Watch the discussions on the water-energy-food Nexus by experts from the Netherlands and the Gulf Cooperation Council. The agenda includes presentations and interactive discussions on the importance of synergy between water, energy, and food in solving global challenges, with a focus on the Gulf Region.

Solving Global Challenges Together

Food, Agriculture, and Livelihoods Business Forum

Co-curated by the Netherlands and the Gulf Cooperation Council, this event dicusses the importance of synergy between water, energy, and food in solving global challenges, with emphasis on the Gulf Region.

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Netherlands Pavilion

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The climate and design allow visitors to experience the connection between energy, food and water.

A biodegradable curtain separates the the Netherlands Pavilion's business lounge from its main exhibition.

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The Netherlands Pavilion’s eco-friendly exterior of reclaimed iron might remind you of the past, but this place belongs to the sustainable future. In the middle of the arid Dubai desert, the pavilion uses innovative engineering to create a “closed-loop” biotope, producing its own energy, water and even food. A towering 17-metre-tall central cone provides an impressive focal point, upon which edible greens such as cress and sprouts are grown. Within the pavilion is a unique multi-sensory show that highlights the closed-loop farm’s wonders, from the water harvested from thin air to the mushrooms grown on the walls.

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Innovative and sustainable, the Netherlands Pavilion not only sourced its construction materials locally in the UAE, but functions as a “closed-loop” biotope that produces its own energy, water, and even food. 

Shaped like an enormous theatre stage, the sides and back of the pavilion are built from orange-red reclaimed metal beams that form a wavy accordion-like pattern inside and out. The roof is constructed from huge metal tubes bound together into panels. 


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A closed loop 

Netherlands Pavilion 

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Founded in 1981, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is an economic and political union that works to unlock the potential of the Arabian Gulf region through cooperation and innovation. The Gulf Cooperation Council Pavilion at Expo 2020 offers a spin on this theme of unity, braiding the GCC’s thousands of stories into a golden centrepiece.

Inside, follow six groups of threads (symbolising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the GCC’s six member states) on a tour of the region’s topography, history and intertwined cultures. In the pavilion’s grand central cube, these threads weave and twist into a magnificent golden knot.


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Symphonically weaving lines and shapes, the GCC Pavilion is an abstract collection of modernist white structures with a giant cube standing at its centre. On the building’s right, several dune-like façades evoke a feeling of desert and sand. To the left, a low rectangular building welcomes visitors through large doors. 

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Gulf Cooperation Council Pavilion

Netherlands: Water-Energy-Food Nexus in the Gulf Region

A business event which aims to give an overview of the investment opportunities in the renewable energy sector and processes to be followed by potential investors in Namibia. The summit will focus on key outcomes and case studies of Namibia's journey towards becoming a Green economy by 2030.

Renewable Energy Summit

Namibia Renewable Energy Summit

A business event which aims to give an overview of the investment opportunities in the renewable energy sector in Namibia.

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Namibia Image Gallery

Fresh thinking is everywhere in Namibia, from its commitment to renewable energy to its ocean plan to mine for marine gems with the world’s first custom-built diamond-searching ship. At the Namibia Pavilion, you can explore these innovations and marvel at the sunny African nation's natural beauty – including looks at the windswept peaks of the world’s tallest sand dunes and the watering holes where the globe’s largest numbers of cheetahs and white rhinos still gather. Everywhere you turn, the warmth of Namibia shines forth.


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Namibia Pavilion

Namibia: Renewable Energy Summit

We grow enough food to feed 10 billion people – 30 percent more than we need. Our challenge is not how to produce more food, but to waste less, and with less impact on the planet.

Agriculture today is the largest consumer of the world’s freshwater resources. It accounts for over 25 percent of global energy use, and uses half of the world’s habitable land. Meanwhile, one person in nine is undernourished while as much as one-third of the total food on the planet is lost or wasted.

Food loss and waste are responsible for an estimated 8 percent of global CO2 emissions, and the economic costs of food loss are estimated at $400 billion per year, even before the additional costs of food waste.

From producer to distributor to consumer, food loss occurs at every step of getting the food from farm to table. The reasons range from bad weather to processing problems, overproduction, inadequate storage infrastructure, and retailer and consumer behaviour. Reducing food waste is a social, environmental, and economic challenge, and is key to the better health of humans and the planet.

Reducing Food Loss and Waste for a Healthier Planet

The Value of Food: Reducing Food Loss and Waste to Save the Planet

Thought leaders, visionaries and changemakers exchange ideas on how to make food supply chains more efficient, reduce waste and, in turn, tackle both obesity and starvation. Co-curated with New Zealand Pavilion

Value of Food Session Agenda

Value of Food Documents 

Inside Expo: Sustainability I: The World’s Oldest Innovator

Inside Expo: Sustainability II: Harnessing the Sun

The Powerhouse Pavilions

Terra - The Sustainability Pavilion - Audio Guide

Terra

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Terra - Carousel

At Expo 2020, sustainability is an urgent, attainable reality, and Terra – The Sustainability Pavilion is the proof. Both immersive exhibition space and exemplar of environmental self-sufficiency, Terra is a pioneering piece of architecture that pushes the limits of renewable design.

The pavilion’s 130-metre-wide solar canopy – so vast that you could park 10 city buses head-to-tail atop it – converts sunshine into electricity for the exhibits below. Artfully funnelled natural light and local plant species, together with technologies that can reduce water consumption by 75 per cent, show the way to a sustainable future.


Inspiring experiential journey through our shared sustainable future

Two immersive paths to choose from: beneath a forest and beneath an ocean

LEED Platinum environmental features, including solar power and water recycling

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Videos

Terra is a super-sized marvel of forward-thinking design. The pavilion’s technology generates enough energy in a year to power a Nissan Leaf to drive halfway to Mars, while another system captures moisture from the air you breathe and turns it into drinkable water. Enter and take a fantastical journey through the wonders of nature, humanity’s challenges and the promise of our shared future. 


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The Sustainability Pavilion

Terra is home to five thought-provoking art installations from artists around the world, with each piece demonstrating a response to the issue of sustainability.

Terra Art Installations

Young visitors can explore a fantastical world inspired by Terra's very own octopus, Octavia.

Octavia's Playground

Timelapse of Terra 

From farm to plate, the food value chain is an integral part of society, providing income and livelihoods for billions. The ways in which we currently cultivate food by means of deforestation and food waste however, are all contributing adversely to climate change. Expo will serve as a platform to bring together all stakeholders in various value chains to spotlight localized solutions to food, nutrition and farming challenges. The programme will explore food sustainably, climate-friendly agriculture and other practices that work in harmony with the environment. 


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How do we sustainably grow food to meet future demand?

Food, Agriculture & Livelihoods Week

New Zealand Pavilion

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The Whanganui River is so important to New Zealand’s Maori people that in 2017, it was granted a special legal identity, giving it the rights of a citizen. Now, the New Zealand Pavilion offers a sweeping cultural tour narrated by the Whanganui River itself.

With a design inspired by the Maori tradition of hand-crafting containers to safeguard items of value, the pavilion leads you on a journey of conservation where the greatest treasure to be protected is our natural world. Immerse yourself in the river’s story, deepen the experience with the pavilion’s web-based app, and journey through a 10-metre-high “vertical river” of water droplets.


New Zealand

The New Zealand Pavilion features a tall box clad in titanic wavy panels of chainmail-like architectural mesh called Kaynemaile. Its flexible façade pulses to evoke a living building and sits on a base crafted from New Zealand Abodo eco-timber. The ground floor’s wooden exterior lends a warm feel to the modernist design, welcoming visitors through a small gap beneath the mammoth Kaynemaile panels.

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Maori

World Majlis | The Value of Food

Explore a series of exciting conversations inspired by the theme of Expo 2020 Dubai. The World Majlis is a vibrant forum where diverse points of views are shared on important topics of our time. Each conversation brings together globally recognised thought-leaders who are invited for their exceptional contributions to the theme and their unique perspective on the topic. In each Majlis, students and members of the public are also welcome to contribute and engage.

World Majlis

Conversations on complex issues that bring together thought leaders, visionaries and changemakers.

World Expos have always been meeting places for people across cultures and geographies; an opportunity to come together and celebrate human ingenuity and forge meaningful human connections. As the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, and with the participation of more than 192 countries, Expo 2020 Dubai looks to take this legacy even further. The Build Bridges track of Expo 2020 Dubai’s Programme for People and Planet features a tapestry of event series and experiences that celebrate our common humanity and the vital connections that can help us prosper together as a worldwide community.

Knowing One Another Better

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Build Bridges 

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Establishing a more sustainable future is a key theme of Expo 2020. This illuminating conference addresses Sustainable Energy with an emphasis on technological neutrality, such as 'The role of design & architecture in promoting sustainable energy'.

Science, Sustainable Energy and Smart Mobility

Czech Science, Sustainable Energy & Smart Mobility

A conference addressing Sustainable Energy with an emphasis on technological neutrality.

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Czech Republic Carousel

Drawing on cutting-edge eco-technology, the Czech Republic Pavilion at Expo 2020 conjures a blooming garden in the Dubai desert literally from thin air. Powered by solar energy and Czech ingenuity, the pavilion’s sustainable vapour harvesting system pulls water from the air to create a beautiful oasis.

You’ll see the artful evidence of this system throughout the pavilion in the form of sweeping, swirling pipes, which not only channel the water but combine into fanciful “clouds” that offer shade. As you follow their flow, you’ll be treated to displays of Czech glassmaking, exhibits exploring desert cultivation and authentic regional cuisine.


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A model of form meeting function, the pavilion uses a swirl of hundreds of pipes to create the impression of a cloud rising from a lush desert oasis. These “bioplastic” pipes, which climb in great curls from a garden of palms and shrubbery, are part of an innovative system that uses solar energy to capture water from desert air. 


Solving Global Challenges Together

Participants