives emissions of EWEC plants of 31,709,284 tonnes in 2024 and 33,482,426 in 2025, up 5.6%, and the water intensity rose from 6.4 to 10.6 kg/m3. Fossil generation was flat at 58,513 GWh in 2024 and 58,523 in 2025. Scaling 243.0 by the fossil share of gross generation, 56.0% in 2024 and 54.3% in 2025, gives 235.6 g/kWh, so in a proxy calculation that assumes constant emissions per fossil kWh, fuel mix would account for 7.4 of the 56.0 g/kWh fall.
The rest of the move cannot be traced from the report, which prints no allocation between power and water for either year. The EWEC Decarbonisation Report 2023 shows how much the split can weigh for 2019: under EWEC’s short-run marginal cost allocation the power share was 330 kgCO2e/MWh, while “allocating emissions entirely to power would yield 540 kgCO2e/MWh”, which is 63.6% more. None of the EWEC publications quoted here gives a value on the second basis for 2024 or 2025.
The EWEC total also spans more than Abu Dhabi: the annex on page 87 puts 10,054,316 of the 33,482,426 tonnes of 2025, or 30.0%, in north-east plants, and the report does not say whether the power intensity covers the same set.
EWEC Statistical Report 2024 against 2025: table, annex and forecasts
The Statistical Report 2024 of Emirates Water and Electricity Company (EWEC) does not match its own annex: the summary table on page 43 gives total CO2 of 34.1 million tonnes for 2023 and 30.4 for 2024, while the annex on page 93 of the same edition gives 32.0 and 31.7. The Statistical Report 2025 aligns its table with the annex.
| Year | Edition 2024, table p. 43, Mt | Edition 2024, annex p. 93, tonnes | Edition 2025, table p. 40, Mt |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 41.6 | 41,507,627 | 41.5 |
| 2022 | 36.5 | 36,353,833 | 36.4 |
| 2023 | 34.1 | 32,015,814 | 32.0 |
| 2024 | 30.4 | 31,709,284 | 31.7 |
The annex tonnes for 2021 to 2024 are identical in the two editions, so the raw data did not change, and the power intensity actuals for those years are unchanged too. The note under the annex, “Emission values from 2019 onwards have been revised to include liquid fuels that were omitted in previous versions of the report”, stands in both editions and does not explain the gap between the 2024 table and its annex.
The 2025 total of 33.5 million tonnes sits on a different base from the 2024 forecast of 29.5: the forecast follows the 2024 table, which put 2024 at 30.4 million tonnes, and the actual follows the annex, which puts it at 31.7, so their difference of 4.0, or 13.6%, mixes two bases.
| Item | Edition 2024, table p. 43, uploaded 4 Sep 2025 | Edition 2025, table p. 40, uploaded 29 Sep 2026 | Change between the tables |
|---|---|---|---|
| Power intensity 2025, g/kWh | 223, forecast | 187.0, actual | -36.0, or -16.1% |
| Power intensity 2030, g/kWh | 156, forecast | 203.5, forecast | +47.5, or +30.4% |
| Total CO2 2030, Mt | 21.6, forecast | 39.7, forecast | +18.1, or +83.8% |
| Power intensity 2035, g/kWh | 126, forecast | 107.7, forecast | -18.3, or -14.5% |
| Total CO2 2035, Mt | 18.7, forecast | 22.6, forecast | +3.9, or +20.9% |
The forecast intensity in the 2025 edition is not a straight decline: 217.5 g/kWh for 2026, then 246.6 for 2027 and 252.0 for 2028, both above the 2024 actual of 243.0, and 203.5 for 2030 and 107.7 for 2035. The note under the table states that “From 2026 onwards, EGA emissions is included in the forecast”, so the totals for 2030 and 2035 are not on the same perimeter as in the 2024 edition.
The 22.6 million tonnes for 2035 is 46.7% below the 42.4 million tonnes of 2019 in the annex and agrees with the approximately 23 million tonnes in the EWEC press release of 21 September 2026. A target built on the 2024 edition’s 156 or 126 g/kWh for 2030 or 2035 rests on a forecast that the 2025 edition has replaced.
DEWA’s grid emission factor for Dubai: 0.3833 tCO2e/MWh in the 2025 report
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority reports a grid emission factor for electricity of 0.3833 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per MWh for 2025, after 0.4045 in 2024, in its Sustainability Report 2025 (p. 53), and a combined electricity and water value of 0.4425, after 0.4572 (p. 54). The values for 2021 to 2024 in the 2025 report match those of the Sustainability Report 2024, so the earlier years were not restated.
DEWA counts CO2 equivalent across the gases listed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, under the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-1:2018 (p. 52). Since 2023 it has also reported, as Category 2 indirect emissions, the electricity imported from the Warsan waste-to-energy plant managed by Dubai Municipality: 1,991,863.48 tCO2e in 2025 against 562,096.61 in 2024 (p. 53). Neither report says whether those imports enter the grid emission factor.
The edition read here is the 103-page file at the address cited, dated 16 April 2026 in its file metadata. DEWA’s sustainability reports page lists a Sustainability Report 2025 with the date 31 August 2026, and DEWA announced on 2 June 2026 that its 2025 greenhouse gas emissions had passed external verification under ISO 14064-1:2018 without publishing an intensity, so a later edition would supersede these figures.
National values for the UAE: Ember’s lifecycle intensity and the IFI default factors
Two datasets give a single value for the whole of the UAE. Ember puts electricity at 469.7 gCO2e/kWh in 2025, down from 660.1 in 2019 and from 477.3 in 2024. The Harmonized IFI Default Grid Factors, version 3.2 of April 2022, put the UAE operating margin at 556.5 gCO2/kWh and the combined margin for electricity consumption at 310.4 gCO2/kWh.
Ember multiplies generation reported by the Energy Institute by per-fuel factors that, in the words of its methodology, “aim to include full lifecycle emissions including upstream methane, supply chain and manufacturing emissions”. The gas factor for each country comes from a study of 2017 generation and reads 676.7 gCO2e/kWh for the UAE in every year from 2019 to 2025, so the series moves with the fuel mix: in 2025, 68.0% of 184.4 TWh came from gas, 21.2% from nuclear and 9.9% from solar. The fall from 477.3 to 469.7 gCO2e/kWh in 2025 reflects a lower gas share, down from 69.3%, and a higher solar share, up from 8.1%.
The file modified on 6 October 2026 added 2025 and revised the UAE values for 2021 to 2024; the value for 2024 moved from 467.5 gCO2e/kWh in the previous release to 477.3.
The IFI dataset was built for a different task. Its cover sheet says the factors “will be used by IFIs as the default basis of their GHG emissions accounting”, and the operating margin column is headed “including for use in PCAF GHG accounting”.
Both IFI values carry the dataset label 2021, and the cover sheet promises updates “e.g. every 2 years”, yet the list kept by the IFI working group shows no version after April 2022.
Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2024: the measurement duty and the factor it leaves open
Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2024 on the Reduction of Climate Change Effects, issued on 28 August 2024 and in force since 30 May 2025, requires sources determined by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment and the competent authority to measure emissions, prepare an emissions inventory and report under standards those bodies specify. The text of the decree-law names no grid emission factor.
The official text applies to sources in the State, including free zones. Article 6 requires records of measured emissions to be kept for five years, and Article 15 sets a fine of AED 50,000 to AED 2,000,000 for breaching the measurement and reporting duty.
Article 18 gives sources one year from entry into force to adjust their status, a period that on the text ran to 30 May 2026, and allows the Cabinet to extend it. The legislation page, as read on 7 October 2026, lists the decree-law as active with a last update of 28 August 2024.
The public page of the Ministry’s Integrated Emission Quantification Tool, as read on 7 October 2026, offers registration and login and shows no grid factor, so the factor chosen stays part of the reporting company’s own record.
Sharjah and the northern emirates: no grid emission factor of their own
None of the publications compared above gives a grid emission factor for the grid of the Sharjah Electricity, Water and Gas Authority or for the grid of Etihad Water and Electricity in the northern emirates. For premises on those two grids, the national values of Ember and the IFI dataset are the only published options among the sources used here.
The next Ember release would replace a value used here, and the EWEC downloads page shows no date for a further statistical report after the one uploaded on 29 September 2026.
What the published values support for a 2025 or 2026 inventory
A 2025 location-based Scope 2 inventory in the UAE has three published values to draw on, all for 2025: EWEC’s 187.0 g/kWh for Abu Dhabi, DEWA’s 0.3833 tCO2e/MWh for Dubai and Ember’s 469.7 gCO2e/kWh for the whole country. They differ in grid, gases and cogeneration treatment, so a total that mixes them has to say so, as the 570.3 tonnes of the model example does.
The split of cogeneration emissions matters as much as the year: EWEC assigns part of plant emissions to water, 330 against 540 kgCO2e/MWh in 2019, and prints no split for 2024 or 2025, while DEWA publishes electricity at 0.3833 and electricity and water at 0.4425 as separate series. The edition matters too, because the 2024 summary table puts the 2024 total at 30.4 million tonnes where its annex and the 2025 table have 31.7.
The record that Article 6 of Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2024 requires to be kept for five years can hold the factor with its document, page and date of reading beside the measured quantities. A target baseline built on the EWEC forecast belongs with its edition, since 2030 and 2035 read 203.5 and 107.7 g/kWh in the 2025 edition against 156 and 126 in the 2024 edition.
This material was reviewed by the editorial team of Energypoint Holding Limited, a company that operates a platform focused on energy policy, electricity grid connections, and decarbonization strategies.
Analysis, not personalised advice. For transactional decisions, confirm the tariff value or rule directly with the utility or the regulator.