Live updates: Follow the latest news on Cop28
As one of Africa’s fastest-growing nations, Uganda laid down ambitious plans to connect its entire 45 million population to reliable electricity by 2030 in an eye-catching energy transition plan unveiled on Tuesday at Cop28.
Huge investment into renewable energy projects, through hydro, geothermal and solar power paired with a new oil pipeline, aims to double the current number of people wired to electricity supplies.
Fewer than 45 per cent of Ugandans have access to power, below the average for sub-Saharan African nations.
Despite Uganda being a continental leader in green energy, with 95 per cent of its current 2 gigawatt capacity generated by renewables, it is a controversial 1,400km heated oil pipeline that promises to transform the landlocked nation and contribute to its green energy transition.
With the development of the energy transition plan, we are a sending clear signal on Uganda’s intended direction of travel
Irene Bateebe,
permanent secretary, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development
Pumping from the Tilenga and Kingfishers sites close to Lake Albert is due to begin in 2025 and will produce up to 240,000 barrels of oil a day when fully operational.
Thousands of people have been displaced from their homes and moved to new settlements to make way for the pipeline that snakes through Tanzania into the city of Tanga on the Indian Ocean.
The project, backed by China and French oil company TotalEnergies, promises to transform the nation into an energy hub for East Africa, doubling the national GDP to about $80 billion.
While fossil fuels remain at the heart of Uganda’s economic future, it is renewable energy that will continue to power the country.
“The plan lays out an ambitious yet feasible pathway to meet the country’s growth and development objectives in a secure, affordable and sustainable way,” said Ruth Nankabirwa, Minister of Energy and Mineral Development.
“Given Uganda’s point of departure, progress on expanding energy infrastructure must kick up a notch.
“Fortunately, Uganda has an enormous amount of domestic resources that can help realise the transition. Uganda has ample potential for solar, hydroelectric and geothermal power.
“These resources will reinforce the transition and contribute to Uganda’s economic growth.”
The plan said $850 million was needed annually to reach universal access to electricity by 2030, while the overall energy transition process will need $8 billion per year from 2030 onwards.
The message that the world is not quite ready to abandon fossil fuels has been a familiar theme at Cop28 in Dubai.
“The rate of progress to reach universal access is steep but not unprecedented,” said Ms Nankabirwa.
“Reaching universal access in this decade relies on all solutions available and will deliver huge benefits for development, health and gender equity.”
Another ambitious goal is to wean 95 per cent of the nation off biomass fuels such as charcoal and wood, used to heat homes and cook food.
With Uganda's population expected to increase just short of 50 million to 70 million by 2040, energy transition is required now to prevent soaring rates of carbon emissions.
Charcoal ban
Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni recently issued an executive decree banning production and trade in charcoal in the north, where the charcoal industry is focused, in a bid to push through cleaner cooking practices.
A programme has already been launched to encourage a switch from firewood to burners using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) instead.
To achieve the universal clean cooking target, a million cleaner stoves will be needed annually until 2030.
Uganda’s energy transition plan envisages most of the population cooking on electric hobs, clean gas rings or closed combustion stoves that emit no methane, a gas which is highly damaging to the climate and public health.
The major challenge ahead is how to get a population of millions to switch practices that have been passed down through generations while reassuring them cooking by gas is safe.
Authorities said as many as 50,000 Ugandans die each year from air pollution generated from burning biomass inside homes.
If left unchecked, current demand for biomass is so high it is estimated Uganda’s entire national stock of forest and tree cover will disappear within 20 years.
“With the development of the energy transition plan, we are sending a clear signal on Uganda’s intended direction of travel to industry, investors and the global energy community,” said Irene Bateebe, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development.
“We have set Uganda on a sustainable low-carbon energy development path.”
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Company profile
Date started: January, 2014
Founders: Mike Dawson, Varuna Singh, and Benita Rowe
Based: Dubai
Sector: Education technology
Size: Five employees
Investment: $100,000 from the ExpoLive Innovation Grant programme in 2018 and an initial $30,000 pre-seed investment from the Turn8 Accelerator in 2014. Most of the projects are government funded.
Partners/incubators: Turn8 Accelerator; In5 Innovation Centre; Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme; Dubai Future Accelerators; FHI 360; VSO and Consult and Coach for a Cause (C3)
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Game Of Thrones Season Seven: A Bluffers Guide
Want to sound on message about the biggest show on television without actually watching it? Best not to get locked into the labyrinthine tales of revenge and royalty: as Isaac Hempstead Wright put it, all you really need to know from now on is that there’s going to be a huge fight between humans and the armies of undead White Walkers.
The season ended with a dragon captured by the Night King blowing apart the huge wall of ice that separates the human world from its less appealing counterpart. Not that some of the humans in Westeros have been particularly appealing, either.
Anyway, the White Walkers are now free to cause any kind of havoc they wish, and as Liam Cunningham told us: “Westeros may be zombie land after the Night King has finished.” If the various human factions don’t put aside their differences in season 8, we could be looking at The Walking Dead: The Medieval Years.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
India Test squad
Kohli (c), Dhawan, Rahul, Vijay, Pujara, Rahane (vc), Karun, Karthik (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep, Pandya, Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Bumrah, Thakur
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League, last-16, second leg (first-leg scores in brackets):
PSG (2) v Manchester United (0)
Midnight (Thursday), BeIN Sports
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.”
Three ways to get a gratitude glow
By committing to at least one of these daily, you can bring more gratitude into your life, says Ong.
- During your morning skincare routine, name five things you are thankful for about yourself.
- As you finish your skincare routine, look yourself in the eye and speak an affirmation, such as: “I am grateful for every part of me, including my ability to take care of my skin.”
- In the evening, take some deep breaths, notice how your skin feels, and listen for what your skin is grateful for.
The Cairo Statement
1: Commit to countering all types of terrorism and extremism in all their manifestations
2: Denounce violence and the rhetoric of hatred
3: Adhere to the full compliance with the Riyadh accord of 2014 and the subsequent meeting and executive procedures approved in 2014 by the GCC
4: Comply with all recommendations of the Summit between the US and Muslim countries held in May 2017 in Saudi Arabia.
5: Refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of countries and of supporting rogue entities.
6: Carry out the responsibility of all the countries with the international community to counter all manifestations of extremism and terrorism that threaten international peace and security
As You Were
Liam Gallagher
(Warner Bros)
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
UAE Tour 2020
Stage 1: The Pointe Palm Jumeirah - Dubai Silicon Oasis, 148km
Stage 2: Hatta - Hatta Dam, 168km
Stage 3: Al Qudra Cycle Track - Jebel Hafeet, 184km
Stage 4: Zabeel Park - Dubai City Walk, 173km
Stage 5: Al Ain - Jebel Hafeet, 162km
Stage 6: Al Ruwais - Al Mirfa, 158km
Stage 7: Al Maryah Island - Abu Dhabi Breakwater, 127km
How to apply for a drone permit
- Individuals must register on UAE Drone app or website using their UAE Pass
- Add all their personal details, including name, nationality, passport number, Emiratis ID, email and phone number
- Upload the training certificate from a centre accredited by the GCAA
- Submit their request
What are the regulations?
- Fly it within visual line of sight
- Never over populated areas
- Ensure maximum flying height of 400 feet (122 metres) above ground level is not crossed
- Users must avoid flying over restricted areas listed on the UAE Drone app
- Only fly the drone during the day, and never at night
- Should have a live feed of the drone flight
- Drones must weigh 5 kg or less
The specs: 2017 Maserati Quattroporte
Price, base / as tested Dh389,000 / Dh559,000
Engine 3.0L twin-turbo V8
Transmission Eight-speed automatic
Power 530hp @ 6,800rpm
Torque 650Nm @ 2,000 rpm
Fuel economy, combined 10.7L / 100km
