US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said on Saturday that a few countries have surprisingly resisted mentioning the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels during the UN climate summit in Egypt.
Addressing a news conference, Mr Kerry also gave a general assessment of the two-week Cop27 summit at its halfway point. He said a lot of work had yet to be done but delegates “genuinely are making really good progress”.
He said the world has to meet the goal of keeping the temperature increase below 1.5ºC by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45 per cent by 2030. After that, he said, it could be impossible to hit that target, barring a major scientific breakthrough.
There have been some ominous findings revealed over the past week in Sharm El Sheikh, the Red Sea resort hosting the UN summit, about the chances of meeting the target set at the UN climate summit in Paris in 2015.
Greenhouse gas emissions have been rising since and scientists now say the world risks missing the target without swift and deep cuts.
Breaching the 1.5ºC threshold risks unleashing the worst consequences of global warming, they say.
The Global Carbon Brief outlined how there was a 50 per cent chance that global temperature will rise and hit 1.5°C in less than a decade. If this vital threshold is breached, scientists believe half the world's population could be exposed to life-threatening changes to the climate.
Emissions would have to fall at rates comparable to 2020 — when Covid-19 restrictions shut down transport, industry and economic activities — every year to keep temperature rises to 1.5°C in the long term, according to the Global Carbon Brief.
In response to a question, Mr Kerry, whose country has historically been the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, said: “There are very few countries, but a few, that have raised the issue of not mentioning this word [1.5 degrees] or that word."
"But the fact is that in Glasgow that was adopted, the language is there. And I know … Egypt doesn't intend to be the country that hosts a retreat from what was achieved in Glasgow," he said, referring to last year's climate summit in Scotland.
Mr Kerry was also asked about loss and damage — negotiation language for providing the most vulnerable countries with funds to adapt to damage wreaked by climate change or mitigate its effects.
Loss and damage was added to the agenda of the UN climate summit in Egypt, a goal that had proved elusive for years.
"It's a well-known fact that the United States and many other countries will not establish some sort of legal structure that is tied to compensation or liability. That's just not happening," Mr Kerry said.
"We will find a way, I am confident, to be able to have financial arrangements that reflect the reality of how we are all going to deal with the climate crisis."
Mr Kerry also refused to be drawn into details of his talks on the sidelines of Cop27 with China’s climate envoy, whose country is the world’s second largest gas emitter after the US.
He described the talks as informal and said the situation would become clearer after President Joe Biden meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping next week at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia.
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.”
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The British in India: Three Centuries of Ambition and Experience
by David Gilmour
Allen Lane
Company Profile
Name: JustClean
Based: Kuwait with offices in other GCC countries
Launch year: 2016
Number of employees: 130
Sector: online laundry service
Funding: $12.9m from Kuwait-based Faith Capital Holding
How to join and use Abu Dhabi’s public libraries
• There are six libraries in Abu Dhabi emirate run by the Department of Culture and Tourism, including one in Al Ain and Al Dhafra.
• Libraries are free to visit and visitors can consult books, use online resources and study there. Most are open from 8am to 8pm on weekdays, closed on Fridays and have variable hours on Saturdays, except for Qasr Al Watan which is open from 10am to 8pm every day.
• In order to borrow books, visitors must join the service by providing a passport photograph, Emirates ID and a refundable deposit of Dh400. Members can borrow five books for three weeks, all of which are renewable up to two times online.
• If users do not wish to pay the fee, they can still use the library’s electronic resources for free by simply registering on the website. Once registered, a username and password is provided, allowing remote access.
• For more information visit the library network's website.
