Masdar Carbon does this by offering project owners, primarily in oil & gas and power in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, technical assistance,project management, carbon finance and emissions trading expertise. The unit then buys a share of the credits it helps generate at a discount. Both the Masdar City 10MW photovoltaic plant and the SHAMS I concentrated solar power plant in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi are registered CDM projects handled by Masdar Carbon.

On a parallel track, Masdar Carbon is developing a multi-billion-dollar national carbon capture network capable of creating a significant reduction in Abu Dhabi’s carbon footprint. The first phase of the network, one of the world’s first commercial- scale CCS projects, will sequester around 6.5 million tons of CO2 from power plants and industrial facilities in Abu Dhabi by 2013. The captured CO2 will be transported and injected into oil reservoirs to enhance oil recovery.