Investment needs to focus on the lowest-cost, lowest-carbon oil and gas resources, said the United Arab Emirates Industry Minister, Sultan al-Jaber, at the Munich Security Conference.
"For our collective security, the world will need to continue using all energy options for a long time," he was quoted as saying according to the state news agency (WAM).
"We should acknowledge that the energy transition is exactly that: a transition, and transitions take time," said al-Jaber, who is also the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) chief executive officer and UAE special envoy for climate.
The Gulf state last year announced a plan for net-zero emissions by 2050 and would oversee 600 billion dirhams ($163.36 billion) investment in renewable energy.
The country, a major oil producer, has in the past 15 years invested $40 billion in clean energy, the government said.
Abu Dhabi's Barakah nuclear power plant has been connected to the national grid and the UAE aims to produce 14 GW of clean energy by 2030, up from about 100 MW in 2015, it said.