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Dubai Civil Defence programme maps impact of fires on climate change

The programme serves as a unified global platform for fire incident data by engaging the world's largest firefighting organisations

Published: Sun 8 Oct 2023, 12:45 PM

Updated: Sun 8 Oct 2023, 6:11 PM

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A Dubai Civil Defence environmental readiness programme features a world map that shows the amount of carbon emissions caused by fire incidents. The feature maps the impact of fires on climate change through the death of wild animals, effect on air quality, and the associated costs to the economy.

This came as Mariam Almheiri, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, visited the Civil Defence Readiness Room in Dubai. She said the environmental readiness programme is the first-of-its-kind in the region.

“In each continent, there is a firefighting organisation that is responsible for studying fire incidents and their causes. In partnership with the Dubai Civil Defence, a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis study was conducted to analyse causes of fire in each continent, thus identifying opportunities and ways to stop fires and reduce carbon emissions,” she wrote on platform X after her visit.

The Dubai Civil Defence aims to reduce carbon emissions from fires in the emirate to 80 per cent by 2050, which is in line with the UAE Net Zero pathway.

The programme serves as a unified global platform for fire incident data by engaging the world's largest firefighting organisations. The platform analyses and categorises fire incident data and carbon percentages by continent, providing this vital information to the respective global firefighting authorities.

In a statement issued in September, the civil defence said the programme predicts fires, which helps implement preventative measures. This will reduce carbon emissions from fires.

In May, Lt-Gen Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, inaugurated the authority’s artificial intelligence-powered readiness room.

Featuring virtual officers that can speak multiple languages, the hub helps send awareness messages to millions of people.

The AI-powered hub uses heat maps of areas in Dubai that witness fires to implement preventive measures. It also analyses celebrations that see the use of firecrackers and lights so as to send awareness text messages to residents to help prevent incidents.

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