At a climate dinner with business leaders at Cop26, US climate envoy John Kerry was upbeat.
Cop26, in his opinion, delivered in a way that no Cop had done so in the past: the money was finally in place.
“For 2022, we now have the full $100 billion that we wanted to have and $100bn going forward, so if we take that issue off the table that changes the dynamics,” Mr Kerry told the UK’s business community at a Confederation of British Industry dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow.
Mr Kerry was referring to the long-awaited $100bn a year promised by rich nations to developing countries, which he says is now set to delivered in 2022, a year earlier than previously thought.
He made reference to commitments by Japan to put $10bn into the mitigation efforts over the next five years, allowing a further $8bn in private finance to be leveraged.
Securing and then delivering the cash needed to fund crucial emission cuts in developing countries has been considered a critical test of the UN summit, which needs to build trust between the wealthy and poor, who urgently need finance to ensure the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy goes ahead.
“You’re now leading the largest economic transformation in the world,” Mr Kerry told business leaders at the CBI event.
“Every Cop I’ve been to in history has never had the feel of what I feel here in Glasgow today. New energy, new urgency, a new sense of possibility and we’ve never had as much corporate presence and commitment as we have today. Thanks to you, we’re going to, I believe, be able to raise ambition beyond anything that we imagined.”
Lord Karan Bilimoria, president of the CBI, which speaks on behalf of about 190,000 businesses across the UK, told delegates at the dinner that the large presence of business at the climate conference in Glasgow set it apart from previous Cop meetings.
"It's not just countries setting targets, it's businesses setting targets and it's businesses walking the talk as well. It's a watershed Cop, there's no question about it," he said.
"The other big thing in Cop this time ... is finance. We're seeing the huge amounts of commitments when it comes to finance that have been committed to enable this green transition."
A day later, former US vice president Al Gore was equally upbeat about the pledges made by countries and companies at the climate talks.
“Here we are, nearing the halfway point of this historic conference, and much remains to be done. But I would also like to note that much has been achieved already,” he told delegates on Friday.
“Some of it is in the form of pledges that must be kept and part of our task, all of us, is to ensure that these pledges are, in fact, kept.”
The Cop26 event, which has another week to run, has been considered "the world's best last chance" by leaders to cap global temperature increases at the 1.5°C to 2°C limit set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
The stakes for the planet are huge – among them the effect on economic livelihoods around the world and the future stability of the global financial system.
However, the effect is expected to hit the developing world much harder because much of the world's poor, who live in the tropical or low-lying regions, are already suffering from the effects of climate change, such as droughts and rising sea levels.
Poorer countries rarely have the resources to mitigate against the damage from global warming with a report from the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System projecting overall output losses of above 15 per cent for much of Asia and Africa, rising to 20 per cent in the Sahel countries.
Here we are, nearing the halfway point of this historic conference, and much remains to be done.
Al Gore,
former US vice president
Unchecked warming would shave 7 per cent off world output by 2100, the International Monetary Fund said, while NFGS puts it even higher at 13 per cent.
Meanwhile, a 2020 World Bank report said climate change would drive up to 132 million more people into extreme poverty by 2030, because of lost farming income; rising food prices; increased disease; and economic losses from extreme weather.
With the world’s wealthy countries responsible – because they have generated the bulk of the emissions since their industrial revolutions – the $100bn pledge to help developing countries transition is vital to reverse the damage already wrought.
The issue is that it has taken a long time to come, with the pledge dating back to 2009 when the intention was to fulfil it by 2020.
With the money due to come from a mixture of public and private sources, governments had blamed stagnant private investment for the failure to meet the target by 2020.
While the OECD recently said the target would not be reached until 2023, Mr Kerry made it clear on Thursday that richer nations will deliver the $100bn of climate finance from 2022 – a year earlier than expected.
Earlier in the week, at the summit’s designated Finance Day, the UK's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, said a coalition of banks, insurers and asset managers would provide the delayed $100bn to meet the Paris Agreement goals.
Mr Sunak assured developing countries that the money would be in their treasuries more than a decade after it was promised.
"While we know we are not yet meeting it soon enough, we will work closely with developing countries to do more and to reach the target sooner," Mr Sunak said.
While $100bn was the annual amount targeted for developing nations, the actual figure secured at Cop26 by the private sector commitment was $130bn.
Sourced by an initiative called the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, led by Mark Carney, former governor of the Bank of England and now a UN envoy for climate, the coalition brought together 450 companies who make up 40 per cent of the world's banking assets.
While there was a warm feeling inside the Cop26 venue that justice had been done with the “wall of capital” in place, outside on the streets of Glasgow in the wind and rain, climate change protesters had a different feeling.
On Friday, more than 8,000 joined street protests and teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg addressed a rally in the city centre.
This was followed by a colourful demonstration of more than 100,000 climate protesters on Saturday, with many sceptical about the big-money pledges.
Some carried placards calling for "Climate Justice" and a "Fair Cop" as they made their way to a park on the edge of the city in the afternoon.
"We need the biggest emitters to be held responsible," Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, from the Marshall Islands, told the crowd.
"We did nothing to contribute to this crisis, and we should not have to pay the consequences."
Jill Bird, 66, who travelled to the march from Bristol, was among a group wearing white jumpsuits with "greenwash busters" backpacks.
She wants rich nations to live up to their pledge of providing $100bn annually to vulnerable nations that "keeps being promised and promised and promised and doesn't actually materialise".
Mr Kerry made it clear that he understood the sceptism.
“Twenty countries, folks, produce 80 per cent of all the emissions,” he told the CBI conference.
“So it’s no wonder that vulnerable nations and less developed nations are angry and frustrated and looking for help and it is appropriate that we, the developed world, step up and make the difference. And we can, no question about it.”
He also made it clear that business has a key part to play in the transition.
“Everybody is going to have to be part of this transition, but business, more than anybody, is the one entity that we really need at the table this time that can make the difference,” he said.
“Why? Because you are those trillions of dollars. You are in the marketplace. You are the job creators. You’re the folks who can bring to the table the focused effort to create the jobs of the future and transition those markets."
While Cop26 negotiations paused on Sunday before a frantic week of shuttle diplomacy, as ministers arrive to push through hard-fought compromises, countries still need to flesh out how pledges made in the Paris deal work in practice.
This will include nailing down rules governing carbon markets, common reporting timetables and transparency.
Mr Carney said reforms of the financial system were needed, including mandatory climate disclosure rules, so that the $100tn pot did not go to waste.
Mr Sunak echoed a similar sentiment, saying financial rules needed to ensure that “what sits there on a piece of paper is actually going to turn into tangible actual projects on the ground”.
Mr Gore also called for “radical transparency” that includes the monitoring of emissions from the ground, sea, air and by satellite, but also identifying those responsible for releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
“We are compiling a comprehensive list of those who are responsible for each of the entities that are emitting greenhouse gases, not to be the climate police, but to be the neighbourhood watch. Except the neighbourhood is the globe and we are all in this together,” he said.
Mr Kerry said the real cost of the transition would be much, much higher.
“No government in the world has enough money” to cope with the climate crisis and “trillions” of dollars in private finance will be needed, he said.
“Billions don’t cut it, we need the trillions," he said.
However, Mr Kerry was insistent that the wealthy nations will “overcome the gap”.
“No one ever said or that we could come here to Glasgow and just make an announcement, and this problem’s going away and it’s cured. This is always going to be tough, but it’s doable,” he said.
“It’s always dangerous to get a little too far over your skis, but I believe that we’re on the brink of just the inflection moment, a huge moment in history.”
Match info
Costa Rica 0
Serbia 1
Kolarov (56')
The specs: 2018 Mercedes-Benz E 300 Cabriolet
Price, base / as tested: Dh275,250 / Dh328,465
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder
Power: 245hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 370Nm @ 1,300rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
More from Neighbourhood Watch
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Try out the test yourself
Q1 Suppose you had $100 in a savings account and the interest rate was 2 per cent per year. After five years, how much do you think you would have in the account if you left the money to grow?
a) More than $102
b) Exactly $102
c) Less than $102
d) Do not know
e) Refuse to answer
Q2 Imagine that the interest rate on your savings account was 1 per cent per year and inflation was 2 per cent per year. After one year, how much would you be able to buy with the money in this account?
a) More than today
b) Exactly the same as today
c) Less than today
d) Do not know
e) Refuse to answer
Q4 Do you think that the following statement is true or false? “Buying a single company stock usually provides a safer return than a stock mutual fund.”
a) True
b) False
d) Do not know
e) Refuse to answer
The “Big Three” financial literacy questions were created by Professors Annamaria Lusardi of the George Washington School of Business and Olivia Mitchell, of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Answers: Q1 More than $102 (compound interest). Q2 Less than today (inflation). Q3 False (diversification).
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
LEADERBOARD
%3Cp%3E-19%20T%20Fleetwood%20(Eng)%3B%20-18%20R%20McIlroy%20(NI)%2C%20T%20Lawrence%20(SA)%3B%20-16%20J%20Smith%3B%20-15%20F%20Molinari%20(Ita)%3B%20-14%20Z%20Lombard%20(SA)%2C%20S%20Crocker%20(US)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ESelected%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E-11%20A%20Meronk%20(Pol)%3B%20-10%20E%20Ferguson%20(Sco)%3B%20-8%20R%20Fox%20(NZ)%20-7%20L%20Donald%20(Eng)%3B%20-5%20T%20McKibbin%20(NI)%2C%20N%20Hoejgaard%20(Den)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
More from UAE Human Development Report:
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre 6-cyl turbo
Power: 374hp at 5,500-6,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm from 1,900-5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.5L/100km
Price: from Dh285,000
On sale: from January 2022
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
BIO
Favourite holiday destination: Turkey - because the government look after animals so well there.
Favourite film: I love scary movies. I have so many favourites but The Ring stands out.
Favourite book: The Lord of the Rings. I didn’t like the movies but I loved the books.
Favourite colour: Black.
Favourite music: Hard rock. I actually also perform as a rock DJ in Dubai.
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Abramovich London
A Kensington Palace Gardens house with 15 bedrooms is valued at more than £150 million.
A three-storey penthouse at Chelsea Waterfront bought for £22 million.
Steel company Evraz drops more than 10 per cent in trading after UK officials said it was potentially supplying the Russian military.
Sale of Chelsea Football Club is now impossible.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Past winners of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
2016 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2015 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-GP)
2014 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)
2013 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
2012 Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
2011 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2010 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
2009 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)
The biog
Profession: Senior sports presenter and producer
Marital status: Single
Favourite book: Al Nabi by Jibran Khalil Jibran
Favourite food: Italian and Lebanese food
Favourite football player: Cristiano Ronaldo
Languages: Arabic, French, English, Portuguese and some Spanish
Website: www.liliane-tannoury.com
PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Saturday
West Ham United v Tottenham Hotspur (3.30pm)
Burnley v Huddersfield Town (7pm)
Everton v Bournemouth (7pm)
Manchester City v Crystal Palace (7pm)
Southampton v Manchester United (7pm)
Stoke City v Chelsea (7pm)
Swansea City v Watford (7pm)
Leicester City v Liverpool (8.30pm)
Sunday
Brighton and Hove Albion v Newcastle United (7pm)
Monday
Arsenal v West Bromwich Albion (11pm)
Mobile phone packages comparison
Hunger and Fury: The Crisis of Democracy in the Balkans
Jasmin Mujanović, Hurst Publishers
A Prayer Before Dawn
Director: Jean-Stephane Sauvaire
Starring: Joe Cole, Somluck Kamsing, Panya Yimmumphai
Three stars
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
Defined benefit and defined contribution schemes explained
Defined Benefit Plan (DB)
A defined benefit plan is where the benefit is defined by a formula, typically length of service to and salary at date of leaving.
Defined Contribution Plan (DC)
A defined contribution plan is where the benefit depends on the amount of money put into the plan for an employee, and how much investment return is earned on those contributions.
Company%20profile
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MATCH INFO
Manchester City 6 Huddersfield Town 1
Man City: Agüero (25', 35', 75'), Jesus (31'), Silva (48'), Kongolo (84' og)
Huddersfield: Stankovic (43')
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
Paltan
Producer: JP Films, Zee Studios
Director: JP Dutta
Cast: Jackie Shroff, Sonu Sood, Arjun Rampal, Siddhanth Kapoor, Luv Sinha and Harshvardhan Rane
Rating: 2/5
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
AndhaDhun
Director: Sriram Raghavan
Producer: Matchbox Pictures, Viacom18
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan
Rating: 3.5/5
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.”
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
Company%20profile
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinFlx%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20January%202021%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Amr%20Yussif%20(co-founder%20and%20CEO)%2C%20Mattieu%20Capelle%20(co-founder%20and%20CTO)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%20in%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EIndustry%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%20size%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%241.5m%20pre-seed%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Venture%20capital%20-%20Y%20Combinator%2C%20500%20Global%2C%20Dubai%20Future%20District%20Fund%2C%20Fox%20Ventures%2C%20Vector%20Fintech.%20Also%20a%20number%20of%20angel%20investors%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Panipat
Director Ashutosh Gowariker
Produced Ashutosh Gowariker, Rohit Shelatkar, Reliance Entertainment
Cast Arjun Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Kriti Sanon, Mohnish Behl, Padmini Kolhapure, Zeenat Aman
Rating 3 /5 stars
