UAE leads chorus for more clean energy investments
Source: Khaleej Times (Read full story)
The United Arab Emirates, despite being a leading fossil fuel producer, is committed to global energy security with investments in clean and renewable sources, said General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. In his inaugural speech at the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2013, the World Future Energy Summit and the International Water Summit in the presence of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Gen. Shaikh Mohammed said the conferences and meetings of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week would be successful in achieving the goals.
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Yemen: Two Years under President Hadi
Source: Gulf News (Read full story)
It is coming up to two years since President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi of Yemen was sworn in, in February 2011. After a thirty-year rule by the brutal, corrupt and dictatorial regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen needs several years to reinvent itself as a modern pluralistic society. No one should expect miracles. But nothing can be achieved as long as the grievances of the people of South Yemen are not addressed, and they will not rest until that happens. That old and tired emotional argument that we cannot accept fracturing the country into South and North does not hold water, and each region could easily survive without the other as an independent state, now that the people in both regions have learnt their lessons about co-existence.
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Qatar keen to promote Afghan peace process
Source: The Peninsula (Read full story)
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Qatar aims to see a peace process in Afghanistan by the time Nato combat operations end in 2014, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani said yesterday as the Afghan Taliban movement prepared to open an office here. Preparations were under way to open the Taliban’s office as soon as possible to facilitate talks, the Premier said. “The US and others will withdraw in 2014, and I think it’s an important core ideal that at least there is a political process in place, to have stability,” he said at a news conference with his visiting Libyan counterpart, Ali Zaidan Mohammad.
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Kingdom joins renewable energy body
Source: Arab News (Read full story)
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Commenting on the Saudi membership to IRENA, Al-Sulaiman said it came as the Kingdom planned to introduce renewable energy sources within its local sustainable energy system at broad levels.
This will allow the Kingdom to build a viable economic sector that depends on the maximization of economic and social benefits arising from using renewable energy sources, he said. He said the Kingdom retained geographical, weather, and economic potentials to develop a local and sustainable atomic and renewable energy. K.A.CARE has announced plans to produce 50 percent of its current energy needs used in power generation and water desalination from sustainable energy sources by the year 2032, he said.…
Cabinet dismisses reports on plans to amend constitution
Source: Kuwait Times (Read full story)
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The Cabinet warned citizens against heeding such rumors, which are meant to cause tension and instigate sedition. Earlier, the ministers reviewed the letters addressed to Sheikh Sabah from several world leaders. HH the Amir received a letter from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, inviting him to the third Arab Social, Economic and Developmental Summit, slated for Jan 21- 22. He also received a letter from Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on bilateral ties and means to strengthen them. The Cabinet was also briefed on a letter sent from French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to the PM Sheikh Jaber on special relations between the two countries and means to bolster investment cooperation.
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