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Our reporter Michael Buchanan will have a piece for you tonight. He sends these words and pictures:

"They don't do anything by half in Dubai. This is the world's tallest hotel, the Burj Al Arab, which bills itself as seven star accommodation. You may remember seeing pictures of Roger Federer and Andre Agassi playing tennis on its helipad a few years ago. This is as close as I got to it - ´óÏó´«Ã½ budgets don't accommodate staying at such places."

Such construction projects, and the stress they put on landfill sites, coupled with a lifestyle that's high on energy use - unbelievably they have an indoor ski slope IN THE DESERT - has given the UAE a terrible environmental reputation. People here were found to have the largest carbon footprint in the world a while back, but a project to be built here in the Abu Dhabi desert could put the UAE at the forefront of renewable energy.

Its called the Masdar initiative and by 2016 the plan is to have 90,000 living and working in the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste city. There's an of how it will look.

Fifteen billion dollars has been set aside for the development, so they're clearly serious about it, with Lord Foster leading the construction."

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