A huge sphere hanging from the roof sits at the heart of the Glasgow venue for Cop26, the latest round of the UN negotiations to keep global warming to just 1.5°C above the pre-Industrial Revolution levels.
It is a giant bulb of Mother Earth hovering over the delegates, designed to inspire as the two weeks of intense negotiations play out in the Scottish city. The sphere invokes the Overview Effect, which describes the inspiration that grips astronauts when they view the planet from space for the first time, as a fragile ball that ought to be protected.
The UN climate change process has now been going on for more than a quarter of a century. It has certain structural priorities that have driven progress in that time. The search for justice between the Global North and the Global South as climate solutions are rolled out is, for example, a predominant concern for many of the thousands of delegates.
In Glasgow, efforts to reach the 1.5°C target is led by the process of countries setting target dates to declare that their economies can reach net-zero carbon status. Beyond that, it is clear the UN process is capturing more and more of the forces around climate change.
Finance has powered ahead to make ambitious declarations. Businesses seek a place at a table that is the preserve of diplomats. Health and resilience demand a place in the deliberations. Education and culture can channel the coming changes.
The approach taken by the UK, host of the summit, has benefited from more and more countries setting a target date. That work is bending the trajectory of the rising temperatures. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has provided a useful chart that shows that the announcements leading up to and in Glasgow have pushed the projected temperature rise down to 1.8°C above the historic level.
The UN process is capturing more and more of the forces around climate change
The IEA report indicates that the gap can be closed further, even if the negotiators cannot claim to have eliminated it when Cop26 wraps up on November 12. It recommends a surge in clean electrification, better efforts to exploit energy efficiency, bearing down on methane emissions and enhanced energy innovation.
The IEA cites progress in electric cars, which use 70 per cent less energy to travel one kilometre than conventional automobiles. It also sets out the need for rapid decarbonisation of the electricity sector. This, it says, requires a significant surge in the deployment of low emissions generation technology.
To get there would mean to significantly increase the use of renewables. One of the big announcements, made by the UAE last week, was that of a new platform to boost investment in renewables in less developed countries.
The share of renewables in the national plans translates into a gain from 30 per cent of global capacity to 45 per cent. The IEA says a further bumping up, to 60 per cent, will be required for the international community to meet the net-zero targets that have been announced.
To circle back to the Overview Effect, it is clear that Cop26 and its predecessors have driven progress. There is much more happening in sight.
One of the headline-catching announcements last week was the establishment of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net-Zero, chaired by Michael Bloomberg, the businessman and former New York City mayor, and Mark Carney, the former Bank of England governor. This alliance brings together financial institutions that command assets of £130 trillion (almost $176tn).
Not all of those resources will go into fighting climate change. It is a fair bet, however, that increased sums from these firms are going to benefit the fight. When Egypt and, in all likelihood, the UAE host the Cop process in 2022 and 2023, there are plenty of foundations to be built on coming out of Glasgow.
Already the UN Climate Change Secretariat has reduced its estimate of the increase in global carbon emissions by 2030 to 13.7 per cent, down from the 16 per cent that grabbed the headlines a few weeks ago.
Adair Turner, the chairman of the UK’s Energy Transitions Commission, has said the commitments announced last week deliver 40 per cent of the cuts needed to meet the target. There are more announcements on the way in steel, aviation and shipping.
In a nutshell, the growth of Cop process is gathering momentum to address climate change from many different places. That can only be a good thing.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ziina users can donate to relief efforts in Beirut
Ziina users will be able to use the app to help relief efforts in Beirut, which has been left reeling after an August blast caused an estimated $15 billion in damage and left thousands homeless. Ziina has partnered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise money for the Lebanese capital, co-founder Faisal Toukan says. “As of October 1, the UNHCR has the first certified badge on Ziina and is automatically part of user's top friends' list during this campaign. Users can now donate any amount to the Beirut relief with two clicks. The money raised will go towards rebuilding houses for the families that were impacted by the explosion.”
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
The specs
Engine: 2x201bhp AC Permanent-magnetic electric
Transmission: n/a
Power: 402bhp
Torque: 659Nm
Price estimate: Dh200,000
On sale: Q3 2022
Company%C2%A0profile
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UAE SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Adel Al Hosani
Defenders: Bandar Al Ahbabi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Mohammed Barghash, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Hassan Al Mahrami, Yousef Jaber, Mohammed Al Attas
Midfielders: Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Abdullah Al Naqbi, Majed Hassan, Abdullah Hamad, Khalfan Mubarak, Khalil Al Hammadi, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Harib Abdallah, Mohammed Jumah
Forwards: Fabio De Lima, Caio Canedo, Ali Saleh, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue
SQUADS
UAE
Mohammed Naveed (captain), Mohamed Usman (vice-captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Imran Haider, Tahir Mughal, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed, Fahad Nawaz, Abdul Shakoor, Sultan Ahmed, CP Rizwan
Nepal
Paras Khadka (captain), Gyanendra Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Pradeep Airee, Binod Bhandari, Avinash Bohara, Sundeep Jora, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Rohit Paudel, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi, Basant Regmi, Pawan Sarraf, Bhim Sharki, Aarif Sheikh
India squads
T20: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Shardul Thakur
Test: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant
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How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
What is a Ponzi scheme?
A fraudulent investment operation where the scammer provides fake reports and generates returns for old investors through money paid by new investors, rather than through ligitimate business activities.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
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Expo details
Expo 2020 Dubai will be the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia
The world fair will run for six months from October 20, 2020 to April 10, 2021.
It is expected to attract 25 million visits
Some 70 per cent visitors are projected to come from outside the UAE, the largest proportion of international visitors in the 167-year history of World Expos.
More than 30,000 volunteers are required for Expo 2020
The site covers a total of 4.38 sqkm, including a 2 sqkm gated area
It is located adjacent to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai South
The five pillars of Islam
The five pillars of Islam
The years Ramadan fell in May
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
