UAE Climate Change Law what print and packaging manufacturers need to do now

For print and packaging manufacturers with operations in the UAE, climate reporting is no longer a future issue to watch. It is now a live compliance issue that needs practical preparation! The UAE Climate Change Law (or the UAE’s Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2024 on the Reduction of Climate Change Effect to give its formal name) entered into force on 30 May 2025. 

Current guidance indicates that affected businesses must be ready to comply by 30 May 2026, marking the end of the one-year transition period*

For many manufacturers, the headline requirement can sound simple enough: measure emissions, keep records, report them, and put reduction plans in place. But for print and packaging businesses, the operational reality is more complex. Emissions are spread across multiple activities, including energy use, fuel, refrigerants, purchased materials, inks, coatings, substrates, freight, waste and outsourced production. That means compliance cannot be treated as a generic finance exercise or a late-stage sustainability report built on rough assumptions. It needs operational data that reflects how products are actually made and delivered.

That is the real challenge. If your UAE operation is still relying on disconnected spreadsheets, partial supplier information or broad spend-based estimates, there is a good chance your reporting process will be slower, weaker and harder to defend than it needs to be. The law is designed to require structured greenhouse gas measurement and periodic reporting, and CarbonQuota’s own guidance highlights that all organisations, including those in free zones, need to maintain inventories and implement emissions-reduction strategies aligned with national net-zero goals.

So what should businesses be reviewing now?

First, confirm what is actually in scope. That means identifying the UAE legal entities, operational sites, warehousing, logistics activity and any relevant outsourced processes linked to your regional operations.

Second, review whether you can access reliable source data for the main emissions drivers in your business. For most print and packaging manufacturers, that includes electricity, fuel, materials, transport, waste and process-level production activity.

Third, check whether there is a repeatable reporting process in place: who collects the data, who validates it, where records are stored, and how reporting outputs are generated. These are the practical questions that determine whether compliance becomes manageable or painful.

The consequences of getting this wrong are not trivial. Entities failing to measure, maintain records or report as required may face fines ranging from AED 50,000 to AED 2 million, depending on the severity of the breach (according to PwC*). The official law text also provides for fines in that range and says penalties may be doubled for repeat violations within two years.

But the bigger issue for many print and packaging businesses is not just the risk of penalties. It is the risk of weak data undermining customer confidence, internal decision-making and the ability to identify credible reduction opportunities. The most resilient response is to treat the UAE Climate Change Law as a trigger to strengthen carbon data quality, reporting discipline and operational visibility across the business.

This is where CarbonQuota can help. We support print and packaging businesses with Scope 1, 2 and relevant Scope 3 emissions measurement, using activity-based data tailored to the realities of the sector. We help organisations move from fragmented data collection to more structured reporting outputs, clearer audit trails and practical reduction planning. For businesses with UAE operations, that means a more credible route to meeting climate reporting obligations without relying on generic methodologies that miss the operational detail.

If your business has operations in the UAE and you want to understand whether your current data and processes are fit for climate reporting requirements, get in touch with CarbonQuota to explore the gaps, priorities and next steps.