Just as the nuclear industry has had to battle its many critics, efforts to reduce global warming have been denounced by environmentalists and residents where the technology is sited. Nonetheless the Norwegians are pressing ahead. April Yee reports from Mongstad, Norway
The protesters displayed their signs at the Mongstad plant's entrance, knowing the Norwegian prime minister and foreign oil executives would soon drive past to get to the opening ceremony.
The plant launching that day was a small-scale test site for carbon capture, an experimental technology that buries greenhouse-gas emissions underground.
The Norwegian government, Statoil, Shell and South Africa's Sasol have spent 5.8 billion Norwegian krone (Dh3.6bn) to build the Technology Centre Mongstad in what they see as their share in the fight against global warming.
Local residents were unimpressed. "To build this plant, you solve something, but you also create pollution," said Roger Gjerstad, 60, an artist who lives on the nearby island of Radøy. "You need it, but we don't need it."
Carbon capture is today at a crossroads.
As recently as 20 years ago the subject was a theoretical matter discussed inside oil companies as something that might be needed should global warming fears turn out to be true.
While carbon capture has won the backing of industry and institutions from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to the Abu Dhabi Government, it has yet to persuade a number of environmentalists and "not in my backyard" locals.
The International Energy Agency says more than 3,000 carbon capture sites are needed by 2050 to combat global warming, and the UN climate change body classifies carbon capture alongside planting trees and installing solar panels as techniques developing nations can use to cut down on emissions.
But last year funding for CCS, as carbon capture and storage is called, remained stagnant at US$23.5 billion (Dh86.3bn), the same as in 2010, according to the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research organisation. Also last year, three out of 75 projects were scrapped, says the Global CCS Institute, an Australian non-governmental organisation.
"Every technology has public acceptance battles," says Howard Herzog, a senior research engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative. "It's not just nuclear. Wind has a lot of public acceptance battles and CCS has the same."
In many ways the arguments for and against CCS match the debates over nuclear energy.
Proponents say the technologies are needed to rein in emissions while continuing to produce energy. Detractors say they pose risks in the case of seismic events and could increase the risk of cancer for people living near to carbon-capture plants.
The multibillion-dollar budgets would be better spent on solar panels and wind farms, critics say.
The carbon-dioxide equivalent to Japan's Fukushima meltdown last year is the 1986 tragedy when a natural carbon-dioxide reservoir at Cameroon's Lake Nyos burst open and asphyxiated 1,700 people. Experts point out that CCS would not pose the same risks, since the carbon dioxide would be pumped in liquid form into deep geological formations where it would eventually bind to the rock.
The amines used in some types of CCS can also form compounds that, under certain conditions, degrade into carcinogens.
Studies about the health risks helped to delay Mongstad's plan to build a full-scale, carbon-capture plant from 2014, when it was slated to be completed, to 2016, when the government will make a decision whether to build one at all.
"Amines are used in the food chain, they're used in various other industries today, and those amines are being managed and being processed so they know what's going on," says Bjørn-Erik Haugan, the chief executive of Gassnova, a government-backed company that financed more than three quarters of the plant's cost. "The concentrations are at a level … well within the comfort zone."
Over time, fears of carbon capture can be overcome just as concerns about atomic power eventually abated, says Ola Borten Moe, the Norwegian energy minister.
"We don't have the freedom to choose between windmills and CCS," he told officials from ExxonMobil, Opec and the US energy department at the Mongstad opening.
"It's no more than 30 years since most Norwegians were worried about nuclear Armageddon in Norway. This is now a fairy tale."
If any country can boost support for carbon capture, it should be Norway, home to two of the world's eight projects that bury carbon underground. But the public still needs to be educated, says Mr Haugan. "The general public - they're not scientists," he says.
"They think C02 can explode, it's poisonous, its radioactive, it ruins the ozone layer. These are complicated matters. So in explaining the simple facts of life to them, I think we're doing a completely lousy job, because we're making it too complex and confusing people."
One option is to follow the example of the nuclear industry, which in many countries has garnered support by pumping money into local communities. In South Korea, communities that support the construction of a plant receive higher subsidies.
"Where we see some people getting benefit from the storage, they're much more willing than if the benefit is for mankind," says Mr Herzog.
ayee@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
ENGLAND SQUAD
Goalkeepers Henderson, Pickford, Pope.
Defenders Alexander-Arnold, Chilwell, Coady, Dier, Gomez, Keane, Maguire, Maitland-Niles, Mings, Saka, Trippier, Walker.
Midfielders Henderson, Mount, Phillips, Rice, Ward-Prowse, Winks.
Forwards Abraham, Barnes, Calvert-Lewin, Grealish, Ings, Kane, Rashford, Sancho, Sterling.
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
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.”
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
match info
Union Berlin 0
Bayern Munich 1 (Lewandowski 40' pen, Pavard 80')
Man of the Match: Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munich)
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Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
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