Josef Aschbacher, director general of the European Space Agency, has told The National that he will be going to the Cop28 summit in Dubai next month to discuss expanding co-operation with the UAE that may involve climate change monitoring.
The UAE Space Agency and ESA, an inter-governmental space agency with 22 member states including non-EU countries such as Norway and the UK, have worked together before.
The ESA has four international partners when it comes to Earth observation: Brazil, Australia, the Philippines and the African Union.
Should a deal be struck at the UN international climate negotiations, it would be the first between the ESA and an Arab country.
“I see the UAE as a very important emerging space power,” Mr Aschbacher said on Sunday. “I would like to explore further elements of co-operation.”
At Cop28, ESA will be putting forward a flagship joint programme with the European Commission called Copernicus, which monitors changes in the land, sea, and atmosphere for security and climate change purposes.
“We have to see what the UAE’s interests are on climate change, but certainly, from the European perspective, it is fair to say that we have one of the strongest space programmes using Earth observation data for climate change activities,” said Mr Aschbacher.
“We are in a bit of an exploratory phase to see what could be the next activities in which we work together.”
Bilateral climate observation partnerships are tailored to each country’s needs.
Data provided by Copernicus can be used to monitor the impact of climate change but also in other sectors such as agriculture monitoring, water management, disaster management and ship routing.
ESA describes it as “taking the pulse of the planet”.
“Countries bring in their local knowledge so that the data can be used cleverly,” said Mr Aschbacher. “In some cases, co-operation emerge in developing satellites or hardware infrastructure ground segments.”
ESA has co-operated several times with the UAE, including with the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre on the Rashid lunar rover.
ESA provided small material samples in the wheels of the 10kg lunar rover whose lander crashed on the Moon in May.
ESA also provided ground segment services for the establishment of a UAE support centre in 2019 for the first visit by UAE astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri to the International Space Station.
More recently, ESA also supported UAE astronaut Sultan Al Neyadi and his backup with training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, before he spent six months on the ISS. He returned last month.
Space is increasingly viewed as a strategic domain which is important to occupy for civilian and military purposes.
In November, the EU Commission unveiled Iris2, a constellation of up to 170 satellites to be deployed by 2025 to provide secure communication services to public authorities. It will extend to commercial authorities by 2027.
Awareness that conflicts on Earth also effect space has heightened since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said in a speech in Brussels this year that space will become a “battlefield.”
One month after the start of the war in Ukraine, ESA suspended a €1 billion joint project with Russia called ExoMars, which had been designed to look for signs of life on the Red Planet.
Meanwhile, investments in space and defence are soaring.
Governments invested about €100 billion ($108.58 billion) in space programmes in 2022, which represents a nine per cent overall increasing compared to 2021 and a 16 per cent increase in the space defence sector, according to Mr Borrell.
“The current geopolitical situation shows that space is an integral part of security,” said Mr Aschbacher. “And yes, that is something that will continue.”
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
UK%20record%20temperature
%3Cp%3E38.7C%20(101.7F)%20set%20in%20Cambridge%20in%202019%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
Dhadak
Director: Shashank Khaitan
Starring: Janhvi Kapoor, Ishaan Khattar, Ashutosh Rana
Stars: 3
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.”
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
