One of the most consistent topics of the year, artificial intelligence, has continued to be on the tip of every tongue, even at one of the most anticipated climate conferences of the year, Cop28 in Dubai.
“We're really focused on climate and AI,” said Kate Brandt, Google's chief sustainability officer, who also previously served as the first-ever chief sustainability officer for the White House in 2014.
“The big conversation in Dubai is the global stocktake,” she added, referring to global efforts to measure ongoing climate efforts to lower carbon emissions.
“We're not on track and we need to get to that 43 per cent reduction by 2030 … AI can be a major accelerator.”
Ms Brandt cited Google's research initiative on Project Greenlight, announced in October, which teamed up with several cities to use AI to help them improve traffic flow, and in turn, lower emissions.
“Not only is it annoying to sit at a red light, but it's really bad for the environment and really bad for air quality,” she said.
“This is all about AI better understanding the information we already have,” she said, noting that Project Greenlight does not require new sensors or equipment.
With the AI-generated data results, city engineers can potentially better analyse and adjust traffic light sequencing and patterns.
Google is looking for opportunities to assist cities in the Middle East and North Africa with initiatives like Project Greenlight as well as other projects that can use AI to increase sustainability efforts, Ms Brandt said.
AI can mitigate carbon emissions, support adaptation, and enhance climate modelling, to name some possibilities, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group and Google.
“AI's strengths in curating information, enhancing prediction and guiding optimisation can speed progress in these three areas,” the report said.
“While AI is only just starting to be applied to climate challenges, leading-edge organisations and use cases are already achieving real results – and demonstrating the potential of AI for climate change if adopted at scale.”
At the beginning of Cop28, Microsoft announced a partnership with the UN to spearhead the development of a new AI-powered platform and global climate data hub that will eventually measure and analyse global climate progress.
Microsoft also has a prominent presence at the technology hub of Cop28 with various speakers and AI-related themes presented.
Also, in the Cop28 technology hub is IBM, pushing its AI vision combined with climate solutions.
The New York-based tech firm announced a partnership with Nasa that would use AI technology to create a new artificial weather model to understand more about climate change and predict future weather events with greater accuracy.
Just a few days ahead of Cop28, Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in Abu Dhabi, the world’s first university to have a singular focus on AI, introduced what it described as a pioneering bilingual large language model dedicated to climate intelligence, allowing users to get answers on various climate and sustainability-related topics.
The AI optimism related to climate change and sustainability is not without critics, however.
Some point to the large amounts of energy consumed by AI data centres, and for that matter, the carbon footprint of the overall web which is steadily increasing.
Over at Google, Ms Brandt says those concerns are all being aggressively addressed.
“We've been driving on that for years,” she said, referring to Google's efforts to make the company's data centres run as efficiently as possible.
“The piece of the puzzle is the energy required for the data centres … we want what we call 24 by 7 carbon-free energy, that's carbon-free energy every hour of every day on every grid where we operate, and we're 64 per cent of the way there,” she said, noting the company's goals achieving net-zero emissions across all its operations by 2030.
Meanwhile, the debate over AI's potential positive or negative effect on the environment continues among analysts, environmentalists and futurists.
In October, at the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils annual meeting in Dubai, Stuart Russell, professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, warned against something he described as 'AI actionism'.
“It might help around the edges,” he said at the time, referring to the ability to use AI to find specific climate solutions. “But the climate is really a collective action problem. We know what to do but we’re not doing it.”
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Company profile
Company: Eighty6
Date started: October 2021
Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Hospitality
Size: 25 employees
Funding stage: Pre-series A
Investment: $1 million
Investors: Seed funding, angel investors
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Company Profile
Name: JustClean
Based: Kuwait with offices in other GCC countries
Launch year: 2016
Number of employees: 130
Sector: online laundry service
Funding: $12.9m from Kuwait-based Faith Capital Holding
Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
The Bloomberg Billionaire Index in full
1 Jeff Bezos $140 billion
2 Bill Gates $98.3 billion
3 Bernard Arnault $83.1 billion
4 Warren Buffett $83 billion
5 Amancio Ortega $67.9 billion
6 Mark Zuckerberg $67.3 billion
7 Larry Page $56.8 billion
8 Larry Ellison $56.1 billion
9 Sergey Brin $55.2 billion
10 Carlos Slim $55.2 billion
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
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$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
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COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
The specs: Fenyr SuperSport
Price, base: Dh5.1 million
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo flat-six
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 800hp @ 7,100pm
Torque: 980Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 13.5L / 100km
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
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