The UAE is accelerating its engagement in polar science by means of treaty accessions, worldwide analysis partnerships and high-profile expeditions.
The technique goals to construct nationwide functionality whereas contributing to world local weather change analysis throughout the Arctic and Antarctic.
The UAE strengthened its function in polar science by acceding to the Antarctic Treaty System underneath Federal Decree No. 165 of 2024. The accession permits the nation to take part in consultative conferences and suggest nationwide analysis initiatives alongside worldwide local weather companies.
On the similar time, the UAE secured observer standing on the Arctic Council underneath Federal Decree No. 164 of 2024, increasing its participation in northern environmental dialogue and future analysis programmes.
In February, Emirati meteorology and seismology specialists, working in a joint mission with the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, put in two superior monitoring stations in Antarctica to gather atmospheric and seismic knowledge.
The collaboration continued in November, when a UAE scientific workforce joined Bulgaria’s thirty fourth Antarctic expedition for the second consecutive 12 months.
The workforce is working by means of UAE laboratories on the Bulgarian base, growing and upgrading tasks launched underneath the UAE Polar Programme in 2024.
UAE polar science
In 2025, the UAE signed memoranda of understanding with Argentina and New Zealand to reinforce cooperation in Antarctic analysis, change tutorial experience and assist nationwide capacity-building in polar sciences.
The agreements centre on institutional cooperation and greatest practices, supporting the UAE’s long-term goal of creating everlasting analysis laboratories at each poles.
The UAE’s rising presence has additionally been marked by particular person milestones in excessive exploration. This month, 18-year-old Emirati mountaineer Fatima Abdulrahman Al Awadhi turned the youngest Arab lady to summit Mount Vinson, Antarctica’s highest peak.
The achievement follows a record-breaking mission by Emirati explorer Ibrahim Sharaf Al Hashemi, who accomplished the primary round flight round Antarctica utilizing two helicopters. The 19,050-kilometre expedition ran from 4 December 2024 to 17 January 2025, beginning and ending at Union Glacier Camp.
These feats construct on the legacy of Abdullah Al-Ahbabi, the primary Emirati to finish the “polar hat-trick” — snowboarding unsupported to the North Pole, South Pole and throughout Greenland. Al-Ahbabi accomplished the North Pole mission in 2018, the South Pole in 2019, and crossed Greenland in March 2025.
