It is said that youth is not a time of life, but rather a state of mind.
August 12 was the UN International Day of Youth, and I believe it is incumbent on us all to never forget what it is like to be young.
For those of us in positions of influence, we must keep true to the dreams of our youth. That will enable us to govern with the experience of age, but the energy of youth – a potent combination.
When we are young, we are often told that patience is a virtue.
But the more I speak with our young people, particular on the most pivotal issues facing our nation and our planet, I am convinced that there is also a time and place for impatience.
We are now less than four short months away from Cop28 and young creative voices are more essential than ever to drive the climate change conversation.
It is therefore fitting that with Cop28 on the horizon and in 2023, the UAE Year of Sustainability, the UN has dedicated International Youth Day to the challenge of how to create a more sustainable world and respond to climate change. The theme of International Youth Day this year is developing youth skills suitable for the Green Economy.
The UAE leadership recently mobilised greater youth participation at ‘The Road to Cop28’ which was the first Cop28 event to take place in Expo City in Dubai in the runup to the climate conference. The event amplified the efforts of youth-led and youth-focused organisations in climate action. Needless to say, these efforts are not limited to a country or a region but are part of a global drive.
Young creative voices are more essential than ever to drive the climate change conversation
For most of us, when we think about how our world is impacted by climate change we form mental pictures of glaciers, prolonged drought, rising sea levels, or species driven to the edge of extinction. This is because the impacts of climate change are well-researched and commonly discussed and are primarily what most people associate with global warming.
And yet, one of the most fascinating aspects of the sustainability discussion is the relationship between climate change and culture.
The reality is that there is a growing awareness that climate change is one of the greatest threats facing culture today, and that the form that threat poses takes many guises.
In almost every part of the globe, cultural heritage sites are suffering and degrading from the effects of climate change. They are threatened by increasing fires to floods, droughts, desertification, and ocean acidification.
Across the seven emirates of UAE, that should be of significant cause for concern, because our own wealth of historic sites provides a poignant reminder of our cultural identity. Without them, that connection risks being slowly eroded over time.
Across the world, the identity of communities is already under threat from the march of climate change. In fact, the entire uprooting of communities due to climate change threatens entire ways of life, including the practice and transmission of living heritage. Oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, festive events, and traditional knowledge are all vulnerable in the face of climate change.
Left unchecked, climate change will also contribute to lost economic opportunities in the cultural and creative sector, as well as cultural tourism.
In essence, climate change is disrupting the lives of communities across the globe, dramatically limiting their ability to preserve, access and benefit from their culture.
But all is not lost. Not least because culture is also a powerful tool for addressing climate change impacts.
In fact, policymakers increasingly recognise that culture has the potential to be a driver to address our climate emergency. That’s in part because, culture does not simply echo the world around us, it is also a response to it – it challenges our norms and ideals, and provides us with a platform to express, share and shape our future. Creativity, for example, is essential for finding new solutions to environmental challenges, while artists and creators have an enormous role to play in inspiring climate action.
At the Ministry of Culture and Youth we are acutely aware of our own organisational vision: “Culture that inspires the world and youth shaping the future.” That vision, in a world under threat from climate catastrophe, is more relevant than ever.
We are ensuring our youth contributes to our drive to preserve the heritage of humanity across borders. Our restoration and rehabilitation work to protect the heritage of Africa is one such example where young volunteers will play a key role. The UAE’s Africa fund will support heritage sites in Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan, in partnership with the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH).
Across the planet, on the International Day of Youth, young people are leading the charge for action to combat climate change. And it is a source of immense pride that many of the most passionate and effective are young Emiratis, using the creative mediums to express themselves.
People have long suspected that climate shapes attitudes and behaviour, but it is a source of great inspiration to me that the attitudes and behaviour of our young creatives, are now shaping climate action.
In essence, they are motivated by the challenge to fight for their future and to fight for our futures.
I commend the impatience of our youth and the imagination of our creatives, because their hard work and perseverance continues to drive the sustainable change, we all desire.
The full list of 2020 Brit Award nominees (winners in bold):
British group
Coldplay
Foals
Bring me the Horizon
D-Block Europe
Bastille
British Female
Mabel
Freya Ridings
FKA Twigs
Charli xcx
Mahalia
British male
Harry Styles
Lewis Capaldi
Dave
Michael Kiwanuka
Stormzy
Best new artist
Aitch
Lewis Capaldi
Dave
Mabel
Sam Fender
Best song
Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber - I Don’t Care
Mabel - Don’t Call Me Up
Calvin Harrison and Rag’n’Bone Man - Giant
Dave - Location
Mark Ronson feat. Miley Cyrus - Nothing Breaks Like A Heart
AJ Tracey - Ladbroke Grove
Lewis Capaldi - Someone you Loved
Tom Walker - Just You and I
Sam Smith and Normani - Dancing with a Stranger
Stormzy - Vossi Bop
International female
Ariana Grande
Billie Eilish
Camila Cabello
Lana Del Rey
Lizzo
International male
Bruce Springsteen
Burna Boy
Tyler, The Creator
Dermot Kennedy
Post Malone
Best album
Stormzy - Heavy is the Head
Michael Kiwanuka - Kiwanuka
Lewis Capaldi - Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent
Dave - Psychodrama
Harry Styles - Fine Line
Rising star
Celeste
Joy Crookes
beabadoobee
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: Turbocharged four-cylinder 2.7-litre
Power: 325hp
Torque: 500Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh189,700
On sale: now
Timeline
2012-2015
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
Dhadak 2
Director: Shazia Iqbal
Starring: Siddhant Chaturvedi, Triptii Dimri
Rating: 1/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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Key recommendations
- Fewer criminals put behind bars and more to serve sentences in the community, with short sentences scrapped and many inmates released earlier.
- Greater use of curfews and exclusion zones to deliver tougher supervision than ever on criminals.
- Explore wider powers for judges to punish offenders by blocking them from attending football matches, banning them from driving or travelling abroad through an expansion of ‘ancillary orders’.
- More Intensive Supervision Courts to tackle the root causes of crime such as alcohol and drug abuse – forcing repeat offenders to take part in tough treatment programmes or face prison.
Our legal consultants
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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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.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs: 2018 Jaguar E-Pace First Edition
Price, base / as tested: Dh186,480 / Dh252,735
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder
Power: 246hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 365Nm @ 1,200rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.7L / 100km
