Business Extra

Cop26: What to expect from the high-stakes climate conference

Addressing the opening session of Cop26, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was “one minute to midnight” on the climate doomsday clock.

But sharp rhetoric is not the business of the day in Glasgow: 196 nations are convening in a test of commitment to avert a climate disaster.

The National's London bureau chief Damien McElroy joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner this week to talk about what to expect from the high-stakes conference and the big decisions to be made over the 12 days.

 

Hosted by Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner

Produced by Ayesha Khan and Arthur Eddyson

In this episode:

Damien McElroy sets the scene from Cop26 (1m 33s)

How developed and developing nations should move forward (4m 56s)

Scaling up and the finance conversation (8m 21s)

The energy crisis elephant in the room (9m 55s)

 

Read more on our website:

• Cop26 leaders set challenge to fund disaster prevention in poor countries

• Cop26 private cash warning: net zero ‘not possible’ without green finance

• Net zero: These technologies need tenfold increase in investment to hit target

Subscribe to Business Extra for free to receive new episodes every week
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean

Succeeding in a digital world

Understanding algorithms, rolling out 5G, developing quantum computing, building cyber defences and establishing sovereignty online are among the challenges and opportunities facing decision makers navigating the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on countries and their citizens.

Krzysztof Szubert, Poland’s High Representative of the Prime Minister for European Digital Policy talks to Kelsey Warner and Mustafa Alrawi about crafting and executing a successful strategy for today’s fast-changing world.

Hosted by Kelsey Warner and Mustafa Alrawi

Produced by Ayesha Khan and Arthur Eddyson

In this episode:

What makes a successful digital strategy? (1m 26s)

EU's benchmark for digital literacy (4m 59s)

Policies for safeguard digital lives (8m 54s)

Investing in the right strategies (12m 11s)

Establishing sovereignty (18m 41s)

 

Read more on our website:

• Explainer: What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

• IBM's AI chief on the singularity, data privacy and the new space race: Business Extra

• How Poland is helping to shape the economy of tomorrow - Business Extra

Subscribe to Business Extra for free to receive new episodes every week
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean

IBM AI chief on the singularity, data privacy and the new space race

A decade ago, IBM introduced the power of artificial intelligence to the masses with Watson. The computer system made its debut on the popular American quiz show Jeopardy! and beat the best player in the show's history, Ken Jennings.

 

In the years since, AI has seeped into nearly every corner of life, from the streaming suggestions served up by Spotify or Netflix to the global effort to come up with a vaccine against the Covid-19 pandemic. This new paradigm has brought up questions of data privacy and safety, and how laws should be made and enforced on technology companies.

 

Seth Dobrin is IBM's global chief AI officer. He joins host Kelsey Warner this week on the sidelines of Gitex to talk about these big questions - and when we might expect the singularity.

 

Hosted by Kelsey Warner

Produced by Ayesha Khan and Arthur Eddyson

 

In this episode:

Best tech at Gitex (0m 45s)

AI now and in the future (2m 12s)

A safe globalised tech society (5m 29s)

How to ensure AI for good (9m 47s)

Space race (14m 33s)

 

Read more on our website:

• Gitex 2021: Four tech trends which will define our future

• Artificial intelligence to accelerate economical energy transition, WEF says

• EU's plan to control artificial intelligence 'will have positive global impact'

Subscribe to Business Extra for free to receive new episodes every week
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean

 

Why there is an energy crisis and when it will end

What do a coal shortage in China, a cold winter in Europe and oil's rally to a three-year high have in common?

Herman Wang, managing editor at S&P Global Platts, joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner this week to answer that, and what to expect going forward.

 

They discuss what will happen to oil prices amid the energy crisis and how we got here. The answers are more complicated than tidy narratives about underinvestment in hydrocarbons amid the energy transition, or basic fundamentals of supply and demand.

 

Hosted by Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner

Produced by Arthur Eddyson and Ayesha Khan

 

In this episode:

How did the energy crisis happen? (0m 40s)
How long will this crisis last? (3m 12s)
The reaction from Opec+, US and China (5m 57s)
COP26 and the energy transition (10m 14s)
Oil demand towards 2050 (15m 10s)

Read more on our website:

• Brent nears $85 amid continued energy shortage

• Explainer: What the path to net-zero and carbon neutral means

• Oil prices could hit '$100 per barrel by the end of 2021', Roubini says

Subscribe to Business Extra for free to receive new episodes every week
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean

The world‘s first Commissioner for Future Generations

Does this decision compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs?

 

This is the overarching question guiding Sophie Howe's work. As the world's first Commissioner for Future Generations in her home country of Wales, she enforces a legally-binding plan for national and local government to improve the well-being of Welsh citizens and think long-term.

 

She joins co-host Kelsey Warner this week to talk about how government can implement such a strategy and what it means for the economy. She talks about projects that have addressed an epidemic of loneliness, how to put teeth into enforcement and how a highway plan was replaced with something else - and why.

 

Hosted by Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner

Produced by Arthur Eddyson and Ayesha Khan

 

In this episode:

What does a Commissioner for Future Generations do? (1m 47s)
How to make laws for the future (4m 47s)
How working from home transformed communities (10m 0s)
How to adapt and prepare for climate change (16m 13s)
Replicating Wales's success (19m 2s) 

Read more on our website:

• The future of the daily commute: how going to work is set to improve city life

• Leading futurists to meet in the UAE

• A glimpse inside Expo's Mobility Pavilion

Subscribe to Business Extra for free to receive new episodes every week
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean

Airline execs to meet in person for first time in two years

For the first time in more than two years, airline executives will meet in-person at an industry-wide event.

 

The 77th IATA Annual General Meeting (AGM) and World Air Transport Summit will take place in Boston starting October 3, against a backdrop of surging travel demand and an urgent need to tackle the industry's carbon emissions.

 

The National's aviation correspondent Deena Kamel is headed to Boston next week to cover the event.

She joins co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner to discuss her most pressing questions for the industry's leaders and what she expects to top the agenda.

 

Hosted by Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner

Produced by Arthur Eddyson and Ayesha Khan

 

In this episode:

Aviation meets in Boston in-person (0m 44s)
Evolving into a people-focused industry (6m 24s)
The fight for sustainable flights (9m 19s)
IATA's outlook and the relationship between Airbus and Emirates (12m 39s)

Read more on our website:

• Emirates to restore more A380 routes as travel demand continues to recover
• BP, Adnoc and Masdar to produce hydrogen in UK and UAE in clean energy partnership
• Heathrow and BA zone in on net-zero 'perfect flight' using sustainable jet fuel
• Aviation sector pledges to increase use of greener fuels by 2030

Subscribe to Business Extra for free to receive new episodes every week
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean

How the UN‘s SDGs get grassroots solutions on a corporate budget with this platform

UpLink was launched at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos in January 2020, with an ambition to accelerate the Decade of Delivery – to source and scale the innovative solutions that would make achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 a reality.

Through co-operation between the WEF, Salesforce, Deloitte and Microsoft/LinkedIn, a crowdsourcing platform was built to connect grassroots solutions with investors, experts and potential markets to help them scale their businesses.

One year later, through a series of challenges, UpLink has unveiled more than 2,500 innovations from 38 different countries to tackle issues ranging from waste to carbon capture and healthy oceans. Entrepreneurs who have pitched investors on UpLink have secured more than $100 million in funding since joining the platform.

To dig into the impact the funding has had and what social entrepreneurs can expect from participating, co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner are joined this week by the WEF's John Dutton.

Hosted by Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner

Produced by Arthur Eddyson and Ayesha Khan

In this episode:

What is Uplink and how is it helping? (0m 39s)
What does scaling mean for Uplink? (9m 30s)
The archetype of problem owners (11m 36s)
Uplink's necessity for WEF (13m 45s)

Read more on our website:

• UNGA 2021: Guterres launches assembly with gloomy 'cascade of crises' forecast
• Majority of world's adults say Covid-19 economic recovery will take two years
• Abu Dhabi releases red list of at-risk species

Subscribe to Business Extra for free to receive new episodes every week
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean

Facebook AI, public policy and responsibility in the Middle East

A little more than a third of humans on the planet use Facebook each month, that’s 2.8 billion people in more than 160 countries and growing.

 

Outside its home country, Facebook is under the scrutiny of governments, who are grappling with how to handle the scope of tech companies today, as well as harness their potential for their own economies and people.

 

To help drive the agenda on the future of social media is Facebook's public policy team.

 

Azzam Alameddin is the US-listed company's head of public policy covering the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, where he is responsible for building the policy strategy across the region, as well as creating programmes and collaborations with key policymakers, leaders and academics.

 

He speaks to Kelsey Warner this week about the role of private-public partnerships, accessibility and responsible artificial intelligence.

 

 

In this episode: 

Why AI? (0s 46m)

Public policy at Facebook (2m 40s)

Facebook AI camp in the UAE (5m 50s)

AI bias, diversity and responsibility (8m 17s)

AI community standards (14m 30s)

Public policy making and AI (16m 30s) 

Post interview discussion (18m 4s)

Read more on our website:

• Facebook mistakenly labels black men as 'primates' in video recommendation feature

• UAE and Facebook to train 50 top university students in coding

• Facebook launches Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses

• Google, Microsoft and Facebook spent millions influencing the EU’s digital policies
  
  

Subscribe to Business Extra for free to receive new episodes every week
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean

UAE investors and innovators face a pivotal week

Three months ahead of marking its 50th year, a flurry of announcements has given way to a greater understanding of the UAE's roadmap for growth over the coming decades, and plans to attract and support innovation.

 

On Sunday the UAE's leadership unveiled Projects of the 50, a series of developmental and economic projects that will be rolled out throughout September. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi's Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence launched a programme to train the UAE's government and business leaders in the field of AI. And Adnoc's drilling subsidiary has announced plans to float 7.5 per cent of its shares on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, opening up to international investors for the first time on a public market.

 

Co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner explore the significance of these announcements, and the broader implications for the business community.

In this episode: 

The focus of 2021 (1m 31s)

Projects of the 50 (3m 36s)
Coding the future (4m 43s)
AI for programmes for leaders (8m 33s)
Adnoc listing (9m 42s)

Read more on our website: 

• United Global Emirates: leaders launch campaign to bring world to UAE

• Editorial: The UAE's future priorities in fifty projects

• Government and business elites to be trained at Mohamed bin Zayed University of AI

• Adnoc to float 7.5% of drilling subsidiary in IPO on Abu Dhabi stock market

Subscribe to Business Extra for free to receive new episodes every week
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean

Can the Middle East find a point of economic convergence?

The Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia region is at a turning point. There are opportunities for sustainable economic development through reforms and technological shifts but there are challenges in the form of political obstacles and conflict.

Recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic will also be uneven. After the success of a summit in Baghdad this week that brought together regional leaders, Iraq's President Barham Salih said the country has become a “point of convergence”.
Mr Salih said the region was in need of a new “political, security and economic system to meet the challenges of terrorism, extremism and the economic crisis”.

With the fallout from the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan likely to require a response from all its neighbours, a regional solution to its problems is needed now more than ever. Co-hosts Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner break down the current scenario.

Hosted by Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner

Produced by Arthur Eddyson and Ayesha Khan

In this episode:
The Baghdad summit (0m 50s)
The significance of the meeting (3m 16s)
Is Iraq ready to deliver on their ambitions? (7m 17s)
Opportunity for dignity (9m 55s)

Read more on our website:

• Iraq becomes ‘point of convergence’ after hosting regional summit
• Iraq PM urges leaders to work together for Middle East peace
• Mena region faces a ‘turning point’ and needs to press on with reforms as it recovers from pandemic, IMF says

Subscribe to Business Extra for free to receive new episodes every week
Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean