Fareed Yasseen, Iraq's climate envoy, speaking at Chatham House in London. AP Photo
Fareed Yasseen, Iraq's climate envoy, speaking at Chatham House in London. AP Photo
Fareed Yasseen, Iraq's climate envoy, speaking at Chatham House in London. AP Photo
Fareed Yasseen, Iraq's climate envoy, speaking at Chatham House in London. AP Photo

Iraq's Cop28 opportunity is 'mastering its methane challenge'


Lemma Shehadi
  • English
  • Arabic

Iraq is already a “victim” of a warming planet but the global move away from fossil fuels means the country's oil-based economy must tackle its own greenhouse gas emissions and clean up the industry, its climate envoy has disclosed.

Speaking at international affairs think tank Chatham House in London, Fareed Yasseen said Iraq was working towards diversifying it economy, using the country’s current oil revenue, to help combat its climate-related challenges. “Iraq has revenues that are quite considerable that we can put towards reinventing ourselves, to become a country that can adapt and be resilient to climate change,” he said.

Iraq has faced environmental disasters on a number of fronts. The depletion of its river system due to dams in upstream neighbouring countries has had devastating effects on arable land and ecosystems, causing migration from the country’s historic marshlands.

Toxic emissions from its gas flaring during oil extraction has caused deadly air pollution in Iraq’s cities. Rising temperatures are leading to droughts and soil erosion has increased the intensity of sand storms.

The Iran-Iraq war led to the destruction of Iraq’s date palm fields, and then-president Saddam Hussein drained the southern marshes to punish the tribes living there for participating in an uprising against him. Though the marshes were restored in 2016, animal life has since struggled to survive there.

Decades of conflict and authoritarian rule meant Iraq became a “very late comer” to global climate-change initiatives, Dr Yasseen said. It wasn't until 2009 that it signed the UN’s climate change convention, 17 years after its first signatories.

Whereas other oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia had begun capturing their methane as early as the 1970s – instead of burning it – Iraq’s methods of oil exploitation has not changed in more than half a century. “We’re still producing the same way that we did in the 1960s,” Dr Yasseen said.

Though solutions to Iraq's climate crises were available, more time was needed for efficient laws and knowledge to be put in place, drawing on the lessons and expertise of other countries. “Solutions do exist, we just need to be able to implement them correctly,” he added.

An increasingly repressive political climate has led to concerns for the safety of Iraq's environmentalists, who have pressured Baghdad to move faster. Jasem Al Asadi, an activist leading the protection of the marshes in southern Iraq, was kidnapped for two weeks this year. "Our environmental activists are heroes," Dr Yasseen said.

But there are signs that things will change for the better. Dr Yasseen – previously Iraq’s ambassador to the US – was speaking days after a series of events in Iraq dedicated to addressing the country’s climate crisis.

Iraq is seeking new technology, including wind power to generate electricity, to help address climate change.

Its main priority was the reduction of methane flaring, which is the practice of burning the natural gases emitted from oil extraction, rather than capturing and converting them into energy. “It’s a waste of resources, waste of money and it poisons people,” Dr Yasseen said. “You have no idea how much money we’re burning.”

Iraq's carbon emissions from flaring increased by 0.3 per cent in 2022 from the previous year. Its emissions were the second highest in the Middle East after Iran, and contributed to a third of the region's emissions that year, according to the Energy Institute's Statistical Review of World Energy.

The toxic gases are a major contributor to global carbon emissions and the pollutants have been linked to a rise in cancer in Iraq’s southern oil-producing city of Basra, according to a BBC investigation.

Iraq joined the Global Methane Pledge to reduce methane flaring by 30 per cent by 2030. Its main “emphasis” now is developing legislation enabling it to commercialise the captured gas, Dr Yasseen said. “We’re getting all sorts of proposals from oil companies willing to capture our flared gas. We can only proceed once we have the proper legislation in place."

Alongside this, a “reinvention” of Iraq’s agricultural traditions – which became obsolete after the creation of the national oil industry – is needed, drawing on expertise from regions with arid climates including Australia and the US. “Agriculture was invented in Iraq,” said Dr Yasseen, drawing on the land’s ancient history.

Another major challenge is how to handle the depletion of its two rivers among neighbouring Turkey, Iran and Syria, all of which had built dams upstream.

Experts on the panel with Dr Yasseen feared Iraq lacked the military and economic influence needed to negotiate a better arrangement with these countries. Greg Shapland, a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics, recommended “a dialogue between the UK and Iraq, on finding ways to help Iraq to best negotiate with its neighbours".

Jassim Al-Asadi, director at Nature Iraq. Photo: @Jassim Al-Asadi / Facebook
Jassim Al-Asadi, director at Nature Iraq. Photo: @Jassim Al-Asadi / Facebook

There is no “international regime” that a downstream country like Iraq could adopt to protect its waters and share it fairly with its neighbours, Dr Yasseen said. The country’s biggest Arab partner in this issue is Egypt, which faces the same challenges, he added.

Iraq could use data from space programmes such as those set up by the UK and the Netherlands, which monitor water content and pollution levels through satellite imagery, he said.

He hoped instead that the Gulf countries could form a “negotiating block” to address climate change-related issues, including Iraq’s water crisis. This idea was first put forward by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani at the UN General Assembly in September, and Dr Yasseen sees Cop28 as an “opportunity” for the grouping to be created.

“Many issues like dust storms and heatwaves can only be addressed on a regional scale and if we reforest in an area in Iraq, it will have positive impacts down in the Gulf,” said Dr Yasseen. “Iraq is a small country – the only way to get yourself heard is to be part of a powerful coalition that can push your views forward."

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The years Ramadan fell in May

1987

1954

1921

1888

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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
  • Priority access to new homes from participating developers
  • Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
  • Flexible payment plans from developers
  • Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
  • DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Hili 2: Unesco World Heritage site

The site is part of the Hili archaeological park in Al Ain. Excavations there have proved the existence of the earliest known agricultural communities in modern-day UAE. Some date to the Bronze Age but Hili 2 is an Iron Age site. The Iron Age witnessed the development of the falaj, a network of channels that funnelled water from natural springs in the area. Wells allowed settlements to be established, but falaj meant they could grow and thrive. Unesco, the UN's cultural body, awarded Al Ain's sites - including Hili 2 - world heritage status in 2011. Now the most recent dig at the site has revealed even more about the skilled people that lived and worked there.

Correspondents

By Tim Murphy

(Grove Press)

Global state-owned investor ranking by size

1.

United States

2.

China

3.

UAE

4.

Japan

5

Norway

6.

Canada

7.

Singapore

8.

Australia

9.

Saudi Arabia

10.

South Korea

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.

Review: Tomb Raider
Dir: Roar Uthaug
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Daniel Wu, Walter Goggins
​​​​​​​two stars

Key changes

Commission caps

For life insurance products with a savings component, Peter Hodgins of Clyde & Co said different caps apply to the saving and protection elements:

• For the saving component, a cap of 4.5 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 90 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term). 

• On the protection component, there is a cap  of 10 per cent of the annualised premium per year (which may not exceed 160 per cent of the annualised premium over the policy term).

• Indemnity commission, the amount of commission that can be advanced to a product salesperson, can be 50 per cent of the annualised premium for the first year or 50 per cent of the total commissions on the policy calculated. 

• The remaining commission after deduction of the indemnity commission is paid equally over the premium payment term.

• For pure protection products, which only offer a life insurance component, the maximum commission will be 10 per cent of the annualised premium multiplied by the length of the policy in years.

Disclosure

Customers must now be provided with a full illustration of the product they are buying to ensure they understand the potential returns on savings products as well as the effects of any charges. There is also a “free-look” period of 30 days, where insurers must provide a full refund if the buyer wishes to cancel the policy.

“The illustration should provide for at least two scenarios to illustrate the performance of the product,” said Mr Hodgins. “All illustrations are required to be signed by the customer.”

Another illustration must outline surrender charges to ensure they understand the costs of exiting a fixed-term product early.

Illustrations must also be kept updatedand insurers must provide information on the top five investment funds available annually, including at least five years' performance data.

“This may be segregated based on the risk appetite of the customer (in which case, the top five funds for each segment must be provided),” said Mr Hodgins.

Product providers must also disclose the ratio of protection benefit to savings benefits. If a protection benefit ratio is less than 10 per cent "the product must carry a warning stating that it has limited or no protection benefit" Mr Hodgins added.

T20 World Cup Qualifier

October 18 – November 2

Opening fixtures

Friday, October 18

ICC Academy: 10am, Scotland v Singapore, 2.10pm, Netherlands v Kenya

Zayed Cricket Stadium: 2.10pm, Hong Kong v Ireland, 7.30pm, Oman v UAE

UAE squad

Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Rameez Shahzad, Darius D’Silva, Mohammed Usman, Mohammed Boota, Zawar Farid, Ghulam Shabber, Junaid Siddique, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Waheed Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Zahoor Khan

Players out: Mohammed Naveed, Shaiman Anwar, Qadeer Ahmed

Players in: Junaid Siddique, Darius D’Silva, Waheed Ahmed

Company%20profile
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F1 The Movie

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

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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
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  • 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
Brief scoreline

Switzerland 0

England 0

Result: England win 6-5 on penalties

Man of the Match: Trent Alexander-Arnold (England)

Without Remorse

Directed by: Stefano Sollima

Starring: Michael B Jordan

4/5

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Key developments

All times UTC 4

'Panga'

Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari

Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta

Rating: 3.5/5

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Updated: November 09, 2023, 4:24 PM`