The green energy transition presents a risk, and a significant opportunity, for the UAE to retain its position as the “world’s energy provider”, an industry expert has said.
Alex Haynes, who leads business development for the energy transition projects group at Petrofac, said the Emirates is well placed to benefit from the move to renewables.
Speaking to The National before the start of Cop28 at the end of the month, Mr Haynes said the UAE has the experience, having delivered projects in the energy sector for the past five decades.
“The UAE is already delivering energy around the world. So they have the terminals and they have the ships, they have the contracts, the relationships. So actually just changing slightly what the product mix is fairly easy,” he said.
“And they have also got the bank balance to do it.”
Mr Haynes said the UAE, which will host Cop28, also known as the UN Climate Change Conference, from November 30 to December 12, has already made some “good strides” in that direction.
London-listed Petrofac was last year awarded a $700 million engineering, procurement and construction project to build a new carbon capture facility at the Habshan Complex, west of Abu Dhabi.
Carbon capture is one of five key areas of focus for Petrofac in the energy transition, the others being hydrogen, where the UAE also holds promise; offshore wind; sustainable aviation fuel; and emissions reduction.
Mr Haynes said both hydrogen and waste fuel are growing in the UAE.
"Clearly hydrogen and its derivatives will be quite interesting,” he said.
If the UAE, and wider GCC region, wants to “retain that position as the world’s energy provider then it’s going to have to need to change to what their customers want, which is a low carbon energy source”.
“It is perfectly capable of delivering that,” Mr Haynes said last week at a London Business School (LBS) in London talk entitled The Road to Cop28, which focused on how businesses are having an effect in the energy transition.
LBS is to host another discussion this Thursday, this time in Dubai at its campus in Dubai International Finance Centre, which will further discuss key themes and challenges facing the business world, what to expect during Cop28, and what to pay attention to during the two-week programme.
The event will feature the head of sustainability at Microsoft Middle East and a member of the Cop28 organising committee, both of whom are LBS alumni.
Julian Birkinshaw, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at LBS, who will moderate the discussion, said previous Cops had “good intentions”, but struggled to deliver on promises made.
He told The National: “Paris was the one that everyone remembers, because that’s when we made this global commitment to try to get to maximum 1.5°C global warming. Everything since then has been about trying to keep that in place. And every year the data says we are not quite where we need to be.
“The problem is literally trillions of dollars are being invested in this stuff and it’s nowhere near enough,” he added.
He said Cop is a “useful annual reminder” of what needs to be done, and yet for all the “good intention”, the world consistently fails to meet its objectives.
“It’s what we call a collective action problem, which is that even if we agree to a bunch of good things to do, every country then has its own laws,” Prof Birkinshaw said.
“And every country has no particular incentive to do what’s necessary for the common good. Because they are under their own particular pressures in their own countries.”
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
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
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
How the bonus system works
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
Polarised public
31% in UK say BBC is biased to left-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is biased to right-wing views
19% in UK say BBC is not biased at all
Source: YouGov
Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
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Company profile
Name: Thndr
Started: October 2020
Founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: pre-seed of $800,000
Funding stage: series A; $20 million
Investors: Tiger Global, Beco Capital, Prosus Ventures, Y Combinator, Global Ventures, Abdul Latif Jameel, Endure Capital, 4DX Ventures, Plus VC, Rabacap and MSA Capital
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The specs: Macan Turbo
Engine: Dual synchronous electric motors
Power: 639hp
Torque: 1,130Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Touring range: 591km
Price: From Dh412,500
On sale: Deliveries start in October
The specs: Lamborghini Aventador SVJ
Price, base: Dh1,731,672
Engine: 6.5-litre V12
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 770hp @ 8,500rpm
Torque: 720Nm @ 6,750rpm
Fuel economy: 19.6L / 100km
