The idea that people and companies must only buy eco-friendly products or benefit from services with a near-zero carbon footprint to avert climate disaster is still a novel concept in most countries. For example, electric vehicle (EV) sales accounted for only 9% of global car sales last year, said the International Energy Agency (IEA) in January. However, demand for clean energy is rising. In 2019, EVs accounted for 2.5% of global car sales. “All the net growth in global car sales in 2021 came from electric cars,” noted Leonardo Paoli, clean energy technologies analyst at the IEA, in a January…
Author: Tamer Hafez
The government’s efforts to digitally transform Egypt’s economy should take a significant step forward with the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy (NAIS). It aims to “create promising opportunities for laying the foundation for a national economy … based on emerging technologies,” said President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in the NAIS document’s forward section. The strategy’s focus is to “indigenize the AI industry and strengthen Egypt’s leading role at the regional level to become an active global player in the field.” To that end, Sisi stressed the importance of promoting “effective partnerships between the government and the private sector.” The NAIS is part…
As companies come to grips with how their business would run under constant threats from COVID-19 variants, they need to create new robust foundations that allow them to thrive amid uncertainty. “The next pandemic might come along even before COVID-19 wanes, we don’t know,” Chun Byung-Chul, from Korea University in Seoul, told The Korea Herald in March. “What we do know is that there is going to be another one.” Such uncertainty is creating new problems for companies worldwide, especially those operating in countries with an infection resurgence after they reopened. “It’s a rolling uncertainty at this point,” said Paul…
As the cause of nearly half of all global carbon emissions, according to the International Energy Agency, oil and gas companies are under increasing pressure to decarbonize both their supply chains and the fuels they produce. “If the world is to come anywhere near to meeting its climate-change goals, the oil and gas industry will play a big part,” wrote Chantal Beck, a partner in McKinsey’s energy sector, in a January 2020 report. Those decarburization efforts aim to reduce direct emissions released during drilling, processing and transportation operations, which together account for 9% of global emissions, according to Beck. Another…
Abundant, cheap, clean-burning and not a fossil fuel. That is the promise of “green hydrogen,” which relies on eco-friendly energy sources to convert hydrogen gas to a compressed liquid fuel that powers machines and emits only water. “A substantial reduction in carbon dioxide is almost impossible without hydrogen,” Christian Bauer, a researcher at Paul Scherrer Institute, told China Dialogue in July. Another benefit is that hydrogen fuel produces more heat than fossil fuels. “The [hydrogen] gas contains more energy for every tonne than any fossil fuel,” wrote Fred Pearce, author of “The Climate Files, the Land Grabbers and Water Lands,…
A critical missing piece of Egypt’s trade relationship with the United States is an umbrella free trade agreement. The door is open just a little bit, with a one-way limited Qualified Industrial Zones deal for Egyptian exports and a tiny amount of Egyptian goods qualifying for the U.S.’ Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program. Now, the rise of digitally-enabled trade, such as cross-border e-commerce, is an opportunity for both countries to align their trade policies and regulations. “A digital trade pact with the [United States] could unleash the potential of what is already a fast-growing sector,” Andreyka Natalegawa, a research…
Egypt’s pristine sand has been central to beach tourism and basic glass-making, but little else. Around the world, however, high-quality silica sand fuels industries from high-strength glass to microchips. Now, the global economy is attempting a snap recovery from the pandemic, stressing silica sand supplies to sectors ranging from water purifiers to drilling for shale gas. That could fuel an investment boom to mine silica sand from Egypt. But the government must be careful. Walking on the pristine beaches at Zafarana and the Sinai Peninsula, people can feel one of the cheapest yet most sought-after commodities under their feet. “Silica…
One upside to the 2020 pandemic is that the lockdowns have accelerated innovative solutions, sparking a boom in startups worldwide. And existing startups are attracting more interest than ever from individual and institutional investors. Venture capital (VC) firms invested $128.3 billion in startups in 2021, up $40 billion from a year earlier and breaking the $100 billion mark for the first time, reported Reuters in January. That has caused a spike in the number of startups becoming “unicorns,” with valuations reaching $1 billion. In the second quarter of 2021 alone, 136 startups achieved unicorn status, more than in all of…
During the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, many were skeptical about commitments to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2030. “We have kept 1.5 degrees alive … but its pulse is weak,” said Alok Sharma, president of COP26, during concluding remarks last November. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2018 report, warming above 1.5 degrees would result in irreversible and increasingly severe crises During the “Building Momentum to U.N. COP27” forum held Jan. 24-25, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne Clark said COP26 had…
Looking to next year, uncertainty will continue to dominate the business landscape as countries react to the Omicron variant. The United States announced a free-to-travel pass for fully inoculated incoming visitors in mid-December. They have also kept the economy mostly open. On the flip side, the Netherlands is in economic lockdown until mid-January, leaving only supermarkets and essential shops open. The U.K. and E.U. countries are in partial lockdowns, preventing some travelers from entering and closing some entertainment facilities. The U.K. also is threatening to impose movement restrictions if Omicron infections persist. On the other hand, China is fully open,…