I am pleased and proud to share with you yet another 'Green Milestone' marked by Dubai which highlights how Dubai cares about the environment, and how Dubai is keen to develop sustainable energy and reduce harmful impact on the environment.

Marking its green milestone, Dubai Municipality's Al-Qusais landfill has successfully generated 1MW electricity from the garbage collected.

Homes in Dubai are one step closer to using an alternative source of electricity as the first megawatt was generated at the Al Ghusais landfill , Dubai on Monday(29th July) night.

This is the first time in the Middle East that landfill gas has been converted to generate electricity through the flaring of methane, which is also in line with Dubai Municipality?s vision to generate 20MW of power from landfill gas by 2020.

The Al Ghusais Landfill site adopts the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) initiative, which is registered with the United Nations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Through implementing the CDM project, the municipality aims to reduce methane emissions, which is expected to remove 250,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year from the air. In due course, the system is expected to generate 20 MW of power from landfill gas by 2020.

As a CDM initiative, the project can acquire carbon credits proportional to the reduction in green house gas emission. As per the agreement, the Dubai municipality will get 30 per cent of the deal when the carbon credits from its landfill project are traded.

This environmentally-friendly project involves turning methane gas into electricity, and this is the first stage of transferring the electricity to feed the plant and the landfill from 500 cubic metres of methane gas into one megawatt. Future  plans involve collaborating with DEWA(Dubai Electricity & Water Authprity) to launch a number of projects that can be used in homes and hybrid cars.

The Al Ghusais Landfill site is spread over an area of about 3.5 square kilometres and has been receiving municipal solid waste since 1978. It is one of the largest sites for municipal waste collection in Dubai, which receives about 5,000 tonnes of waste a day, and with the decomposition of municipal waste, the landfill site emits approximately 55 per cent of methane and 45 per cent of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

This is a significant step in addressing the challenge of urban waste management, while generating power to meet developmental requirements.

This project shows that UAE is working within the international arena, under the Kyoto protocol. This will encourage others to come up with green technology.

Dubai marked a historic moment in its evolution as one of region's most sustainable cities by unveiling this first of its kind project in the Middle East, where landfill gas was used to completely power the internal requirements of the Al Qusais Landfill in Dubai