A high-ranking United Arab Emirates official predicts that Bermuda will be at the forefront of solutions to combat climate change.

Abdulaziz Alnuaimi, assistant undersecretary in the UAE Ministry of Economy, was the keynote speaker yesterday morning at the Bermuda Climate Summit at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club.

“Bermuda’s intellectual capital, manifested in a profound expertise in insurance, insurance-based securities and weather-related catastrophe, positions you to reimagine and reframe the entire approach to climate change,” Mr Alnuaimi said. “The crucible of crisis is where greatness is born. The real currency of the future will not be found in tangible assets but in intellectual capacity.”

Mr Alnuaimi said Bermuda and the UAE have a lot in common, particularly when it comes to water.

“We have problems with water in my country, too — there isn’t any,” he said. “But the absence of water in my country, and yours, has created a common, rugged individualism that stretches across time zones and different cultures.”

He said global warming is going to have an impact on all, one way or another, in terms of where we live, what we eat and the conditions under which we live.

“Bermuda is on the front line of these changes,” Mr Alnuaimi said. He called Bermuda a “giant of the seas”.

“What happens here happens everywhere,” he said.

David Burt met Mr Alnuaimi in March when the Premier was the keynote speaker at Investopia 2023 in Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

Before Mr Alnuaimi took to the podium, Mr Burt said: “I was extremely impressed with the UAE’s vision for the future in the climate sphere.”

He thanked the UAE for taking an interest in Bermuda.

“As a small island, Bermuda often experiences climate change earlier and more intensely, but we are often treated as mere spectators at most international climate conferences,” he said.

The UAE will be hosting the United Nations climate change conference COP28 in November.

The two-day Bermuda Climate Summit ended yesterday.