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ClimateIQ · a Greenly instrument

What does climate change cost your business this year?

Answer a handful of questions about your UAE business and ClimateIQ estimates your greenhouse-gas footprint, prices it in dirhams under three carbon scenarios, and returns a ranked plan of what to do about it, cheapest actions first.

Reading time ~3 minutes Free · no account needed Coverage UAE SMEs
Why now The UAE's federal climate law (Federal Decree-Law 11/2024) has been in force since 30 May 2025, with published penalties from AED 50,000 to AED 2,000,000. The EU's carbon border mechanism entered its definitive regime in January 2026. Small businesses without an emissions baseline are the most exposed to both.

Tell ClimateIQ about your business

Fill in what you know. Blanks are treated as zero. The optional sections improve the confidence rating, but you can skip them and still get a full analysis.

Before you start Most of this already sits in documents you or your office manager have on hand. Worth pulling up first, or forwarding this list to whoever holds them:

DEWA/SEWA bill — electricity (kWh) and district cooling charge.
Last A/C service invoice — refrigerant type, and any recharge (a sign of a leak).
Water bill — monthly m³.
Waste or cleaning contractor's invoice — waste volume and recycling share.
Fuel receipts or fleet/generator log — diesel and petrol litres.
Finance team or your P&L — revenue, procurement spend by category, EU export value.
Travel booker or expense system — flights and commuting, only needed for the optional section.

Don't have one of these to hand? Leave it blank; it's treated as zero and you still get a full analysis, just at a lower confidence rating.
01

About the business

Everything that follows scales to your size, sector, and where you operate.

Used to calculate intensity per revenue and to benchmark you against similar businesses.
02

Energy & fuel

Your electricity, fuel, and cooling: the sources of most emissions in almost every UAE business.

Scope 1 · 2
Not sure? Divide your monthly DEWA/SEWA bill total by 0.44 for a working estimate.
Empower or Tabreed consumption charge, if you have one.
Check fuel receipts, fuel-card statements, or a generator log. No generator or diesel fleet? Leave at 0.
Fuel-card statements are the fastest source; a rough estimate is fine.
Printed on the A/C unit's nameplate, or ask whoever services it. Unsure? Pick "Mixed / unsure" and move on.
Check your last A/C service invoice; top-ups above zero mean the system is leaking.
03

Water & waste

Water in the UAE carries a real carbon cost because it's mostly desalinated. Landfill waste generates methane.

Scope 3
Check your waste contractor's invoice, or estimate from bin size × collection frequency.
Ask your waste or cleaning contractor; a rough estimate is fine.
04

What you already do

Tick anything that applies. This section carries more weight than any other single input — together these 8 items can move your grade by two or more letters. Hover the ? on each for exactly how much.

Solar and green-tariff share (Block 02) also carry major weight: up to +35 on Energy management and +45 on Transition capture combined, scaling directly with your clean-energy percentage.

05

Deeper Scope 3 detail (optional)

Filling this in raises your data confidence from LOW / MEDIUM to HIGH. Skip if you don't have the numbers to hand.

Scope 3

Business travel

GCC destinations, one-way trips
India, Europe edge, East Africa
UK, US, East Asia

Employee commuting

A quick informal staff estimate is fine; exact figures aren't expected.

Procurement (rough annual spend)

Check your P&L by category, or ask finance; round numbers are fine. Spend-based screening (GHG Protocol Scope 3 method) is coarse by design. Once you have specific supplier data, it replaces this line.

EU exports & site risk

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See it in action

Real UAE businesses, real results

ClimateIQ is new, so here's the honest version: no case studies yet. Run your analysis, act on even one recommendation, and tell us what happened, and this is where it goes.

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Methodology

Every number here is reproducible.

ClimateIQ uses standard emission factors and published policy references. Constants are indicative and can be updated as regulations and markets move; the full list sits at the top of this file's script.

AScope 1: direct emissions

Fuels combusted on-site or in owned vehicles, plus fugitive refrigerant leaks:

ActivityFactorNote
Diesel2.68 kgCO₂e / LStandard combustion factor
Petrol2.31 kgCO₂e / LStandard combustion factor
Refrigerant top-upGWP × kg leakedRefrigerant-specific 100-yr GWP (AR5)

BScope 2: purchased energy

ClimateIQ computes both a location-based view (raw grid) and a market-based view (adjusted for on-site solar and green tariff / I-REC share).

GridkgCO₂e / kWh (indicative)
Dubai (DEWA)0.40
Abu Dhabi0.42
Sharjah (SEWA)0.48
Northern Emirates (EtihadWE)0.50
District cooling (Empower / Tabreed)0.62 kgCO₂e per AED

Market-based Scope 2 = grid emissions × (1 − solar% − certificate%).

CScope 3: value-chain emissions

  • Water & waste: water at 1.6 kgCO₂e / m³ (desalination-heavy supply); non-recycled landfill waste at 0.55 kgCO₂e / kg.
  • Business travel: short-haul 0.16, medium-haul 0.20, long-haul 0.24 kgCO₂e / passenger-km. Trip-length assumptions: 1,500 / 4,500 / 10,000 km per one-way flight.
  • Commuting: car km × 0.17 kgCO₂e / km, 240 working days.
  • Procurement, spend-based screening: goods 0.30, services 0.10, food 0.50 kgCO₂e / AED. Coarse by design; replace with specific supplier data when it exists.

DThe six readiness dimensions

  • Emissions intensity (25%): tCO₂e per employee vs sector benchmark (services 3, retail 6, F&B 9, hospitality 12, logistics 22, manufacturing 30, construction 18, other 8). Score = clamp(115 − 65 × ratio, 5, 100).
  • Energy management (20%): audit, LED, smart cooling, EV, plus up to 35 points scaled by (solar + certificate share).
  • Resource efficiency (15%): recycling rate plus water intensity vs sector norms.
  • Regulatory readiness (20%): measuring emissions (+40), publishing sustainability information (+25), recent audit (+15), supplier screening (+10), base 10.
  • Market & supply-chain exposure (10%): EU exporters without measurement score low (25); with measurement, moderate (65); no EU exposure, 80.
  • Transition opportunity capture (10%): solar + certificate share, green finance, EV, banked efficiency practices.

Grades: A ≥85, B 70–84, C 55–69, D 40–54, E <40.

EFinancial exposure

  • Shadow carbon cost: footprint × $25 / $50 / $85 per tCO₂e at 3.67 AED/USD. The UAE has no domestic carbon tax; these are scenario prices consistent with international ranges.
  • Efficiency loss: power spend × achievable-savings rate that starts at 22% and falls 4.5 points for each efficiency practice already adopted (floor 6%).
  • Regulatory flag: Federal Decree-Law 11/2024 penalties AED 50,000 – 2,000,000. Flagged, not booked into the exposure total.
  • CBAM cost: covered goods only. Embedded carbon intensity × CBAM reference price (~€75/tCO₂e). Unmeasured emissions incur a 40% default-value markup.

FFive-year projection & abatement plan

Under "no action," the moderate carbon price scenario ramps to a 2030 level ~1.7× 2026 (~9% CAGR), the efficiency loss compounds at 3%, and the footprint holds flat. Under "act," net-positive levers phase in (40% / 80% / 100% by years 1–3), and CBAM cost falls 40% once emissions are measured. The value of acting is the discounted stream over five years at your WACC.

Each abatement lever is characterised by four numbers: annual tonnes, capex, annual saving, useful life. From these ClimateIQ computes payback (capex ÷ saving), NPV at your WACC, and cost per tonne (annualised capex minus annual saving, divided by annual tonnes). Levers already adopted are excluded; levers with no applicability at your data are excluded. The MACC ranks ascending, following the McKinsey convention.

GData confidence & limits

Results are labelled HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW based on how many optional Scope 3 inputs were provided and whether emissions are self-measured. Confidence never adjusts the numbers themselves, only their reliability label. All estimates use self-reported inputs; where verified reporting or assurance is required, engage a qualified provider.