Climate Change: ‘Study shows Lagos is sinking and needs support’. As part of mitigation measures, Lagos State in 2018 developed a climate action plan. The plan targets ensuring it achieves net zero by 2050. Experts, government officials, and stakeholders recently converged on Lagos. There, at a summit, they pondered the prevention and mitigation of climate...
COP28 President is CEO of a Joint Venture that Includes Sanctioned Russian Company LUKOIL. In October 2019, during Putin’s visit to the UAE, Emirati state-owned ADNOC awarded Russian oil and gas giant LUKOIL a 5% stake in the world’s largest offshore sour gas development, the Ghasha concession. At the time, LUKOIL was already under US sanctions....
Deep dive: A big year for climate negotiations… or not? Today, we dig into the major tensions building in climate negotiations in the lead-up to the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 28, which starts in late November. Summer used to be a time of joy. Now, each passing July in the Northern...
Out With Shrimp, In With Jellyfish? The seafood industry is facing potential overhaul due to climate change. Record-breaking ocean warming, shifting currents, and continued development in coastal communities are all contributing to a changing planet and concerning climate patterns that stand to dramatically impact the world’s seafood supply and could deliver a $10 billion hit...
The UAE Launders its International Reputation through the COP28 Machine. In November of this year, Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., is to preside over the United Nations COP28 climate talks in 2023 as President-Designate. It will take place in Dubai, UAE. Al Jaber will be directing the COP’s narratives on...
It’s an awkward moment for the oil industry to have at last won its long-sought “seat at the table” in international climate talks. The contradictions and conflicts in play at this opaque moment in the energy transition are mind-boggling. Global temperatures are flaring. War-related market disruptions are fading. The economic outlook is extremely fuzzy. Neither...
Al Gore vs. Oil-Rich Dubai, Host of COP28. Al Gore, former US Vice President, recently held a TED talk in anticipation of COP28. It is the upcoming Conference of the Parties, aka UNFCCC or 2023 United Nations Climate Conference, November 30th–December 12th, 2023, to be held at Expo City, Dubai. It increasingly looks like a...
Swedish wine: How global warming is shifting Europe’s vineyards northwards. Scandinavian wine could be the next big thing as unpredictable weather hits southern Europe. Scandinavia isn’t exactly what connoisseurs would define as prime wine country. But with climate change making for warmer and longer growing seasons and new varieties of grapes adapted to this landscape,...
Wealthy Russian buyers are fueling UAE real estate boom. Russian buyers are expected to continue fueling the real estate boom in the UAE in the short term. They are purchasing more and more expensive properties than other buyers. With rent prices soaring in the UAE, locals and expatriates alike are increasingly looking towards buying property....
Russia, Iran, and the Territorial Dispute with the UAE. Under President Ebrahim Raisi, Iran has carved out an overseas agenda that is a patent departure from the country’s 1979 Revolution-era notion of “neither East nor West,” reflected in a seemingly irreversible estrangement from Europe. It had alarmed tensions with the United States, and a disproportionate...