The $27 trillion energy transition needs a bottom-up approach to match top-down efforts by governments and business in order to improve the lives of eight billion people globally, a leading expert has said.
Society's role is critical and is often underappreciated, Dr Angela Wilkinson, the secretary general of the World Energy Council, told the Business Extra podcast.
“People don't want to be told by their leaders, what the future will be. They want their leaders to enable them to realise their own hopes and dreams and to play their part in it,” she said.
“There's three sides in energy transition, and we would call that the energy trilemma. You have to think about security, affordability and decarbonisation at every level of society, if we are going to manage a transition that is for everyone.”
A transformation of energy systems is needed to help meet Paris climate deal goals to limit global warming to well below 2°C — and ideally to 1.5 °C — by the end of the century, compared with pre-industrial levels.
“That's why the emphasis for us would be that there's multiple energy transitions, and diversity in energy is increasing,” said Dr Wilkinson, who is one of the world’s leading experts on the global energy future, an experienced industry executive and a distinguished Oxford scholar and a published author.
“If we keep talking about technology, innovation and how do we get too big through technology and capital alone, we'll miss out on the opportunity to improve seven to eight billion lives worldwide,” she said.
“That is the biggest energy transition opportunity. It is not a transition for the energy industry. It is not a transition for capital markets. It is a transition for modern energy societies.”
The World Energy Council was formed about 100 years ago “to overcome national interests in energy”, she said.
“We are a community of communities of deeply local and globally networked energy interests. It is not about climate versus energy. It is about climate and energy security.”
Dr Wilkinson accepted that currently there is a more polarised and fragmented leadership landscape with diverse energy interests, and a lot more competition and conflict, including as a result of the Ukraine war.
“If we see what is happening in Europe, in the US, [and] certain parts of the world, the main focus of the conversation around energy is access to affordable energy,” Dr Wilkinson.
“And the fact that prices have been rising significantly, partly as a result of the fallout from [the Covid-19 pandemic]. But also this year the war in Ukraine has added to the stress.”
Inflation is at a four-decade high in the US and the UK, and is at a record high in Europe.
There have been other factors to do with the industry that have held back “access to useful and usable energy for everyone”.
“The way we actually measure and account for access — whether it is in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals or in our own world energy trilemma framework — is, to me, unacceptable in terms of really providing better and decent lives for everybody,” Dr Wilkinson said.
“If one household in a community has an electricity connection for lighting, that counts as access to the whole community, whereas that is not enough energy for people to cook, it is not enough energy for people to refrigerate, for them to have cold chains for vaccines.”
Carbon is not the only metric to follow, she said.
“You have got to think about security, affordability and decarbonisation, and increasingly with attention to resilience and justice.”
It is not only the responsibility of governments or the private sector to make the transition work, said Dr Wilkinson. Communities must play a leadership role.
“If you have a government framed conversation, they will be talking about what how do we allocate energy … where do we get the biggest bang for our buck as a national economy through investments? … markets try to have that conversation about prices … but communities have different conversations about energy,” she said.
“That is really also a missing voice across the world, in these in the negotiations on climate change … food security … energy security … we also need human development and security. So, we need communities at the table.”
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years-of-age
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his/her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30-years-old and able to support the child financially
The biog
Favourite film: The Notebook
Favourite book: What I know for sure by Oprah Winfrey
Favourite quote: “Social equality is the only basis of human happiness” Nelson Madela. Hometown: Emmen, The Netherlands
Favourite activities: Walking on the beach, eating at restaurants and spending time with friends
Job: Founder and Managing Director of Mawaheb from Beautiful Peopl
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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The Bio
Favourite vegetable: “I really like the taste of the beetroot, the potatoes and the eggplant we are producing.”
Holiday destination: “I like Paris very much, it’s a city very close to my heart.”
Book: “Das Kapital, by Karl Marx. I am not a communist, but there are a lot of lessons for the capitalist system, if you let it get out of control, and humanity.”
Musician: “I like very much Fairuz, the Lebanese singer, and the other is Umm Kulthum. Fairuz is for listening to in the morning, Umm Kulthum for the night.”
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
