President Joe Biden’s team put on a brave face at UN climate talks this week as the world braces for Donald Trump to rip up US pledges on tackling global warming.
With less than two months left in office, team Biden is using the Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan to trumpet its green record and try to reassure the world that America and its economy are bigger than one man. Although neither Mr Biden nor Vice President Kamala Harris is attending, their lame-duck administration has a full negotiating team and programme for the two-week talks in Baku.
“Over the next two months, and two weeks, you will see the Biden-Harris administration lean in with all our might to capture the opportunity on behalf of the country and the world,” White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi said on Tuesday at the opening of a US pavilion in Baku.
An upbeat view in the Biden camp is that the drive to go green has such momentum behind it that even Mr Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, cannot stop it. Top US negotiator John Podesta’s refrain is that “the economics of the clean energy transition have taken over”.
The belief is that when factories for electric car batteries open with subsidies from Mr Biden’s $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act, even Republican governors “don’t want those factories unplugged from their economies and they don’t want those workers laid off”, Mr Zaidi said.
Before inauguration day, Mr Biden’s team “needs to try to get as much of the money as they have available to them under the Inflation Reduction Act and other authorities out”, veteran Cop delegate Alden Meyer told The National. He said Mr Trump “has made clear he will try to claw back any unspent monies”.
The Biden administration pushed ahead with plans for a new methane levy on Tuesday in another last-ditch move to shore up its climate legacy. In Baku, the US is working with China on cutting methane emissions, a source of greenhouse gases more potent than CO2.
Paris withdrawal
Mr Trump is expected to withdraw for a second time from the Paris climate agreement, which commits the world to striving for 1.5°C or less of global warming. Although it would not take effect for a year, “he will stop doing anything to comply with, observe or try to meet US commitments on day one”, Mr Meyer said.
There is uncertainty over whether Mr Trump could quit the UN climate system altogether without going via the US Senate. If he does pull out of what is known as the UNFCCC, a future president could not press undo as easily as Mr Biden did when he rejoined the Paris Agreement.
Mia Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados and a key campaigner for climate finance, said the Cop system was in need of a shake-up in any case. She said it might be possible to talk to Mr Trump about a climate change-fighting package echoing his Operation Warp Speed push for a Covid-19 vaccine. Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said he remained hopeful "notwithstanding some of the woe that you will pick up because politics moves and changes".
"I am not one of those who will come out and say immediately that, with the election of President Trump, all is doom and gloom," Ms Mottley said in Baku on Tuesday. "I don’t believe so and I believe that we need to find mechanisms, even if he does pull out of the Paris Agreement, to have the conversations."
Some aspects of Mr Biden’s policy may be harder to undo. While scrapping green spending plans is one thing, removing tax breaks is a less obvious move for a Republican candidate. Even pro-oil and gas lobbyists such as the American Petroleum Institute and US Chamber of Commerce have hinted they want the incentives to stay.
Biden boasts
The White House boasts that investors have put $450 billion into clean energy during Mr Biden’s term, after he set a target of at least halving emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. The Rhodium Group, whose research is read by Mr Biden’s team, says the US is on track for a 32 per cent to 43 per cent reduction.
The US pavilion plans to show off America’s climate-conscious side, beginning with Nasa astronauts who beamed down a message from space to world leaders. “When we look down on the Earth from 260 miles [418km] above, it’s clear how interconnected we all are,” enthused spacefarer Nick Hague.
Cop29 in Azerbaijan - in pictures
The US, though, has hardly been known for its generous internationalism at Cop summits with or without Mr Trump at the helm, ever since president George H.W. Bush declared “the American way of life is non-negotiable” in talks on the founding global climate treaty.
Mr Podesta is pushing for more countries to pay into climate funds under a new finance deal being negotiated at Cop29. Any promises of increased US funding could be scrapped by Mr Trump, who has said he will renege on a $3 billion pledge to the Green Climate Fund.
With the leaders of France, Germany and Canada also skipping Cop29, there is concern in Baku that others will fail to fill the US void, or even be emboldened to scale back their own green plans. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday said G20 countries “must lead” on climate action and “no group, no business and no government” can halt what he called the clean energy revolution.
Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
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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
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
Oppenheimer
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Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
Key developments in maritime dispute
2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.
2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus
2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.
2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.
The biog
Alwyn Stephen says much of his success is a result of taking an educated chance on business decisions.
His advice to anyone starting out in business is to have no fear as life is about taking on challenges.
“If you have the ambition and dream of something, follow that dream, be positive, determined and set goals.
"Nothing and no-one can stop you from succeeding with the right work application, and a little bit of luck along the way.”
Mr Stephen sells his luxury fragrances at selected perfumeries around the UAE, including the House of Niche Boutique in Al Seef.
He relaxes by spending time with his family at home, and enjoying his wife’s India cooking.
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'How To Build A Boat'
Jonathan Gornall, Simon & Schuster
How to get there
Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
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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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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
SHAITTAN
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EA Sports FC 24
The specs: 2018 Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross
Price, base / as tested: Dh101,140 / Dh113,800
Engine: Turbocharged 1.5-litre four-cylinder
Power: 148hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 250Nm @ 2,000rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed CVT
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Islamophobia definition
A widely accepted definition was made by the All Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2019: “Islamophobia is rooted in racism and is a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness.” It further defines it as “inciting hatred or violence against Muslims”.
The biog
Favourite hobby: I love to sing but I don’t get to sing as much nowadays sadly.
Favourite book: Anything by Sidney Sheldon.
Favourite movie: The Exorcist 2. It is a big thing in our family to sit around together and watch horror movies, I love watching them.
Favourite holiday destination: The favourite place I have been to is Florence, it is a beautiful city. My dream though has always been to visit Cyprus, I really want to go there.
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
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