The $232-billion opportunity hiding in plain sight
That figure is real. It is the projected gain for the Middle East by 2035 if climate action and artificial intelligence are pursued in tandem. Alone, they offer progress. Together, they reshape how we live, work and adapt. Technology that learns. Environments that recover. Societies that grow with more clarity, more fairness and more resilience.
It can be easy to treat numbers like that as distant. But their meaning lives close to the ground. In how much food costs. In whether air conditioning becomes a necessity or a lifeline. In how many young people feel they have a place in the future that is arriving. And something is beginning to shift.
In Riyadh, national investments are nurturing local AI talent. In the UAE, machine learning is already managing how energy flows through the grid. Algorithms forecast electricity demand and reduce waste. In coastal cities, AI tools help predict floods and alert responders. These are not future possibilities. They are happening now, across the region. In Cairo, a public school turned its courtyard into a garden. Teachers and students built shade from scrap wood, planted citrus trees in cracked pots and coded moisture sensors using secondhand tools. No fanfare. Just steady hands working in the heat, trusting that care can create change.
In Muscat, a group of university students recently led a climate storytelling workshop. They gathered poems, field notes and oral histories. This was not data analysis, but its own kind of intelligence. One rooted in memory, place and attention. Their work moved through the room like wind through tall grass, soft but certain, mapping what still matters. Across the region, the conditions are here. The sun. The wind. The ambition. The memory of how to thrive with limits.
Beyond the region, momentum is building. At the BRICS summit this week, Brazil proposed a global climate fund. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and China responded. The Global South is no longer waiting for signals from others. It is offering direction on its own terms. As the world looks towards COP30 in Belém later this year, more of the agenda will rise from places long underestimated. Still, money is just one tool. Code can calculate, but it cannot care. The rise of artificial intelligence also brings a cost few see. It devours energy to operate and learn. Progress calls for more than programming. It asks for discernment. For design that honours both people and planet. For the will to build systems for lives we may never live, in climates we may never feel. Artificial intelligence can optimise. Climate action demands vision. Together, they offer more than solutions. They offer a new way of seeing. One that centres relationships as much as results.
A child sketching a wind turbine in a school notebook deserves more than a gesture. So does the grandmother who watches the patterns of heat shift year by year. So does the young woman building Arabic-language AI tools because she believes her voice belongs in the systems shaping tomorrow.
This region has always known how to endure. But this is not only about survival. It is about imagination. The kind that led our ancestors to read wind, carve shade from stone and follow stars before maps had names. That instinct has not disappeared. It is still waiting.
So what would you do with $232 billion? Build another skyline? Or rewrite the horizon itself?
Rumaitha al Busaidi
The writer is environmental strategist and advocate for sustainable development
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Observer
3 days ago
- Observer
The $232-billion opportunity hiding in plain sight
What if you were offered $232 billion to shape the future of your region? No contest. No catch. Only a choice. To act with care, with courage and with creativity. That figure is real. It is the projected gain for the Middle East by 2035 if climate action and artificial intelligence are pursued in tandem. Alone, they offer progress. Together, they reshape how we live, work and adapt. Technology that learns. Environments that recover. Societies that grow with more clarity, more fairness and more resilience. It can be easy to treat numbers like that as distant. But their meaning lives close to the ground. In how much food costs. In whether air conditioning becomes a necessity or a lifeline. In how many young people feel they have a place in the future that is arriving. And something is beginning to shift. In Riyadh, national investments are nurturing local AI talent. In the UAE, machine learning is already managing how energy flows through the grid. Algorithms forecast electricity demand and reduce waste. In coastal cities, AI tools help predict floods and alert responders. These are not future possibilities. They are happening now, across the region. In Cairo, a public school turned its courtyard into a garden. Teachers and students built shade from scrap wood, planted citrus trees in cracked pots and coded moisture sensors using secondhand tools. No fanfare. Just steady hands working in the heat, trusting that care can create change. In Muscat, a group of university students recently led a climate storytelling workshop. They gathered poems, field notes and oral histories. This was not data analysis, but its own kind of intelligence. One rooted in memory, place and attention. Their work moved through the room like wind through tall grass, soft but certain, mapping what still matters. Across the region, the conditions are here. The sun. The wind. The ambition. The memory of how to thrive with limits. Beyond the region, momentum is building. At the BRICS summit this week, Brazil proposed a global climate fund. The UAE, Saudi Arabia and China responded. The Global South is no longer waiting for signals from others. It is offering direction on its own terms. As the world looks towards COP30 in Belém later this year, more of the agenda will rise from places long underestimated. Still, money is just one tool. Code can calculate, but it cannot care. The rise of artificial intelligence also brings a cost few see. It devours energy to operate and learn. Progress calls for more than programming. It asks for discernment. For design that honours both people and planet. For the will to build systems for lives we may never live, in climates we may never feel. Artificial intelligence can optimise. Climate action demands vision. Together, they offer more than solutions. They offer a new way of seeing. One that centres relationships as much as results. A child sketching a wind turbine in a school notebook deserves more than a gesture. So does the grandmother who watches the patterns of heat shift year by year. So does the young woman building Arabic-language AI tools because she believes her voice belongs in the systems shaping tomorrow. This region has always known how to endure. But this is not only about survival. It is about imagination. The kind that led our ancestors to read wind, carve shade from stone and follow stars before maps had names. That instinct has not disappeared. It is still waiting. So what would you do with $232 billion? Build another skyline? Or rewrite the horizon itself? Rumaitha al Busaidi The writer is environmental strategist and advocate for sustainable development
Times of Oman
4 days ago
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Why is Donald Trump so afraid of BRICS?
Rio de Janeiro: US President Donald Trump is doubling down against the BRICS bloc of fast-growing economies, including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, warning that their push to undermine the US dollar's dominance threatens America's economic supremacy. Just as BRICS leaders convened in Rio de Janeiro for their annual summit, Trump on Sunday vowed to slap an additional 10% tariff on any nation backing the group's "anti-American policies," piling pressure on top of existing and threatened trade levies. The Trump administration's 90-day pause on higher tariffs is set to expire Wednesday, and letters have been sent to inform dozens of countries of their new US import levy, according to the White House. While his latest threat is much lower than the 100% tariffs promised in January on countries that "play games with the dollar," Trump remains adamant about the need to safeguard the world's reserve currency. Over the past decade, BRICS has swelled from four to 10 members, including Indonesia, which joined in January. Saudi Arabia is listed as a member but has yet to confirm its status. The bloc also has nine partner countries, while dozens of others are lining up to join. The bloc, touted as China's alternative to the G7 (Group of Seven) wealthy nations, now represents a quarter of the global economy and almost half of the world's population. "Trump has a reason to worry," Alicia Garcia-Herrero, a senior fellow at the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, told DW. "The BRICS is very clearly anti-Western. Part of its mantra is to change the global order." Dollar diversification, but no real alternative BRICS has recently intensified efforts to reduce reliance on the dollar by promoting trade in local currencies among members. Stung by Western sanctions and tariffs, Russia and China are spearheading the so-called dedollarisation move, settling energy deals in rubles and yuan. India, meanwhile, has paid for cheap Russian oil since 2023 in yuan, rubles, and even the United Arab Emirates' dirham. Grander ambitions, like a gold-backed common currency, dubbed the "Unit," have so far stalled amid internal rifts between powerful BRICS members. India, wary of the dominance of China's yuan, has rejected the plan, while 2025 summit host Brazil also wants to prioritize local currency trade over a BRICS currency. "India, together with Brazil, is trying to balance the anti-Western messaging from BRICS, which is dominated by China and Russia," said Garcia-Herrero, who is also chief economist (Asia Pacific) at French investment bank Natixis. Out of the roughly $33 trillion (€28 trillion) in global trade conducted in 2024, intra-BRICS trade made up just 3%, or around $1 trillion, according to the BRICS website. "The majority of world trade is still settled in dollars and other traditional currencies," economist Herbert Poenisch told DW. "It will take a lot to dethrone that." The US currency is used in nearly 90% of global transactions and 59% of foreign exchange reserves, prompting several economists to argue that dedollarisation remains a distant threat. They believe that any BRICS alternative will be hampered by the yuan's capital controls, the ruble's volatility and some members' reluctance to abandon the greenback. BRICS growing fast but making little progress With Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the UAE and Indonesia recently joining and nearly new partner or affiliate nations like Algeria and Malaysia in tow, BRICS is clearly on a rapid growth path. Many countries are drawn to the bloc for pragmatic reasons, seeking a multi-polar world order less dominated by the West. They believe BRICS will amplify the voice of the Global South on the world stage. Those fearful of Western sanctions, like Iran and Russia, are counting on BRICS to help shield their economies through BRICS Pay and BRICS Bridge — planned alternatives to the Western payment messaging system, SWIFT. Others, including Ethiopia and Egypt, seek development financing free of the political strings often tied to Western aid. But Trump's latest threat could make them think twice. "Suddenly, being part of BRICS has a cost," Garcia-Herrero told DW. "This will probably discourage some, particularly the poorer countries." Yet despite its growing membership and lofty promises, BRICS has struggled to translate ambition into action. The bloc lacks institutional cohesion and suffers from deep geopolitical rifts, most notably between India and China. Efforts to build alternative financial institutions have also been cautious and limited in scope. The New Development Bank (NDB), touted as a rival to the World Bank, has so far approved $39 billion in loans versus the World Bank's $1 trillion plus. BRICS leaders are quickly realizing that expansion doesn't equal influence. Without a clear strategic vision, stronger coordination and tangible alternatives, some watchers believe the bloc risks becoming a symbolic club rather than a transformative force. "Trump shouldn't be worried," economist Herbert Poenisch told DW. "BRICS is still in the early stages, and bridging the many differences in priority will be a tall order." Ideological differences hard to reconcile Despite their many differences, BRICS leaders did take a firm stance on Trump's tariffs during the Brazil summit. In a declaration published Monday (June 7), the leaders criticised unilateral sanctions and protectionist tariffs, without naming Trump directly. The bloc warned that such measures "skew global trade" and violate WTO rules. Expanding from a mostly economic forum, the leaders emphasised cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) governance, climate change and global health, while also denouncing global conflicts. BRICS leaders said last month's attacks on Iran were a "violation of international law," without mentioning the US or Israel. They also reaffirmed support for Palestinian statehood and denounced the use of "starvation as a weapon" in Gaza. The declaration avoided criticizing Russia directly, reflecting a cautious approach due to Russia's membership, but it did condemn Ukraine's strikes on Russian infrastructure and called for a "sustainable peace settlement." The BRICS leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to multilateralism, international law, and reforms to the United Nations Security Council, including permanent seats for Brazil, India and an African nation.
Times of Oman
5 days ago
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Nirmala Sitharaman highlights India's strong economic resilience at BRICS
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