Editor’s Be aware: A model of this story seems in in the present day’s In the meantime within the Center East publication, CNN’s three-times-a-week look contained in the area’s greatest tales. Join right here.
Abu Dhabi, UAE
CNN
—
This yr’s COP28 local weather summit is mired in controversy, held in one of many world’s greatest oil exporting nations – the United Arab Emirates – and headed by one of the crucial outstanding faces in its oil business.
Environmental activists have cried foul, arguing that the local weather debate has been hijacked by the fossil gas foyer to guard the profit-maximizing agendas of petrostates.
The UAE’s involvement has sparked a dialogue on whether or not there’s a spot within the local weather area for international locations that rely totally on fossil gas exports for his or her earnings. And opinions are cut up.
Sultan Al Jaber, who will preside over the November summit, wears two very outstanding hats within the UAE. Apart from being the CEO of the Abu Dhabi Nationwide Oil Firm (ADNOC), he’s additionally the UAE’s local weather envoy, tasked with spearheading its power coverage. He took on the local weather portfolio over a decade earlier than turning into a high oil govt, serving to launch the state’s clear power firm Masdar in 2006 and bringing the Worldwide Renewable Vitality Company’s headquarters to Abu Dhabi in 2009.
The message the UAE is sending is that each fossil fuels and renewable power should be a part of the worldwide power combine, and that one doesn’t have to switch the opposite.
It has argued that given the projected progress in world power demand, each clear and soiled power will likely be wanted to energy the world, and a hasty transition away from oil and fuel may have a detrimental impact on the worldwide economic system.
“Latest occasions have proven that unplugging the present power system earlier than we now have constructed a sufficiently strong various places each financial and local weather progress in danger – and calls into query whether or not we will guarantee a simply transition that’s equitable to all,” Al Jaber wrote final yr in an opinion piece for Undertaking Syndicate.
The US Vitality Data Administration (EIA) estimates an almost 50% improve in world power use by 2050, with oil and fuel remaining the most-consumed sources of power.
Tom Evans, a coverage adviser on the European local weather change suppose tank E3G, instructed CNN that Al Jaber’s appointment raises questions in regards to the credibility of the UAE’s COP28 presidency. “At face worth, the top of a nationwide oil firm is clearly dealing with a large battle of curiosity,” he stated.
Al Jaber’s twin roles are what make him a “terrific alternative,” US Local weather Envoy John Kerry was cited as saying by the Related Press on Monday. The corporate he leads “is aware of it must transition,” Kerry stated.
Simon Stiell, the manager secretary of the United Nations Framework Conference on Local weather Change (UNFCCC) on Monday known as the UAE’s internet hosting of the summit a “distinctive alternative” at an environmental summit in Abu Dhabi. The UAE has the experience “to get each sector, significantly these exhausting to abate, aligned with 1.5,” he stated, referring to the local weather purpose to remain under 1.5 levels Celsius of warming.
The UAE has touted the mantra of “most power, minimal emissions,” saying that as an alternative of phasing out fossil fuels, it is going to work on making their extraction cleaner, and reinvest its revenues into renewable power in an effort to lift its share of the nation’s power combine. The nation is future-proofing its power sector and can “rejoice” the final barrel of oil it exports, Al Jaber stated at an power summit in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.
Over the previous 15 years, the UAE has invested $40 billion in renewable power and clear expertise globally, based on the Atlantic Council suppose tank. Final yr, it entered a pact with the US to speculate one other $100 billion in clear power. Al Jaber on Saturday known as for a tripling of renewable power output world wide and twice as a lot cash for adaptation within the world south.
However that’s not sufficient, local weather specialists say.
“Fossil gas earnings are most definitely not powering investments in clear power,” Assaad Razzouk, a clear power analyst in Singapore, instructed CNN. “Simply have a look at the spending of oil and fuel firms and the way that’s allotted,” Razzouk stated. Corporations like ADNOC and Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil firm have to cease investing in oil and fuel and spend far more on renewables if they’re severe in regards to the transition to scrub power, he added.
International campaigner Company Accountability in November described the presence of oil lobbyists at local weather summits as “an increase within the affect of the fossil gas business on the local weather talks which might be already rife with accusations of civil society censorship and company affect.”
Local weather specialists say the UAE’s method of increasing using renewables whereas persevering with to extract fossil fuels defies its personal commitments. COP28 didn’t reply to CNN’s request for remark.
“The Glasgow Local weather Pact agreed at COP26 in 2021 by all international locations, together with the UAE, requires a reduce of 45% in carbon emissions by 2030,” Mark Maslin, a professor engaged on local weather change at College School London, instructed CNN. “This will solely be achieved if there is no such thing as a new funding in fossil fuels and using all fossil fuels is phased out as quickly as doable.”
“So it doesn’t make any sense to spend money on fossil fuels when the world must be web zero emissions earlier than 2050,” he added.
However the UAE is doing fairly the alternative.
One of many few producers within the OPEC oil cartel with the capability to ramp up manufacturing on quick discover, the UAE has repeatedly known as for extra funding within the oil sector to fulfill world demand, and has launched into a venture to additional improve its personal capability. In November, it introduced ahead its oil manufacturing growth to 2027 as an alternative of 2030, when it is going to be producing as much as 5 million barrels per day (bpd) from about 4 million.
The UAE’s method has been pragmatic, stated Amena Bakr, chief OPEC correspondent at Vitality Intelligence, including that Russia’s struggle on Ukraine led nations to prioritize power safety and understand that the world couldn’t dispose of oil and fuel so quickly.
“Renewable power nonetheless can’t meet base-load power demand – that’s a reality,” she instructed CNN.
For Razzouk, the clear power analyst, the battle has “incontrovertibly proven the folly of counting on imported fossil fuels, and the nationwide safety dangers this entailed.”
Iran hangs British citizen on prices of espionage and corruption
A twin British-Iranian citizen was hanged by Iran on prices of espionage and corruption, a state-affiliated media outlet reported Saturday, the most recent in a string of executions carried out by a regime grappling with unprecedented protests throughout the nation. Alireza Akbari was executed for crimes together with “corruption on earth,” based on the Iranian judiciary-affiliated outlet Mizan. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated he was “appalled by the execution.” International Secretary James Cleverly stated Saturday afternoon that the British authorities deliberate to sanction Iran’s Prosecutor Common to underline “our disgust at Alireza Akbari’s execution.”
- Background: Akbari beforehand served as Iran’s deputy protection minister and was the top of the Strategic Analysis Institute. He was charged with working as a spy for MI6, the British intelligence company, and reportedly paid greater than $2 million, Iranian state media reported Saturday. He allegedly supplied info to international officers about 178 Iranian figures, together with the nation’s chief nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was killed by a remote-controlled machine gun working out of a automobile in 2020. Iran’s high officers accused Israel of masterminding the plot on the time, with out offering proof.
- Why it issues: Although Iran doesn’t acknowledge twin nationality, the execution of a person holding British citizenship will seemingly additional gas tensions between Tehran and Western nations, which have been crucial of the regime’s response to anti-government demonstrations that started in September final yr. Iran has lengthy ranked among the many world’s high executioners, and Akbari is one in every of three people to obtain a loss of life sentence within the first weeks of 2023.
Greater than 80,000 end up for Tel Aviv protest in opposition to Netanyahu authorities
Regardless of pouring rain, tens of hundreds of individuals protested in Tel Aviv Saturday evening in opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his authorities’s proposed modifications to the judicial system. Others took to the streets in Jerusalem for parallel protests. Attendees held indicators evaluating Netanyahu to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and saying Israel was turning into the likes of semi-democratic Hungary and theocratic Iran.
- Background: The proposed modifications, introduced final week by Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin, would search to reform Supreme Court docket nominations through a evaluation committee and allow parliament to overturn Supreme Court docket rulings.
- Why it issues: Protesters instructed CNN they concern for Israel’s future and that they got here out to ship a message to Netanyahu that the general public wouldn’t stand for what they see because the dismantling of Israeli democracy. Esther Hayut, the president of Israel’s Supreme Court docket, on Thursday attacked the proposed modifications as “an unbridled assault on the authorized system” and stated they have been “designed to drive a deadly blow on the independence of the judicial system.”
Syria units circumstances for rapprochement with Turkey
Syrian international minister Faisal Mekdad stated on Saturday that Turkey must finish its army presence in his nation to attain a full rapprochement, Reuters reported. “We can’t speak about resuming regular ties with Turkey with out eradicating the occupation, with out ending terrorism and returning the relations to the state that they have been primarily based on the primary place,” he stated after assembly his Iranian counterpart in Damascus.
- Background: Turkish International Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stated on Thursday that he may meet his Syrian counterpart early in February. Syria has made no official touch upon the timing of any such assembly, which might mark the highest-level talks between Ankara and Damascus for the reason that Syrian struggle started in 2011.
- Why it issues: Turkey has been a serious backer of the political and armed opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad throughout the 12-year battle in Syria, and has despatched its personal troops into swathes of the nation’s north. However Ankara could also be in search of a inexperienced mild from the Syrian regime and its Russian ally to launch a army operation in opposition to Kurdish teams in northern Syria.
The UAE will make investments $30 billion in South Korea, Reuters cited South Korea’s presidential workplace as saying on Sunday. The choice was introduced as South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol met his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi throughout a four-day go to. Yoon’s press secretary stated the funding will likely be directed at nuclear energy, protection, hydrogen and photo voltaic power industries, amongst others.
Saudi Arabia: #Naturalizing_children_of_female_citizens
Saudis on Twitter have been discussing a change within the kingdom’s citizenship legislation that was misinterpreted by some as easing the method of naturalization for the kids of Saudi ladies.
In most Arab international locations, solely males can cross on citizenship to their kids mechanically, which ladies’s rights activists have campaigned for many years to alter. In Saudi Arabia, the kids of Saudi ladies married to foreigners don’t get Saudi citizenship at beginning however have the correct to use for it after the age of 18 in the event that they meet sure circumstances.
The change within the Saudi citizenship legislation final week moved the authority to grant citizenship from the inside minister to the prime minister, however didn’t change the principles to acquire citizenship.
Some regional information shops falsely reported that the modifications eased the principles of naturalization, prompting the subject to pattern on Twitter in Saudi Arabia, with many praising the transfer and others warning of the demographic imbalance it may trigger. The wrong reporting nevertheless sparked a debate on the subject, with many calling on the federal government to permit ladies to cross on citizenship to their kids at beginning.
“I help this transfer as a result of I think about the Saudi lady to be equal to the Saudi man, with all of the rights and obligations as these Saudi males who marry international ladies and naturalize their kids,” Saudi author Mohammed Alkhalid stated in a video posted on Twitter.
Oil wealthy Gulf Arab international locations have very strict naturalization procedures. Of the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council, 4 have a majority expatriate inhabitants, with residents accounting for lower than 20% of the inhabitants in international locations just like the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
