Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter of oil, has renewed its hardline stance that it will oppose any action taken at the Copenhagen summit to combat global warming that might hurt the kingdom's economy. Saudia Arabia said at the opening day of the summit yesterday that its trust in climate science had been "shaken" by recently leaked e-mails in Britain between top scientists tied to the government. Some of the e-mails allegedly indicate that data had been manipulated to support the argument that the Earth's climate is warming. Riyadh called for an investigation into the matter.
Speaking after the United Nation's panel of climate scientists strongly defended the findings that humans are warming the planet, Mohammad al Sabban, the lead Saudi Arabian climate negotiator, said: "The level of confidence is certainly shaken. We believe this scandal is definitely going to affect the nature of what can be fostered [in Copenhagen]. "The size of [economic] sacrifices must be built on a secure foundation of information, which we found now is not true," Mr al Sabban said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Mr al Sabban called for an "independent" international investigation, but said that the UN climate science body was unqualified to carry it out. "The IPCC, which is the authority accused, is not going to be able to conduct the investigation," he said, referring to the Nobel Prize winning UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change. The Saudi negotiator rejected the IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri's defence of the integrity of the panel's findings - delivered earlier in the plenary session - as "general statements".
"In light of recent information - the scientific scandal has assumed huge proportions," Mr al Sabban said. The e-mails issue arose two weeks ago when hundreds of messages between scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit and their peers around the world were posted on the internet, along with other documents, after they were accessed by unknown hackers. The e-mails, some written as long as 13 years ago, showed that top climate change scientists had manipulated evidence to support the case that climate change is a result of human activities.
Sayed al Kholi, the vice president of the Cairo-based Centre for Environment and Development for the Arab Region and Europe, writing in the Saudi daily Okaz on Sunday, argued that the e-mail revelation added weight to the position of Saudi negotiators and other developing countries in Copenhagen - that wealthy countries should pay compensation to oil producers if they cut their oil consumption. "Saudi negotiators will reject 'hasty' measures that will affect [the country's] economic growth and they will insist on not letting industrial nations run away from their obligations to solve [global warming] that they caused through the years when they saw economic growth," Mr al Kholi wrote.
The Finnish Institute of International Affairs issued a briefing paper on December 1 entitled "Bargaining in the Saudi Bazaar: Common Ground for a Post-2012 Climate Agreement", in which it stated that the Saudis were following a strategy to hinder the development of climate negotiations or new climate protocols that might affect its oil revenues. Mr al Kholi said in response to the Finnish paper that despite the criticism, Saudi negotiators had asked industrial nations to provide Riyadh with the technology and know-how to develop clean energy.
Saudi Arabia is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, a global treaty intended to achieve stabilisation of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) at the atmospheric level. But the Saudi government has opposed any global action to reduce emissions that would affect the price or supply of oil. It has, however, invested US$300 million (Dh1.1 billion) in research on cutting CO2 emissions and protecting the environment.
Climate change is not a common topic of discussion in Saudi Arabia, which has one of the world's highest per capita levels of CO2 production, as the kingdom relies heavily on fossil fuel to produce electricity, according to a United Nations report. The UN Development Programme's Human Development Report for 2007/2008 showed that Saudi produced an average of 13.6 tonnes of CO2 per person, accounting for 1.1 per cent of global emissions with only 0.4 per cent of the world's population.
"If all countries in the world were to emit CO2 at levels similar to Saudi Arabia's, we would exceed our sustainable carbon budget by approximately 511 per cent," the report said. wmahdi@thenational.ae
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Scotland's team:
15-Sean Maitland, 14-Darcy Graham, 13-Nick Grigg, 12-Sam Johnson, 11-Byron McGuigan, 10-Finn Russell, 9-Ali Price, 8-Magnus Bradbury, 7-Hamish Watson, 6-Sam Skinner, 5-Grant Gilchrist, 4-Ben Toolis, 3-Willem Nel, 2-Stuart McInally (captain), 1-Allan Dell
Replacements: 16-Fraser Brown, 17-Gordon Reid, 18-Simon Berghan, 19-Jonny Gray, 20-Josh Strauss, 21-Greig Laidlaw, 22-Adam Hastings, 23-Chris Harris
The specs: 2019 Subaru Forester
Price, base: Dh105,900 (Premium); Dh115,900 (Sport)
Engine: 2.5-litre four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 182hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 239Nm @ 4,400rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.1L / 100km (estimated)
Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
