DOHA, QATAR // The world's green-energy agency will next year focus on helping the UAE and its Arabian Gulf neighbours to achieve their renewable-energy targets, its director general said yesterday.
"Next year, our focus will be very much on Abu Dhabi and the GCC region," Dr Adnan Amin of the International Renewable Energy Agency, or Irena, said on the sidelines of the UN climate change talks in Doha.
Abu Dhabi, where Irena's headquarters is based, has set a target by which 7 per cent of all of its energy demands will be met by renewables by 2020.
"That is going to be hard for them to achieve, frankly, but they have to do it and we will be working very closely with the UAE and Abu Dhabi in particular to make sure that we can get to that point," said Dr Amin.
Irena is not formally part of the negotiations process but is closely following the talks. This week it held an event at which representatives from the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman discussed their plans.
Dr Amin noted the UAE - the first in the region to consider renewable energy - is also investing in renewable technologies that are just coming to market.
One example is Gemasolar, a solar-thermal plant in Spain, where for the first time heat is stored in a way that enables the plant to continue producing power at night.
"Some of the most exciting investments like the Gemasolar plant with molten-salt storage is one of those possibilities that can be a game-changer," said Dr Amin.
He said Saudi Arabia was also investing heavily.
"If Saudi Arabia goes decisively in the direction of renewable-energy investment, it will be a game-changer in the entire region.
“And what we are seeing is the beginnings of that.”
The kingdom has announced it will build 40 gigawatts of solar-generation capacity by 2032, at an estimated cost of US$120 billion (Dh440.79bn).
“I was asked a question in the corridors, ‘isn’t all of this greenwashing?’” Dr Amin said. “I said if it is greenwashing, you don’t need to spend $120bn on it, you can do it for a few million dollars.
“Put up a few placards, get a few ads out – that is all you need for greenwashing. It is a substantive change that we are seeing.”
It remains to be seen how GCC countries’ renewable energy plans will affect their needs for fossil energy and greenhouse-gas emissions.
The latter is the subject of the Doha talks with governments from 194 countries negotiating ways to reduce emissions, which have reached dangerous levels and threaten to disrupt climate with catastrophic results.
Recent data from the International Energy Agency shows that the per capita energy consumption in the Arabian Gulf far exceeds that of large world economies, including the United States, China and the European Union.
Four GCC states – Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Bahrain – also top the chart for per capita greenhouse gas emissions.
Qatar is responsible for more than 35 tonnes of carbon dioxide a head; the UAE for slightly more than 20 tonnes a head. China’s per capita carbon footprint is about five tonnes.
While Dr Amin said measures should be taken to reduce GCC states’ emissions, the high carbon footprint is the result of investments in the hydrocarbons industry, which is very energy-intensive.
But while oil, gas and petroleum products are produced in the Gulf, they are used by many other countries.
“That cost of carbon is never accounted in the other markets,” he said. “They [GCC states] are unfairly given that big footprint but people benefit from that carbon emission elsewhere without it being counted towards them.”
vtodorova@thenational.ae
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 old
- 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 or 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
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
CREW
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Company profile
Company: Verity
Date started: May 2021
Founders: Kamal Al-Samarrai, Dina Shoman and Omar Al Sharif
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Size: four team members
Stage: Intially bootstrapped but recently closed its first pre-seed round of $800,000
Investors: Wamda, VentureSouq, Beyond Capital and regional angel investors
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
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Sir Tim Berners-Lee was born in London in a household of mathematicians and computer scientists. Both his mother, Mary Lee, and father, Conway, were early computer scientists who worked on the Ferranti 1 - the world's first commercially-available, general purpose digital computer. Sir Tim studied Physics at the University of Oxford and held a series of roles developing code and building software before moving to Switzerland to work for Cern, the European Particle Physics laboratory. He developed the worldwide web code as a side project in 1989 as a global information-sharing system. After releasing the first web code in 1991, Cern made it open and free for all to use. Sir Tim now campaigns for initiatives to make sure the web remains open and accessible to all.
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- Join parent networks
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Neil Thomson – THE BIO
Family: I am happily married to my wife Liz and we have two children together.
Favourite music: Rock music. I started at a young age due to my father’s influence. He played in an Indian rock band The Flintstones who were once asked by Apple Records to fly over to England to perform there.
Favourite book: I constantly find myself reading The Bible.
Favourite film: The Greatest Showman.
Favourite holiday destination: I love visiting Melbourne as I have family there and it’s a wonderful place. New York at Christmas is also magical.
Favourite food: I went to boarding school so I like any cuisine really.
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NO OTHER LAND
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Dubai Kahayla Classic – Group 1 (PA) $750,000 (Dirt) 2,000m
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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.”
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AT4 Ultimate, as tested
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CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"