Global energy reforms moving at different pace



Energy policies around the world are in transition as countries shift to more efficient and greener sources of power. But nations are moving at a different pace and in different directions.

Dubai's Supreme Council of Energy is pressing ahead with the first coal power station in the Arabian Gulf, an innovative plant that converts the coal to a gas before burning it. It will be fitted with a carbon capture system to trap the carbon dioxide so that it can be permanently disposed of underground. So far, there is no commercial-scale power plant with carbon capture, although several schemes are moving forward in the United States, Canada and China.

China, meanwhile, is scaling down its use of coal in a bid to combat air pollution, and plans to increase the share of nuclear power, natural gas and renewable energy. It is likely to remain heavily dependent on coal in the foreseeable future though. The government aims to cut coal's share of the country's total primary energy use to below 65 per cent by 2017 from 66.8 per cent at present.

China announced this month that it will ban new coal-fired power plants in three major industrial regions around Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. It aims to raise the share of non-fossil fuel energy such as solar and wind power to 13 per cent by 2017. It was 9.1 per cent last year.

Coal plants face a bleak future in the United States, where the Environmental Protection Agency is soon due to unveil the first set of regulations under Barack Obama’s new climate action plan. It is expected to impose strict new carbon emissions standards that analysts say could spell the end of new coal plant construction.

The recent bankruptcy of the Longview coal plant in West Virginia highlights the problems of coal-fired power in the US. Longview went into operation in 2011. Its modern design enabled it to generate electricity cheaply, efficiently and with lower carbon emissions.

Its financial failure was blamed on outages resulting from construction and design problems, but it was also under pressure from falling gas prices – a result of the shale gas boom in the US – that made the plant uneconomical. Meanwhile, the World Bank this year agreed to a new energy strategy that will limit financing of coal-fired power plants to “rare circumstances”. The bank will restrict financial support to countries that have “no feasible alternatives” to coal. It faces a balancing act between environmental efforts and the energy needs of poor countries, but the change is a signal that it wants to encourage nations to move to green energy generation.

Policies on fossil fuel vary across Europe.

In Britain, no new coal-fired plants can be built unless they capture and store carbon emissions. Germany is also likely to build few, if any, new coal power stations from 2015 because of weak wholesale electricity prices, falling demand, environmental opposition and subsidies for renewables.

Spain, meanwhile, is likely to increase its dependence on coal and gas because the government is cutting subsidies for renewable power generation to cut costs. The country leads Europe’s big economies in renewable capacity, with 30.8 per cent of its power generation mix from wind and solar. The reforms, which include cuts to subsidies for renewables and a tax on generation that hit green power particularly hard, have sent investment in the sector plummeting.

Analysts say the latest cuts in renewables will boost Spain’s dependency on fossil fuels, mostly coal – the only fossil fuel of which Spain has major domestic reserves. The measures could boost expensive natural gas imports as well.

Meanwhile, Poland is resorting to cheap domestic lignite coal to secure its energy supply. The eastern European country already relies on coal to produce more than 90 per cent of its electricity. Its choice of fuel now could lock in its energy mix for decades to come, given that Poland needs to build new power stations to replace ageing ones and to cope with growing power demand.

The government and power companies favour domestic lignite reserves to meet the country’s energy needs and reduce imports of Russian gas. Poland had wanted to become Europe’s main producer of shale gas, but that plan was thwarted when estimates of its shale gas reserves were slashed by more than 90 per cent.

* David Crossland

The specs: 2017 Maserati Quattroporte

Price, base / as tested Dh389,000 / Dh559,000

Engine 3.0L twin-turbo V8

Transmission Eight-speed automatic

Power 530hp @ 6,800rpm

Torque 650Nm @ 2,000 rpm

Fuel economy, combined 10.7L / 100km

Results

5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m; Winner: Aahid Al Khalediah II, Pat Cosgrave (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)

5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Whistle, Harry Bentley, Abdallah Al Hammadi

6pm: Wathba Stallions Cup - Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Alsaied, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami

6.30pm: Emirates Fillies Classic – Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Mumayaza, Antonio Fresu, Eric Lemartinel

7pm: Emirates Colts Classic – Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi

7.30pm: President’s Cup – Group 1 (PA) Dh2,500,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Somoud, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roualle

8pm: President’s Cup – Listed (TB) Dh380,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Medahim, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: ARDH Collective
Based: Dubai
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Sector: Sustainability
Total funding: Self funded
Number of employees: 4
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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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.

Company name: Farmin

Date started: March 2019

Founder: Dr Ali Al Hammadi 

Based: Abu Dhabi

Sector: AgriTech

Initial investment: None to date

Partners/Incubators: UAE Space Agency/Krypto Labs 

THE LOWDOWN

Photograph

Rating: 4/5

Produced by: Poetic License Motion Pictures; RSVP Movies

Director: Ritesh Batra

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Farrukh Jaffar, Deepak Chauhan, Vijay Raaz

ETFs explained

Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.

ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.

There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.

UPI facts

More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions

'Cheb%20Khaled'
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Moral education needed in a 'rapidly changing world'

Moral education lessons for young people is needed in a rapidly changing world, the head of the programme said.

Alanood Al Kaabi, head of programmes at the Education Affairs Office of the Crown Price Court - Abu Dhabi, said: "The Crown Price Court is fully behind this initiative and have already seen the curriculum succeed in empowering young people and providing them with the necessary tools to succeed in building the future of the nation at all levels.

"Moral education touches on every aspect and subject that children engage in.

"It is not just limited to science or maths but it is involved in all subjects and it is helping children to adapt to integral moral practises.

"The moral education programme has been designed to develop children holistically in a world being rapidly transformed by technology and globalisation."

Tonight's Chat on The National

Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.

Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster who has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others.

Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.

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Director: Alfonso Cuaron 

Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville 

Rating: 4/5

The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The specs

Price: From Dh529,000

Engine: 5-litre V8

Transmission: Eight-speed auto

Power: 520hp

Torque: 625Nm

Fuel economy, combined: 12.8L/100km

Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
Rating: 4/5
AUSTRALIA SQUAD

Aaron Finch, Matt Renshaw, Brendan Doggett, Michael Neser, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (captain), Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Jon Holland, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle

HEADLINE HERE
  • I would recommend writing out the text in the body 
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  • Or try to keep the word count down
  • Be wary of other embeds lengthy fact boxes could crash into 
  • That's about it
The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now

Overall head-to-head

Federer 6-1 Cilic

Head-to-head at Wimbledon

Federer 1-0 Cilic

Grand Slams titles

Federer 18-1 Cilic

Best Wimbledon performance

Federer: Winner (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012)
Cilic: Final (2017*)

The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
Power: 320bhp
Torque: 605Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh219,000
On sale: Now
From Zero

Artist: Linkin Park

Label: Warner Records

Number of tracks: 11

Rating: 4/5

The Two Popes

Director: Fernando Meirelles

Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce 

Four out of five stars

Gender equality in the workplace still 200 years away

It will take centuries to achieve gender parity in workplaces around the globe, according to a December report from the World Economic Forum.

The WEF study said there had been some improvements in wage equality in 2018 compared to 2017, when the global gender gap widened for the first time in a decade.

But it warned that these were offset by declining representation of women in politics, coupled with greater inequality in their access to health and education.

At current rates, the global gender gap across a range of areas will not close for another 108 years, while it is expected to take 202 years to close the workplace gap, WEF found.

The Geneva-based organisation's annual report tracked disparities between the sexes in 149 countries across four areas: education, health, economic opportunity and political empowerment.

After years of advances in education, health and political representation, women registered setbacks in all three areas this year, WEF said.

Only in the area of economic opportunity did the gender gap narrow somewhat, although there is not much to celebrate, with the global wage gap narrowing to nearly 51 per cent.

And the number of women in leadership roles has risen to 34 per cent globally, WEF said.

At the same time, the report showed there are now proportionately fewer women than men participating in the workforce, suggesting that automation is having a disproportionate impact on jobs traditionally performed by women.

And women are significantly under-represented in growing areas of employment that require science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, WEF said.

* Agence France Presse

Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Rating: 2/5