Quoteworthy: "Everything here was avoidable. We were told last week that everything was fine." — Swiss politician Roger Köppel, on the rescue of Credit Suisse
World ‘way off-track’ from climate goals: COP28 President-Designate and UAE minister
The world is “way off-track” from the goal to keep global average temperature rise below 1.5°C, says Sultan Al Jaber, COP28 President-Designate. Calling for “transformational progress”, the appointed leader of this year’s United Nations (UN) climate change conference appealed to world leaders on March 20 in his opening remarks at the two-day Copenhagen Climate Ministerial in Denmark.
The convening is the first climate ministerial meeting leading up to COP28, set to take place at Expo City Dubai from Nov 30 to Dec 12. Co-chairing the ministerial with Al Jaber are Sameh Shoukry, COP27 President and Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Dan Jørgensen, Denmark’s Minister for Development Cooperation and Global Climate Policy.
“We need to build on the foundation achieved at COP27 and move from goals to getting it done. We are way off-track when it comes to the critical goal of keeping 1.5 alive,” says Al Jaber, who is also Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Al Jaber urged countries to “scale up all available zero-carbon energy sources, while minimising the emissions from all other energy sources”.
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“Technology that no one can afford isn’t [of] much use to anyone. Governments should therefore adopt smart policies to incentivise breakthroughs in battery storage and commercialise carbon capture and the hydrogen value chain,” he adds. “We should inject a business mindset, short-term KPIs and an ambitious action-oriented agenda into the Mitigation Work Programme, and remember that the enemy is emissions, not progress.”
Rather, the linchpin of all climate progress is finance, says Al Jaber. “We have an opportunity to shape a new financial goal at COP28 that enables us to chart a new course for greater climate ambition.”
The 49-year-old called for “urgent” reform of international financial institutions and multilateral development banks to unlock more concessional capital, lower risk and attract more private finance. “The bottom line is finance needs to be much more available, accessible and affordable.”
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Al Jaber’s comments came on the same day as the UN’s latest climate report, the final statement by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) summing up five years of its own research.
In the IPCC’s sixth Assessment Report, scientists warn that the world must cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 60% below 2019 levels by 2035; and although climate change mitigation policies have expanded, it is likely that the world will exceed 1.5°C of warming “in the near term”.
Humanity is on thin ice, says UN Secretary-General António Guterres in an accompanying video message on March 20. “This report is a clarion call to massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe. In short, our world needs climate action on all fronts — everything, everywhere, all at once,” he says.
The explicit target of a 60% reduction in GHG emissions by 2035 sets an intermediate goal for many end-decade pledges. Guterres urged developed countries to accelerate their plans, moving mid-century plans up to 2040. The UN chief also called for an end to new coal plants by 2030, an end to coal in rich countries that same year, and a stop to all licensing and funding of new oil and gas projects.
Shipping, aviation, steel, cement, aluminium and agriculture — every sector must be aligned with net zero by 2050 with clear plans including interim targets to get there, says Guterres. “The transition must cover the entire economy,” he adds. “Partial pledges won’t cut it.” — Jovi Ho
Sembcorp weighs sale of waste management unit, could seek as much as US$700 mil: sources
Singapore energy company Sembcorp Industries U96 , backed by state-owned investor Temasek Holdings, is considering selling its waste management unit, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
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The company is working with a financial adviser on the potential divestment of SembWaste and could seek as much as US$700 million ($927.8 million) for the unit, the people said. The people said other investment firms and companies had shown interest in the business, asking not to be identified as the process is private.
The people said that deliberations are ongoing, and Sembcorp may decide against proceeding with a deal. A representative for Sembcorp did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
SembWaste is an environmental services provider of waste management, general cleaning and recycling services, according to Sembcorp’s website. According to a statement, the company agreed to buy Veolia Environnement SA’s Singapore environmental services arm and public cleaning business for about $28 million in 2020.
Its website shows that Singapore-listed Sembcorp’s businesses include renewable and conventional energy, as well as urban development, water and waste. It has a balanced energy portfolio of about 17.2 gigawatts and a project portfolio spanning over 12,000ha across Asia. The company has a market value of US$5.5 billion. — Bloomberg
Former ‘rogue trader’ Nick Leeson re-emerges as private spy
Nick Leeson, the former derivatives trader who brought down Barings Bank, has joined a corporate intelligence firm run by ex-Black Cube operative Seth Freedman. In an interview, Leeson, 56, said that he would investigate financial misconduct with the London-based Red Mist Market Enforcement Unit to help investors seek compensation in court when regulators cannot help.
“I have also been on the other side of the equation and understand the psychology of some people involved,” the one-time star trader said.
Leeson’s website describes him as the “original rogue trader”. He amassed losses of about US$1.4 billion when working for Barings in Singapore in 1995, leading to the bank’s failure and eventual sale to ING Groep for GBP1. A film was made in 1999 based on his book about the scandal, starring Ewan McGregor.
Having served about four years in a Singapore prison for attempting to cover up his bad trades, he now lives in the Irish city of Galway. There, he worked for a debt counselling company and Galway United Football Club, where he was CEO from 2007 until 2011. He is also an after-dinner speaker.
Freedman’s career, meanwhile, has included time as an undercover investigator for the disgraced movie producer, Harvey Weinstein. In 2018, he left Black Cube, run by veterans of Israeli intelligence, and set up Red Mist in 2021.
“Leeson, who clashed with the regulators, knows the City inside out. He’s brilliant at forensic work,” Freedman said in an interview. “When it comes to listed companies fraud and unravelling what’s going on, you need to have people who are experts in markets.”
The pair were brought together by Mike Whitlow, an entrepreneur based in Cyprus who works as a forensic investigator with Red Mist. They say their clients include Nobu Su, a former Taiwanese shipping tycoon who served prison time for contempt of court and claimed a UK bank failed to protect his interests in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
Leeson said the firm would look for opportunities where rising interest rates expose weaknesses in businesses that grew fast in better times. “There will be more of these cases where people have invested in companies that halve in value, and they may have been coerced into the investment,” he said.
The agency will help clients with no recourse from regulators, Freedman said. “We get the job done, and we get investors their compensation. We are essentially guns for hire.”
It is not the first time Red Mist has brought a convicted trader on board. In 2021, it hired the former UBS Group and Citigroup trader Tom Hayes, who was jailed for manipulating the London interbank offered rate. Hayes maintains his innocence and is fighting to overturn his conviction.
For Leeson, he hopes his past will help him track down people involved in similar activities.
“It often doesn’t start as fraud. Initially, it’s a decision between pleasing everyone around them or highlighting that they’re failing and something is going wrong with the organisation. And that’s how it happened at Barings,” he said. “That will always be an intense embarrassment. But you’ve got to deal with that and move on. It doesn’t define me as a person.” — Bloomberg
