It could have been a rock concert; in fact, it was the launch ceremony for Masdar, Abu Dhabi's groundbreaking $22 billion (£11billion) attempt to create the world's greenest city.

Had you missed the point, you might be forgiven. The stage was floodlit, the power supplied by whirring generators. The flowers were flown in and wrapped in shiny cellophane. There was valet parking for the SUVs.

Instead of a guitar solo, Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of Masdar, hailed the city-state's grand ambition: “No one has ever built a zero-carbon city before. Nor one producing zero waste or fully powered by renewable energy. Masdar City will accomplish all three.”

But the lavish party also highlighted how the notion of an environmental city in the UAE - with its indoor ski hill, artificial islands and miles of air-conditioned shopping centres, a place that boasts one of the highest carbon footprints in the world - is a striking contradiction.

The plans for Masdar are ambitious. When construction is completed in 2013, it will use 75 per cent less power than a conventional city and less than half the desalinated water. Designed by Foster and Partners, Masdar will be a model of an eco-friendly, futuristic, car-free suburb. It will house up to 50,000 people and is meant to become a hub for environmental research.

Dr Al Jaber said that the Abu Dhabi Energy Company was committing the resources out of a sense of social responsibility. “We are often asked why we are setting our goal so high. Our answer is because someone must... Someone must push the envelope to create the solution that we, as a global community, so urgently require.”

There is also a financial payoff. Masdar fits neatly into Abu Dhabi's efforts to diversify from dwindling oil wealth. Its developers say that it will create 70,000 new jobs and boost the UAE's GDP by 2 per cent.

Some environmentalists would say that the very essence of the emirates' mega-project mentality defies its ability to be green. Dr Al Jaber is undeterred by such criticism: “Masdar on its own is a paradigm shift. We will have to take some people through a learning curve for them to understand the concept.”

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