Britain will appoint new special envoys for nature and climate as it tries to rebuild its green credentials before two approaching UN summits.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy will weigh in on the environmental crisis in a speech on Tuesday as the Labour government makes climate policy part of its diplomatic “reset”.
Mr Lammy said the Labour Party is “firing the starting gun” on its pledge to create a global clean power alliance that will enable sharing knowledge and technology to help more countries reach net-zero emissions.
Climate tipping points – in pictures
The alliance also aims to help countries “leapfrog” fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy systems with global investment and finance and to speed up the supply of critical minerals needed for energy grids and energy storage.
“This government has set a landmark goal – to be the first major economy to deliver clean power by 2030,” Mr Lammy said.
“We will leverage that ambition to build an alliance committed to accelerating the clean energy transition. And today we are firing the starting gun on forming this new coalition. While some countries are moving ahead in this transition, others are being left behind.
“We need to accelerate the roll-out of renewable energy across the globe in the way that this government is doing at home.”
The effects of climate change on the Middle East region – in pictures
Labour had previously accused Rishi Sunak's Conservative government of “squandering our leadership” on the issue after he watered down key net-zero policies. Campaigners were dismayed when the post of special representative for climate change was abolished last year.
Mr Lammy will reinstate the UK Special Representative for Climate Change role and create a new UK Special Representative for Nature to help forge partnerships between the UK and other countries.
They will report to Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband and Environment Secretary Steve Reed respectively, as well as to the Foreign Secretary.
Since taking office, the Labour Party has lifted the de facto ban on onshore wind and committed not to issue new oil and gas licences.
It has also formed a new state energy investment firm, GB Energy, to help boost renewables.
“This crisis is not some discrete policy area, divorced from geopolitics, conflict and insecurity,” the Foreign Secretary is expected to say.
“The threat may not feel as urgent as a terrorist or an imperialist autocrat. But it is more fundamental. It is systemic. Pervasive. And accelerating towards us.
“Today, I am committing to you that while I am Foreign Secretary, action on the climate and nature crisis will be central to all the Foreign Office does. This is critical given the scale of the threat, but also the scale of the opportunity.”
Nations at risk due to climate change – in pictures
The new government has also promised to tackle what it calls a “nature emergency” of polluted rivers and seas. A delegation will attend UN biodiversity talks in Colombia next month before Azerbaijan hosts the Cop29 climate summit in November.
Appointing new envoys for both climate and nature would be a welcome signal of the new government's “desire to engage internationally”, Ben Reynolds, director of the Institute for European Environmental Policy in the UK, told The National. He said the two issues “have to be dealt with hand in hand”.
“The international summits in the coming months on climate and biodiversity will show whether the new government is able to match its ambitions not just to be part of these conversations, but to lead them,” Mr Reynolds said.
Diplomatic push
Although Energy Secretary Ed Miliband is in charge of promoting clean power at home, Mr Lammy has sought to use Britain's diplomatic clout to persuade countries such as India to take more aggressive action on climate change.
David King, a former holder of the climate envoy role, told The National last year that his well-funded, round-the-world diplomacy in the run-up to the 2015 Paris climate deal made him “convinced we were going to get an agreement”.
“Without those bilateral negotiations, I really doubt that would have happened, and without the money that I had in my pocket,” Mr King said. He described the post's abolition as “extremely disappointing” and a “very backward step”.
Mr Miliband has said he will personally lead the UK's negotiating team at Cop29. Mr Lammy and the Foreign Office will push for ambitious pledges on climate finance and reduced emissions at Cop29, the department said.
A second Labour energy minister, Kerry McCarthy, told the UK Parliament last week that raising money for developing countries would be Britain's top priority in Azerbaijan.
She said a Labour delegation at Cop28 in the UAE last year found it a “depressing experience” because activists from vulnerable countries kept asking whether Britain had “completely abdicated its sense of international leadership”.
Britain's King Charles III, a long-time environmentalist, has also hosted the presidents of Cop28, Cop29 and Cop30, including Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, who was also Cop28 president, as preparations for the Baku step-up.
Champions League Last 16
Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) v Bayern Munich (GER)
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Benfica (POR) v Ajax (NED)
Chelsea (ENG) v Lille (FRA)
Atletico Madrid (ESP) v Manchester United (ENG)
Villarreal (ESP) v Juventus (ITA)
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Paris Saint-Germain v Real Madrid (ESP)
MATCH INFO
Tottenham Hotspur 1
Kane (50')
Newcastle United 0
Expert advice
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Cornelia Gloor, head of RAK Hospital’s Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy Centre
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Chandrashekar Nandi, physiotherapist at Burjeel Hospital in Dubai
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Name: Brendalle Belaza
From: Crossing Rubber, Philippines
Arrived in the UAE: 2007
Favourite place in Abu Dhabi: NYUAD campus
Favourite photography style: Street photography
Favourite book: Harry Potter
The UAE squad for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games
The jiu-jitsu men’s team: Faisal Al Ketbi, Zayed Al Kaabi, Yahia Al Hammadi, Taleb Al Kirbi, Obaid Al Nuaimi, Omar Al Fadhli, Zayed Al Mansoori, Saeed Al Mazroui, Ibrahim Al Hosani, Mohammed Al Qubaisi, Salem Al Suwaidi, Khalfan Belhol, Saood Al Hammadi.
Women’s team: Mouza Al Shamsi, Wadeema Al Yafei, Reem Al Hashmi, Mahra Al Hanaei, Bashayer Al Matrooshi, Hessa Thani, Salwa Al Ali.
MATCH INFO
Europa League final
Who: Marseille v Atletico Madrid
Where: Parc OL, Lyon, France
When: Wednesday, 10.45pm kick off (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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.”
Sri Lanka's T20I squad
Thisara Perera (captain), Dilshan Munaweera, Danushka Gunathilaka, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Ashan Priyanjan, Mahela Udawatte, Dasun Shanaka, Sachith Pathirana, Vikum Sanjaya, Lahiru Gamage, Seekkuge Prasanna, Vishwa Fernando, Isuru Udana, Jeffrey Vandersay and Chathuranga de Silva.