I Don't Think Most UAE Boards Know What Just Happened Here's the honest truth. I've been watching UAE corporate governance for years, and 2025 was unlike anything I've seen. Five major federal laws. One regulator replaced. ESG turned from voluntary to mandatory. Director liability widened. The Chairman-CEO rule, the one everyone thought was sacred, got rewritten. All of this in roughly 18 months. And yet, when I talk to people on UAE boards, half of them don't know about half

ESG Just Stopped Being a Marketing Story For about a decade, ESG in the UAE meant the same thing in most boardrooms. A glossy annual report. A few photos of solar panels. A community engagement page. Maybe a paragraph from the Chairman about sustainability values. The Marketing department wrote it. The board signed it. Everyone moved on. That era ended on 30 May 2025. That's when Federal Decree-Law No. 11 of 2024, the UAE Climate Law, came into force. Full compliance is due 3