The UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment hosted a special event to accelerate the country’s journey to net-zero emissions by 2050.
The session, held as part of the country's National Dialogue for Climate Ambition, highlighted the gaps in climate finance for decarbonisation of the economy and urged everyone — particularly in private-sector financial entities — to increase green finance to support the UAE’s vision to build a sustainable economy, the ministry said.
The dialogue, an initiative led by the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, aims to promote climate action through stronger collaboration, including with the private sector.
It is a series of industry-specific assemblies in various sectors aimed at raising climate ambitions in the nation’s journey to net zero, which means not adding to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
This session, on Monday, was attended by Mariam Al Mheiri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment, and brought together 100 participants from the banking, insurance, investment, financial services and consulting sectors and various ministries.
Coming only months before the UAE hosts the UN climate summit Cop28, Ms Al Mheiri emphasised the importance of collaboration to raise ambition for climate finance, which is important to implement the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement. Climate finance is crucial in funding renewable power such as wind or solar.
Agreed in 2015 and signed by about 200 countries, the Paris climate accord aims to limit global temperature rises to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels, and to keep them “well below” 2.0ºC. How countries are implementing the accord and what more needs to be done will be discussed at Cop28 in what is known as a "global stocktake".
World must unite for climate fight
"One of the key elements of UAE’s vision for Cop28 is to raise ambition and collective action towards mitigation [cutting emissions], adaptation [coping with climate change], loss and damage and climate finance," said Ms Al Mheiri.
"The UAE believes scaling up climate finance is crucial for system-wide transformation, and this can be achieved through strong partnerships that will support the nation's journey to net zero by 2050."
She added: "The participation of all sectors is essential in tackling the challenge, with perceived risks in green investments, such as a relatively long payback period, hindering green finance investments. These perceptions must be addressed, with the UAE demonstrating to the world that investing in green projects is an investment in our future. Together, we must create new financial products and services that promote sustainability and resilience and work towards a strategy that aligns with the interests of all stakeholders."
Ms Al Mheiri pointed to the UAE's successes in clean energy projects such as Masdar City and Noor Abu Dhabi Solar Park. She noted the significant green finance behind Etihad Rail, which will transform the UAE's transportation sector and reduce the UAE’s CO2 emissions by up to 2.2 million tonnes annually.
"With environmental, social and governance (ESG) emerging as the cornerstone for responsible business, government entities and the private sector, including the finance industry, can rally their efforts to raise ambition for climate finance," said Ms Al Mheiri.
"Furthermore, investors and financial markets increasingly demand an effective ESG plan and a path to net-zero carbon emissions as part of their analysis process to identify material risks and growth opportunities.”
Panellists at Monday's event included Alexandros Severis and Girish Narula from Intercontinental Exchange, Shargiil Bashir from First Abu Dhabi Bank, Zoe Knight from HSBC, Faisal Al Shimmari from Mashreq Intercontinental Exchange, and Oliver Phillips from Standard Chartered Bank.
Cop28 takes place at Expo City Dubai from November 30 to December 12.
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Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
'Skin'
Dir: Guy Nattiv
Starring: Jamie Bell, Danielle McDonald, Bill Camp, Vera Farmiga
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Abramovich London
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Profile
Company: Justmop.com
Date started: December 2015
Founders: Kerem Kuyucu and Cagatay Ozcan
Sector: Technology and home services
Based: Jumeirah Lake Towers, Dubai
Size: 55 employees and 100,000 cleaning requests a month
Funding: The company’s investors include Collective Spark, Faith Capital Holding, Oak Capital, VentureFriends, and 500 Startups.
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
Iftar programme at the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding
Established in 1998, the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding was created with a vision to teach residents about the traditions and customs of the UAE. Its motto is ‘open doors, open minds’. All year-round, visitors can sign up for a traditional Emirati breakfast, lunch or dinner meal, as well as a range of walking tours, including ones to sites such as the Jumeirah Mosque or Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood.
Every year during Ramadan, an iftar programme is rolled out. This allows guests to break their fast with the centre’s presenters, visit a nearby mosque and observe their guides while they pray. These events last for about two hours and are open to the public, or can be booked for a private event.
Until the end of Ramadan, the iftar events take place from 7pm until 9pm, from Saturday to Thursday. Advanced booking is required.
For more details, email openminds@cultures.ae or visit www.cultures.ae
Stormy seas
Weather warnings show that Storm Eunice is soon to make landfall. The videographer and I are scrambling to return to the other side of the Channel before it does. As we race to the port of Calais, I see miles of wire fencing topped with barbed wire all around it, a silent ‘Keep Out’ sign for those who, unlike us, aren’t lucky enough to have the right to move freely and safely across borders.
We set sail on a giant ferry whose length dwarfs the dinghies migrants use by nearly a 100 times. Despite the windy rain lashing at the portholes, we arrive safely in Dover; grateful but acutely aware of the miserable conditions the people we’ve left behind are in and of the privilege of choice.
