Cop28 President-designate Dr Sultan Al Jaber.
Cop28 President-designate Dr Sultan Al Jaber.
Cop28 President-designate Dr Sultan Al Jaber.
Cop28 President-designate Dr Sultan Al Jaber.


Why Dr Al Jaber is the right choice for Cop28


  • English
  • Arabic

January 28, 2023

The Cop28 conference taking place in the UAE later this year is a vital event in the ongoing struggle to limit climate change and a critical staging-post in the journey to a profound but realistic transition to renewable energy sources in order to cap temperature rises. However, emissions are only one part of the complex web of issues impacting our environment, from the loss of arable land to heightened threats to nature.

As such, the intervention of a group of climate and environmental groups, who have written to the UN in protest at the choice of Dr Sultan Al Jaber as President-designate of Cop28, is both unhelpful and wrong-headed. Their complaint is that Dr Al Jaber is also managing director and group chief executive of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and that this position somehow makes him unsuitable for his Cop28 role.

Alas, what it in fact reveals is the unrealistic mindset that plagues the conversation around climate change. This is not some Manichean battle between good and evil, with the fossil fuel industry presumably cast as the latter. By fixating on one individual, the complainants are ignoring the complexities and nuances that bedevil the issue. Rather than undermining the “legitimacy and efficacy” of Cop28, as they allege, the choice of Dr Al Jaber is a sign of the seriousness with which the UAE is taking the responsibility of hosting the event, and an acknowledgement of the gravity of the climate situation and the need for achievable solutions. This has already been demonstrated by the great strides taken by the Emirates in the field of renewable energy and other far-reaching environmental measures - the UAE’s impending ban on single-use plastics, for example.

Dr Al Jaber himself has been in the vanguard of these efforts. As well as his other positions, he is the UAE’s special envoy for climate change and chairman of Masdar, the country’s renewable energy company. He demonstrated his credentials in the field as far back as 2009, when he led the UAE’s successful bid to host the International Renewable Energy Agency.

The fact is that all stakeholders must be involved in this process in order to form the consensus necessary to bring about actual change. The myopic approach favoured by the signatories to this letter will serve only to create a divisive narrative that threatens to frustrate the search for common ground. No-one can afford to have a near-term energy crisis and a mid-term under-funded energy transition.

It is time to move beyond a narrow-minded and divisive approach to this global problem, and instead focus on finding pragmatic, realistic solutions that will make a real difference.

Top 10 most polluted cities
  1. Bhiwadi, India
  2. Ghaziabad, India
  3. Hotan, China
  4. Delhi, India
  5. Jaunpur, India
  6. Faisalabad, Pakistan
  7. Noida, India
  8. Bahawalpur, Pakistan
  9. Peshawar, Pakistan
  10. Bagpat, India
Labour dispute

The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.


- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law 

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

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Six large-scale objects on show
  • Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
  • The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
  • A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
  • Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
  • A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
  • Torrijos Palace dome
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Twin-turbocharged%204-litre%20V8%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E542bhp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E770Nm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEight-speed%20automatic%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh1%2C450%2C000%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The specs

Price, base / as tested Dh12 million

Engine 8.0-litre quad-turbo, W16

Gearbox seven-speed dual clutch auto

Power 1479 @ 6,700rpm

Torque 1600Nm @ 2,000rpm 0-100kph: 2.6 seconds 0-200kph: 6.1 seconds

Top speed 420 kph (governed)

Fuel economy, combined 35.2L / 100km (est)

TECH%20SPECS%3A%20APPLE%20WATCH%20SERIES%209
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How to invest in gold

Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.

A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.

Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”

Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”

Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”

By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.

You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.

You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.

Updated: January 28, 2023, 12:39 PM`