The prime minister of Barbados has been awarded the UN’s highest environmental honour for her work highlighting the threat from rising sea levels to small islands around the world.
Mia Mottley was described as a “driving force for climate action” across Latin America and the Caribbean who has set ambitious environmental targets for her country, including a fossil fuel-free electricity sector by 2030.
Rising temperatures and sea levels are affecting Barbados by shrinking its already-limited water supply, forcing villages to relocate from the coastline, and contaminating existing freshwater reserves with sea water.
The award marks the conclusion of a remarkable week for Ms Mottley who led the ceremonies as Barbados stopped pledging allegiance to the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II and became a republic for the first time in its history.
In recognition of her leadership, Ms Mottley was named as one of the four winners of the award, all women, announced on Monday by the UN’s Environment Programme.
The announcement came after Ms Mottley delivered a stark warning to the UN’s climate change conference in November, telling delegates that a 2ºC rise in global temperatures above pre-industrial levels would be a “death sentence” for nations such as Antigua, the Maldives, Fiji and Barbados.
“We do not want that dreaded death sentence,” she told the conference. “We have come here today to say try harder, try harder.”
She has been a harsh critic of wealthier countries for their failure to pay for the impact of climate change through the scale of their emissions.
“The moral position has always been that the polluter must pay,” she said last week.
“Now what's the reality? The G20 countries have contributed 80 per cent of greenhouse gases and have contributed virtually nothing” to help finance mitigation efforts.
She highlighted how central banks of the world’s wealthiest countries have injected $25 trillion into their economies to stimulate their economies and said that similar amounts were needed to adapt to climate change.
The Sea Women of Melanesia, a group in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands that trains local women to monitor the state of coral bleaching on some the world’s most endangered reefs, has also been declared the winner of UN environment award.
The other winners are, Dr Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka, the first wildlife vet of the Uganda Wildlife Authority and an authority on primates and diseases that spread from animals to humans, and Maria Kolesnikova, of Kyrgyzstan, an environmental activist who heads a group that monitors air quality in central Asia.
The award, instituted by UN environment programme in 2005, has been conferred on 101 groups and people, including 25 world leaders.
“As we enter into a decisive decade, to cut emissions and protect and restore ecosystems, Unep’s Champions of the Earth demonstrate that all of us can contribute,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN agency.
“This year’s Champions are women who not only inspire us, but also remind us that we have in our hands the solutions, the knowledge and the technology to limit climate change and avoid ecological collapse.”
How to improve Arabic reading in early years
One 45-minute class per week in Standard Arabic is not sufficient
The goal should be for grade 1 and 2 students to become fluent readers
Subjects like technology, social studies, science can be taught in later grades
Grade 1 curricula should include oral instruction in Standard Arabic
First graders must regularly practice individual letters and combinations
Time should be slotted in class to read longer passages in early grades
Improve the appearance of textbooks
Revision of curriculum should be undertaken as per research findings
Conjugations of most common verb forms should be taught
Systematic learning of Standard Arabic grammar
Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
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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