The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi has introduced mandatory emissions verification rules requiring high-emitting facilities to register, report and use accredited verifiers under a new digital tracking system.
The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) has issued a resolution making emissions verification compulsory for facilities in the emirate’s highest-emitting sectors, shifting Abu Dhabi from voluntary climate disclosure to a legally enforceable system.
Resolution No. (03) of 2026 sets out measurement, reporting and verification procedures for greenhouse gas emissions and creates a specialised mechanism for registering and accrediting the verifiers who check company data. Facilities within its scope must submit emissions reports that an EAD-accredited verifier has checked, rather than self-reporting their own figures.
EAD has also set standards covering a verifier’s technical competence, independence and how verification reports must be prepared, closing a gap in emissions verification quality that had allowed uneven reporting across the emirate’s industrial base.
The agency said the framework moves Abu Dhabi from developing climate regulation to putting it into practice using reliable and audited climate data, a change it expects to strengthen industrial competitiveness and support more sustainable production. Facilities outside the mandatory scope can still measure and report emissions voluntarily, in coordination with EAD.
To manage the resulting flow of data, EAD will build and run a digital emissions database that receives, verifies, stores and archives company reports while protecting data quality, accuracy and confidentiality. The agency plans to apply analytics to that dataset to produce indicators that feed into policy decisions, extending Abu Dhabi’s mandatory emissions reporting regime into its next phase.
Operators covered by the resolution must prepare emissions measurement plans, register their facilities, submit reports on schedule and have their data verified before it reaches the EAD database. The requirement is likely to widen the market for carbon accounting and environmental auditing in the UAE, creating openings for private consultancies and verification professionals as demand for accredited emissions verification grows.
The resolution draws its legal authority from Federal Decree-Law No. (11) of 2024 on climate change and Law No. (16) of 2005 on EAD’s reorganisation, giving Abu Dhabi a firmer regulatory base as it works towards its national net-zero commitments. The move follows other emirate-level efforts to build credible carbon infrastructure, including Ras Al Khaimah’s push for transparent carbon market infrastructure in the Gulf.
For UAE climate tech companies, the mandate signals fast-growing demand for MRV software, carbon accounting platforms and independent emissions verification services as facilities work to meet the new compliance requirements.
The resolution sits within Abu Dhabi’s wider push to back its climate pledges with auditable data, part of a national push towards net zero by 2050 that requires credible baseline figures before emitters can be held to reduction targets. Reliable emissions verification is also the foundation for any future domestic or voluntary carbon market, since credits and offsets are only as trustworthy as the measurement system behind them.
By centralising verification standards in a single digital database, EAD is also reducing the compliance burden on companies that operate across multiple emirates or report to more than one regulator, giving them a single accredited process to satisfy rather than a patchwork of separate disclosure requirements.
The accreditation and registration system EAD is building also creates a defined role for third-party verifiers, rather than leaving companies to choose their own auditors with no common standard. That distinction is important for investors and lenders who increasingly ask for independently verified emissions data before financing energy-intensive projects, since a verifier accredited under a clear regulatory framework carries more weight than an in-house self-assessment.
EAD has not published a compliance deadline or penalty schedule alongside the resolution, and it is not yet clear how many facilities across Abu Dhabi’s industrial base fall within its mandatory scope.
