Masdar City is set to reveal the carbon footprint of hundreds of materials that will be used to build the US$22 billion (Dh80.8bn) carbon-neutral development at the edge of the capital.
The data, from Masdar's efforts to procure low-carbon cement, aluminium, steel and other materials for its groundbreaking city, covers 400 products plucked from the many advertised as environmentally friendly, said Richard Reynolds, the department supply chain manager at Masdar City. It will be disclosed by the end of this year.
"I'm trying to filter out the greenwash," he said, referring to industry hyperbole. "We have an obligation to go back into industry and look at ways of reducing the carbon footprint of manufacturing."
Masdar City has significant market clout: if built to the scale envisioned in the master plan, it will buy as much as $4bn worth of basic materials, Mr Reynolds said.
Basic materials such cement, aluminium and steel are produced across the GCC using large amounts of energy, nearly all of which comes from fossil fuels. These heavy industries loudly advertise energy efficiency drives and extra investments in filters to reduce pollutants, but the products' full impact on the environment can be determined only after a wide-ranging audit that takes account of the types of raw materials, the energy intensity of transportation needs and each step of the company's factory process.
Before Masdar - which expects to welcome the first residents to the city by the end of summer - created a market for that information, manufacturers in the UAE and across the region had no reason to perform such audits of their operations, Mr Reynolds said.
"What we want to do is to take that product we found and put it in a directory," he said. "At the same time, that's a marketing opportunity (for industry)."
Masdar has also partnered with a number of companies to help them reduce the carbon footprint of their manufacturing.
The company has worked for three years with Gulf Extrusions, a downstream aluminium maker in Jebel Ali that produces building claddings and windows, to develop a new type of aluminium that created less carbon emissions but held up as well as standard metal.
The result was a metal made up of 80 per cent recycled aluminium and 20 per cent new aluminium produced from a smelter powered by geothermal electricity, said Modar al Mekdad, the general manager of Gulf Extrusions. Mr al Mekdad did not specify the origin of the 20 per cent new aluminium, but Iceland hosts the world's only smelter that uses electricity from geothermal sources.
The total emissions from producing and transporting each kilogram of the "green" aluminium is 5.7kg of carbon dioxide, Mr al Mekdad said, which represents a 48 per cent reduction from the average carbon footprint of aluminium produced at a smelter using natural gas, such as the plants in Jebel Ali and Taweelah.
Gulf Extrusions was forced to import the crushed aluminium cans and other recycled scrap from Germany, Mr al Mekdad said, since the UAE does not have extensive recycling programmes of its own.
The increased emissions from moving the scrap from Europe to the UAE were outweighed by the energy benefit of making aluminium from recycled materials rather than raw alumina, and the price of the product would be competitive if production rates were increased, he added.
The company invested Dh6 million in developing the new metal, Mr al Mekdad said, and has now received customer inquiries from the UK, Japan and the Netherlands.
Masdar is also working with cement companies to recycle waste slag that is a byproduct of the manufacturing business. As well, it is looking to introduce costly technology to the Emirates Steel Industries plant in Musaffah that would make the company's product more environmentally friendly by capturing the plant's carbon emissions and burying them.
@Email:cstanton@thenational.ae
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Gentlemen
Director: Guy Ritchie
Stars: Colin Farrell, Hugh Grant
Three out of five stars
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Specs
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Range: 400km
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WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
RESULTS
6.30pm: Handicap (rated 100 ) US$175,000 1,200m
Winner: Baccarat, William Buick (jockey), Charlie Appleby (trainer)
7.05pm: Handicap (78-94) $60,000 1,800m
Winner: Baroot, Christophe Soumillon, Mike de Kock
7.40pm: Firebreak Stakes Group 3 $200,000 1,600m
Winner: Heavy Metal, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
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Winner: Yalta, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer
8.50pm: Balanchine Group 2 $200,000 1,800m
Winner: Promising Run, Pat Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor
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Winner: Blair House, James Doyle, Charlie Appleby
10pm: Handicap (95-105) $125,000 1,400m
Winner: Oh This Is Us, Tom Marquand, Richard Hannon
How they line up for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix
1 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
2 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari
3 Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari
4 Max Verstappen, Red Bull
5 Kevin Magnussen, Haas
6 Romain Grosjean, Haas
7 Nico Hulkenberg, Renault
*8 Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull
9 Carlos Sainz, Renault
10 Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
11 Fernando Alonso, McLaren
12 Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren
13 Sergio Perez, Force India
14 Lance Stroll, Williams
15 Esteban Ocon, Force India
16 Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso
17 Marcus Ericsson, Sauber
18 Charles Leclerc, Sauber
19 Sergey Sirotkin, Williams
20 Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso
* Daniel Ricciardo qualified fifth but had a three-place grid penalty for speeding in red flag conditions during practice
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer
Christopher Celenza,
Reaktion Books
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
