Africa

Traffickers are taking greater risks as Libyan coastguards ramp up surveillance, a UN report says.

By WAM
DUBAI, Sep 3 2018 (WAM)

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, DEWA, has launched Green Dubai, which includes three initiatives that will help make Dubai the smartest, happiest and most sustainable city in the world. The move supports DEWA’s efforts to empower customers to make sustainable decisions that contribute to protecting the environment and natural resources.

In its first phase, Green Dubai will include Shams Dubai initiative, which encourages building owners to install photovoltaic solar panels and connect them to DEWA’s grid. To date, DEWA has connected over 1,145 buildings to Dubai’s power grid with a capacity of nearly 50MW.

"Green Dubai aims to empower customers to adopt a conscious and responsible lifestyle through the sensible use of electricity and water"
Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA

Green Dubai also includes the Green Charger initiative to install Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations. DEWA has installed over 100 Green Chargers across Dubai and is working to increase the number to 200 stations by end of 2018. To encourage customers to use eco-friendly electric vehicles, DEWA provides free charging for electric cars registered in the Green Charger initiative until the end of 2019.

‘High Water Usage Alert’, the third initiative under Green Dubai, helps customers discover possible leaks in their water connections, after the meter. The system sends instant notifications to the customer if there are any unusual increases in consumption, which helps the customer to check the internal connections and repair any leaks, with the help of a specialised technician. This contributes to reducing incurred costs by limiting water wastage.

Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, said, “Green Dubai aims to empower customers to adopt a conscious and responsible lifestyle through the sensible use of electricity and water. This supports the Demand Side Management Strategy to reduce electricity and water use by 30% by 2030, generating clean solar energy, and encouraging the use of eco-friendly electric vehicles. Environmental work requires concerted efforts to achieve a balance between development and the environment, to protect the rights of future generations to enjoy a clean, healthy, and safe environment.

“Through Digital DEWA, the digital arm of DEWA, we are redefining the concept of a utility to create a new digital future for Dubai. DEWA will disrupt the entire business of public utilities by becoming the world’s first digital utility using autonomous systems for renewable-energy and its storage, expansion in Artificial Intelligence adoption, and digital services. We aim to promote sustainable development in the UAE, whereby sustainability becomes a way of life, ensuring a brighter and more sustainable future for generations to come.”

 

WAM/Esraa Ismail

The post DEWA launches Green Dubai to empower customers to make sustainable decisions appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By WAM
ABU DHABI, Sep 3 2018 (WAM)

The third annual Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum will be held in Abu Dhabi on 12th and 13th January, 2019, again kicking off Abu Dhabi’s Sustainability Week.

The two-day event gathers international and regional political, industry, and thought leaders to set the global energy agenda for the year and examine the longer-term geopolitical and geo-economic implications of the changing energy system.

The conference agenda this year will focus on the future of oil, the digitisation of energy, diversification in energy companies and countries, and will have a regional focus on East Asian energy demand and energy innovation. Last year’s event brought over 450 people to Abu Dhabi from around the world, including CEOs, Ministers, global media, and industry experts.

The forum will once again be hosted under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. It will be convened in partnership with the Ministry of Energy, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), and Mubadala Investment Company, and is part of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.

Suhail Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Industry, said, “The Global Energy Forum looks at the importance of all forms of energy: nuclear, oil, gas, renewable, and others. The diversity among its subjects and experts is what makes the Forum an important part of the energy calendar.”

Frederick Kempe, President and CEO of the Atlantic Council, said, “Abu Dhabi is a leader in the international global energy sector through its foresight, innovation, and strategic planning, and has become a magnet for policymakers, experts and business leaders. The Atlantic Council’s 2019 Global Energy Forum will bring together these crucial actors from across the globe to set the energy agenda for 2019.”

Randolph Bell, Director of the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Centre, said, “With our focus on East Asian energy demand and innovation in 2019, the Global Energy Forum plans to highlight how the region’s global energy partnerships – particularly with the Gulf — and race for new energy technologies will fundamentally reshape the energy system and geopolitical order of the 21st century. By encouraging forward-looking discussion between policymakers and business leaders, the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum aims to maximise the opportunities emerging from the sweeping changes to the global energy mix, and shape outcomes that leaves us all more secure and prosperous.”

 

WAM/Esraa Ismail/Tariq alfaham

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Young Bristol City goalkeeper, Al Hadji Sesay, is delighted to get his first call up to the Sierra Leone national team.

The Essequibo River is the longest river in Guyana, and the largest river between the Orinoco and Amazon. As oil production in Guyana is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2020, experts say the increasing environmental risks of more oil wells require increasing capacity to understand and manage these risks. Courtesy: Conservation International Guyana.

By Desmond Brown
GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Sep 3 2018 (IPS)

Recent huge offshore oil discoveries are believed to have set Guyana– one of the poorest countries in South America–on a path to riches. But they have also highlighted the country’s development challenges and the potential impact of an oil boom.

Oil giant ExxonMobil has, over the last three years, drilled eight gushing discovery wells offshore with the potential to generate nearly USD20 billion in oil revenue annually by the end of the next decade.“These are the jeopardies and these are the perils that we have to prepare for. We should not take them for granted or believe that we are dealing with something that is so far removed from our consciousness or our reality that we don’t have to be prepared.” -- minister of natural resources Raphael Trotman

“For Guyana where the current oil sector is located offshore, the direct environmental risks are primarily associated with oil spills, but will also include emissions from the operations, and from seismic activities that can affect marine species,” Dr David Singh, executive director of Conservation International Guyana, told IPS.

“The environmental risk increases with the number of oil wells in any one area.”

Singh said increasing environmental risks require increasing capacity to understand and manage these risks.

From a regulatory standpoint, he said this means building the institutional capacity in step with the development of the industry.

“For civil society, the responsibility is ours to learn about the industry, to contribute to the creation of good policies and laws related to the industry, and to ensure the highest levels of accountability from the industry and from the state towards the environment,” he said.

“It also requires us to support companies and initiatives that are in the business of clean, renewable energy generation, and in supporting efforts to reduce our ecological footprint. Even as we focus on these efforts we are cognisant of the limited human and institutional capacity of the country which will have an impact on the design and application of good and responsible environmental and social safeguards.”

Several commentators have observed that senior government officials here have little experience regulating a big oil industry or negotiating with international companies.

But minister of natural resources Raphael Trotman said Guyana is prepared and has been building and strengthening its capacity to deal with the potential hazards that come with the development of an oil and gas sector.

He said no effort will be spared to ensure that Guyana puts a sound disaster risk reduction and management system in place so that it is prepared to prevent an oil spill or respond effectively should there be an accident in that regard.

“These are the jeopardies and these are the perils that we have to prepare for. We should not take them for granted or believe that we are dealing with something that is so far removed from our consciousness or our reality that we don’t have to be prepared,” Trotman told a national consultation on the drafting of the National Oil Spill Response Contingency Plan at the Civil Defence Commission’s.

“It has to be taken seriously and whilst the industry standards are very high, we do have a risk. We recognise that there is a risk. However, government is making every effort to prepare for that risk. We expect that in 24 months when we go to production in the first quarter of 2020, we will meet not only minimum standards expected, but we will go past that and dare to say to ourselves and particularly to the world that we are ready for any eventuality,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tyrone Hall, a PhD Candidate at York University, is urging those involved in civil society in Guyana, especially its environmental sector, to assess the exemplary efforts underway in Belize.

Belize recently found itself at the centre of rare positive environmental news of global importance.

Its portion of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, arguably the world’s longest living barrier reef and certainly this region’s most iconic marine asset, was removed from the World Heritage Sites’ endangered category after nearly a decade (mid-2009 to June 2018), according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation World Heritage Centre.

The decision was taken after Belize ditched plans to rapidly expand its nascent oil industry.

“There are lesson we can draw from the Belizean experience for raising the bar and boldly re-imagining environmental responses in the face of a petro-economic reorientation,” Hall said.

“In other words, while oil exploration is unlikely to be halted in Guyana at this point, the environmental community, and broader civil society must not settle into vassal like, aid-recipient disposition.

“It should raise its expectations, and also challenge, contextualise and transcend the singularly economistic conventions being drawn from distance places,” Hall added.

ExxonMobil has made eight discoveries in Guyana’s waters to date.

Production is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2020 with an estimated 120,000 barrels per day. This should increase to 220,000 barrels per day by 2022.

“What the oil revenues will allow us to do is to fulfil these dreams of the Guyanese people and to ensure that the quality of life for every citizen dramatically improves over a period of a few short years,” Trotman said.

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• Guyana’s New Oil Fields Both Blessing and Curse

The post How Guyana Must Prepare to Cope With the ‘Jeopardies and Perils’ of Oil Discovery appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Some 400 detainees force open the doors of a prison near Tripoli as militias battle in the capital.

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