Global South Utilities Forum discusses investment priorities & energy, water infrastructure pathway

As part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2026, the Global South Utilities Forum commenced today, highlighting investment and implementation priorities shaping the future of energy and water infrastructure across emerging markets.

The inaugural edition of the forum brought together ministers, policymakers, and investors from Global South countries to discuss ways to stimulate capital flows into emerging markets, review innovative financing models, sovereign guarantees, and blended finance structures aimed at scaling projects while managing risks.

A ministerial session held as part of the forum discussed how to translate government visions and policies into bankable and executable projects, followed by discussions on the rapid and large-scale deployment of technologies, ranging from renewable energy and battery energy storage to off-grid systems, desalination, and wastewater solutions in remote areas.

The forum also highlighted the growing role of industrial energy off-takers outside traditional utility frameworks, in addition to showcasing case studies from Africa that demonstrate the factors making projects investable, scalable, and commercially sustainable.

Ali Al Shimmari, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Global South Utilities, a subsidiary of Resources Investment, said in his opening address that while many around the world continue to discuss sustainability in Global South countries, the UAE is actively building it on the ground.

He noted that the challenges facing Global South countries are clear, including rising energy demand, persistent infrastructure gaps, and the critical importance of speed of execution alongside investment scale.

He added that progress is not achieved by capital alone, nor by policy alone, nor by execution alone, and that practical experience has shown that real progress occurs when these elements move together, with governments, investors, and operators integrating their efforts within a framework of shared responsibility and a genuine sense of urgency.

He stressed that sustainability only succeeds when it is implemented, and that implementation requires platforms focused on real projects, real financing, and tangible results, noting that this is the purpose of the forum.

Forum sessions examined the transformation of policies into projects, investments into infrastructure, and ambitions into tangible achievements across the energy, water, and finance sectors, through systems capable of scaling in emerging markets.