Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week will hold a special edition at the Cop28 UN climate change conference, which will be hosted by the UAE from November 30 to December 12.
The one-day Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week Summit will take place on December 4 at the Connect Conference Centre in Expo City, Dubai, under the theme, United on Climate Action at Cop28.
The gathering, hosted on Cop28’s thematic finance day, will address issues such as investing for inclusion and climate finance, and identify ways to speed up sustainable development, event organiser Masdar said on Monday.
The event will play a “critical role in maintaining worldwide climate momentum” at Cop28, Masdar said.
“As the UAE looks ahead to hosting Cop28, it is vital that we use every opportunity at our disposal to fast-track a just and orderly energy transition and to keep 1.5ºC within reach,” said Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Cop28 President-designate and chairman of Masdar.
“Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week was set up by Masdar in 2008 and has grown into a leading global initiative that extends well beyond one week.
“The special edition at Cop28 provides an important platform for a wider community of key stakeholders to have their voices heard and to accelerate a just and inclusive transition to a net-zero future.”
Cop28 is the first summit to evaluate the progress made since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, which calls for action to limit temperature rises to 1.5°C on pre-industrial levels.
Pledges to keep the goal alive would be assessed every five years. This is known as a “global stocktake” and will take place for the first time at Cop28 in the UAE, with Denmark and South Africa invited to assist.
Throughout Cop28, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week will host events in the blue and green zones.
In the green zone, the ADSW Partnership Hub will run a series of structured collaborative activities. Its virtual content platform, ADSW Live, will stream live interviews from the green zone.
Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week will also feature the WiSER initiative, which aims to boost the role of women and girls, while Youth 4 Sustainability, a Masdar initiative, will host the Y4S Forum on December 8.
“We … look forward to welcoming key stakeholders in sustainability and clean energy as we look to drive positive change to tackle the world's most urgent and pressing challenges together,” said Mohamed Al Ramahi, chief executive of Masdar.
Masdar, which plays a key role in the UAE's clean energy agenda, is active in more than 40 countries and has invested in a portfolio of renewable energy projects with a combined capacity of around 20 gigawatts.
It aims to increase this to at least 100 gigawatts by 2030. The company is also targeting green hydrogen production of 1 million tonnes per annum by the same year.
Masdar has renewable energy projects under development in Europe, Africa, Central Asia and the Americas.
These include the Cirata floating solar plant in Indonesia, the largest in South-east Asia, and the Garadagh Solar PV Plant, Azerbaijan’s first foreign investment-based independent utility scale solar project.
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.”
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