Day: June 28, 2022

DUBAI, The Museum of the Future and Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) have announced a new partnership to showcase future mobility solutions, from personal jet packs to self-driving cars.

They signed a strategic partnership to exhibit some of the world’s most exciting, advanced mobility solutions at the ‘Tomorrow, Today’ exhibition, an ever-evolving showcase of innovations at the Museum of the Future. Visitors will have the chance to see personal jetpacks, medical drones, food delivery robots, electric bikes, electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, and more.

Highlights include autonomous vehicle prototypes that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and geospatial data. The exhibition will also display new ideas for green, sustainable, and environmentally friendly mass transport services being presented worldwide and research and development centres around the world.

Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, Director-General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA, Commissioner-General for the Infrastructure, Urban Planning and Wellbeing Pillar in Dubai, said, “The rapid technological and industrial changes brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, especially in the field of autonomous transportation, will reshape the future of mobility, provide new means of transportation, and develop current means of transportation in line with future trends. The demand for mass passenger transport and shared mobility is expected to increase.”

He added, “Under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and the supervision of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Future Foundation, the RTA is working to implement our leadership’s vision by conducting pilot tests on different types of autonomous vehicles, developing the infrastructure for servicing self-driving vehicles and air taxis, and enhancing society’s adoption of this technology.”

Khalfan Belhoul, CEO of the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF), said, “As one of the world’s smartest cities, our strategic partnership with Dubai’s RTA will accelerate the adoption of next-generation future mobility solutions and cement Dubai’s global position as a hub for new technologies. We are delighted to deepen our partnership with RTA, a true pioneer in developing integrated transport ecosystems, and look forward to showcasing exciting technologies for the first time in Dubai that will shape the future of cities and communities everywhere.”

He continued, “Our partners play a pivotal role in achieving the museum’s position as an open laboratory for ideas and innovative knowledge and experiences. Tomorrow, Today exhibition will provide innovators from around the globe with a unique perspective into the world of advanced mobility and transport.”

At the exhibition, Dubai’s RTA will showcase a dynamic wireless charging system for electric vehicles and buses in motion using Shaped Magnetic Field In Resonance (SMFIR) technology, which was tested in Dubai Silicon Oasis. This network could be installed under roads to provide smart wireless charging of electric vehicles as they drive through the city.

The agreement between the Museum of the Future and Dubai’s RTA underscores the museum’s efforts to offer an open laboratory to promote creativity, innovation and develop ideas to address challenges across healthcare, education, smart cities, energy and transport. Through this strategy, the museum aims to empower people and businesses everywhere to design future cities and enhance Dubai’s position as a city of the future.

Source: Emirates News Agency

DUBAI, A leading US newspaper highlighted the UAE’s efforts to invest in renewables and position itself at the centre of the global energy transition.

In an information-rich article by its Dubai-based reporter, Rory Jones, The Wall Street Journal said the UAE is “emerging as one of the world’s biggest state financiers of clean energy, seeking to become as influential in renewables as it currently is in oil and gas.”

The paper shed specific light on the fact that while the UAE lays focus on renewables, the country “also remains a major investor in traditional oil and gas.”

Following is the article published by the American daily: “The United Arab Emirates is emerging as one of the world’s biggest state financiers of clean energy, seeking to become as influential in renewables as it currently is in oil and gas.

Since November, when global nations agreed to accelerate emissions-cutting plans at a United Nations summit, the UAE has said it will fund development of thousands of megawatts of solar-energy projects in countries across the world. It has committed $400 million to enable developing nations’ transition to clean energy and pledged to help supply green electricity to 100 million Africans by 2035.

The Gulf state, alongside the U.S., also has promised to raise $4 billion to invest in technologies that would transform agriculture and food production to limit climate change.

Emirati officials hope the bet on clean energy won’t only help diversify the country’s oil-dependent economy but increase its diplomatic clout and shift perceptions of the Gulf state.

Already, the renewables arm of Emirati sovereign-wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co. has deployed more than $20 billion in clean energy projects since it began investing in renewables in 2006, outstripping other state investors or public pension funds, according to New York-based research firm Global SWF, though U.A.E. investment in oil-and-gas related businesses remains higher.

By the end of this decade, the U.A.E., the world’s seventh-biggest oil producer, wants to invest and develop projects generating up to 100 gigawatts of clean energy at home and abroad, four times its current deployment and commitments.

To achieve that goal, the government is now bringing together its national oil company and power-generation firm with Mubadala to own jointly the country’s renewable investment and development arm, Masdar. The merger will consolidate renewable assets under one brand and help the government to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Sultan al-Jaber, the country’s climate envoy and minister of industry and advanced technology, said that change could only be tackled alongside hydrocarbon-producers who help manage the global transition to clean energy.

“We can’t continue to view oil and gas as a challenge,” Al Jaber, who is also the CEO of the national oil firm ADNOC and Chairman of Masdar, said in an interview. “Oil and gas should be seen as the bridge as part of the solution.”

It is a view shared by U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry, who since taking on his role in 2020, has visited the U.A.E. twice to muster support among Gulf states for accelerating cuts in emissions targets. The U.S. wants to use Emirati financial firepower and energy know-how to encourage others to invest in transitioning their economies to clean energy, a senior U.S. government official said.

“Any oil-producing country that begins to step up and indicate their acceptance of the reality of the need to build up for a transition is a critical message to the rest of the world,” Kerry said last month at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

U.A.E. efforts to position itself at the centre of the global energy transition, and back an important Biden administration policy, come as the Gulf state is at odds with the U.S. over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

While the U.A.E. has said it will encourage partners in the OPEC oil alliance to boost production to tame global prices a U.S. goal, the country hasn’t said it will enforce sanctions on Russia and instead is welcoming Russian companies and wealth.

Even as it focuses on renewables, the U.A.E. also remains a major investor in traditional oil and gas. Over the six years from 2016 until last year, Mubadala invested $9.5 billion in 16 oil-and-gas related businesses, or so-called black investments, the most of any state-owned investor other than the Qatar Investment Authority, according to Global SWF.

Investments by Emirati sovereign-wealth funds in black investments have outpaced green deals for each of the past six years, the research firm said. Globally, state-owned investors, which includes sovereign-wealth funds and public-pension funds, invested three times as much last year in green as black deals, it added.

Still, the U.A.E. investment in renewables reflects both a push to win friends diplomatically by helping them with their climate goals, and recognition that there is an opportunity to make money from a growing sector, according to Robin Mills, chief executive of Dubai-based consulting firm Qamar Energy and a former manager in the Emirati oil industry.

A solar plant in Masdar City outside Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. in 2015. Emirati officials hope the bet on clean energy will increase its diplomatic clout.

Many of the countries where Masdar is developing or funding renewables projects aren’t being considered by Western developers, who are themselves relative novices in building large-scale renewables projects, he said.

“It is such a new thing at this scale that everyone is learning as they go, so it makes it easier to get into than trying to break into an existing business,” he added.

Earlier this month, Masdar signed an agreement with Azerbaijan to develop 4,000 megawatts of onshore wind, solar and green hydrogen capacity across several projects, with the right to develop a further 6,000 megawatts.

In May, Jaber visited India where the Emirati agreed to support that country’s ambition to achieve 450 gigawatts of renewable-installed capacity by 2030. In April, Masdar said it would explore renewable opportunities with Kyrgyzstan’s government, following agreements in recent years with Iraq, Morocco, Armenia and Kazakhstan.

In Indonesia, Masdar in a joint venture with a local company has begun construction of a 145-megawatt solar plant that will float on a reservoir to provide electricity to power 50,000 homes.

Masdar typically co-invests with others, manages bank financing and constructs projects with partners based on a long-term agreement to supply power to a government or distribution company.

In November, the U.S. and U.A.E. helped broker an initial agreement for Jordan to supply Israel with electricity produced from solar-power at a planned Jordanian site, funded and developed by Masdar. In return, Israel will examine the feasibility of supplying water to Jordan via a desalination plant.

The U.S. publicly held up the energy swap though still being commercially negotiated as an example of the type of regional cooperation only possible after the U.A.E. normalised diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020.

The U.A.E.’s domestic clean energy push hasn’t always run smoothly.

In 2008, the government began construction on a carbon-neutral development on the outskirts of the capital Abu Dhabi, called Masdar City, with a goal of attracting tens of thousands people to live there. The financial crisis hit soon after and the project failed to win many corporate tenants, and was scaled back.

There was a hiatus in renewables projects for a few years, Mills said. But the U.A.E. renewed its focus, and successfully bid to house the permanent location of the International Renewable Energy Agency, an organisation with 167 member countries that promotes climate action.

The country also now operates one of the largest single-site solar plants in the world, with 3.2 million solar panels, and has plans for even bigger facilities, though renewables are currently a fraction of total energy supply.

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the former president of Iceland and chairman of the Arctic Circle, a nonprofit focused on dialogue around the Arctic, said he remembered meeting Sultan in 2007 when the Emirati official sought his advice on becoming an international centre for renewable energy. “You could have argued at that time it was simply hot air,” said Grímsson. “Paradoxically, Abu Dhabi, this oil-rich state, has become one of the most predominant clean-energy players in the world.””

Source: Emirates News Agency

DUBAI, Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the leading global financial centre in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, today launched the region’s first Open Finance Lab, heralding a new era of finance in the region.

The Open Finance Lab initiative is a six-month programme that will commence on 28th June, 2022.

A total of four banks and a FinTech company are scheduled to participate in the programme, including Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD), First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Mashreq Bank, National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah, and Zand. Use cases will be explored and developed from July to November 2022, and the lab will conclude with a demonstration of the impact achieved to government officials and bank executives.

The launch of the region’s first Open Finance Lab follows the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) and DIFC Authority to promote the development and growth of the UAE financial technology sector. The initiative supports DIFC’s ongoing efforts to realise the objectives of its 2030 strategy by unlocking strategic opportunities for the UAE and reinforcing DIFC’s leading position as a global financial services hub.

With the overarching vision of the UAE to become a global benchmark in Open Finance, the lab will collaborate with banks, FinTech, regulators and the industry. It has the potential to unlock the next wave of growth for the sector and increase consumer protection, financial inclusion, social benefits, and economic opportunities.

In addition, the lab will run business and technical deep-dive workshops, facilitate industry and regulatory forums on important issues. These include Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) standards and consumer consent management, and educational sessions to promote a greater understanding of how the Open Finance data will create more opportunities through the application of emerging technologies; resulting in new data-driven innovations and business models that will enhance the future of the financial system. The insights and learnings from the use cases and forums will contribute to the development of the sector and regulations.

Additionally, the DIFC Innovation Hub will host an Open Finance Week in September 2022, creating further opportunities for the industry to engage and share their expertise and respective learnings with each other.

Commenting on the initiative, Arif Amiri, CEO of DIFC Authority, said, “Launching the region’s first Open Finance Lab reaffirms DIFC’s commitment to driving the Future of Finance and provides a framework to move the country towards an Open Finance economy. The evolution of data-driven business models that make finance more inclusive, accessible, and competitive can generate significant new opportunities and open the door for a wave of financial innovation in our region and across the globe.”

Powered by Tarabut Gateway, the first UAE-based platform fully authorised by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) for Open Finance activities, the initiative will serve as a testbed to showcase the positive impact of Open Finance on businesses, customers, and the economy, and can help inform policymaking and infrastructure with empirical evidence and industry feedback. Participants will receive complimentary guidance from trusted technical providers to support the implementation of use cases.

Source: Emirates News Agency