PM — We’re falling behind on climate mitigation

It’s really almost-THURSDAY now, friends — the weekend is so close, we can almost smell it. This afternoon’s news flow hasn’t quite taken shape yet, but we anticipate more stories to crop up over the course of the day.

THE BIG STORY TODAY-

Household electricity bills will be up as much as 20.8% by 1 July: Residential electricity bills are rising at the start of the new fiscal year on 1 July as part of the Sisi administration’s plan to phase out electrical subsidies by 2025, Youm7 reports, citing sources from the ministry.

^^We’ll have more details on this and other stories in tomorrow’s edition of EnterpriseAM.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

Once again, there isn’t one story driving the conversation in the international press this afternoon. Among the headlines and updates getting front-page treatment:

• Turkey-Russia talks on unlocking Ukrainian grain shipments ended today on an inconclusive note, with Turkey saying more talks are needed with Moscow and Kyiv to ensure ships’ safety. (Reuters)
• Big Tech stocks are seeing a downturn that is reminiscent of the dot-com bubble’s collapse in 2000, with the S&P 500’s information-technology sector down 19% YTD. (WSJ)
• European markets are down on expectations that the European Central Bank will raise interest rates when it meets tomorrow. (FT)

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** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• The World Bank has again revised upwards its projection for Egypt’s GDP growth by 0.6 percentage points to 6.1% for FY 2021-2022.
• EFG Hermes’ energy investment platform Vortex Energy has so far invested EUR 222 mn of equity capital into Ignis Energia, with plans to eventually invest EUR 625 mn in Ignis under an agreement signed with the Spanish solar developer in October.
• Qatari companies have an appetite for Egyptian investments: A number of Qatari companies have expressed interest in investing in Egypt during meetings with GAFI head Mohamed Abdel Wahab, who is on a multi-day visit to Doha to pitch Egypt as an attractive investment destination

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FOR TOMORROW-

The Digital Transformation Summit gets underway tomorrow, bringing together public and private sector players in the tech industries to share and discuss views on the current landscape of the market, recent tech innovations, and proposed strategies.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

NEWS TRIGGERS you’ll want to keep an eye on:

• Inflation figures for May are due out on Saturday, 9 June (from state statistics agency Capmas) and Sunday, 12 June (central bank figures);
• The Central Bank of Egypt holds its policy meeting on Thursday, 23 June.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- It’s that time of year when the weather forecast makes us want to cry (or plan a pool day): Get ready for the real Egyptian summer heat that’s coming in full force this week. The mercury will reach 42°C during the day tomorrow before falling to 24°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us. Temperatures will reach 44°C on Saturday before cooling down again next workweek.

Employees across all sectors report work intensification despite new technologies: Robots, machinery AI, and the like have all been hailed as being an essential part of making work easier and faster for humans. However, the humans in question have shown that the reality is quite the opposite, writes the Financial Times, citing government surveys. People now say they are working harder to tighter deadlines while experiencing greater levels of tension and stress. The share of employees who strongly agree that their job requires that they work “very hard” jumped between 1992 and 2017, rising 16 percentage points to 46%, according to UK government surveys. The proportion who cited that they work to “tight deadlines” at least three quarters of the time also rose to 60% in 2017 from 53% in 1992. This trend of intensifying work conditions is applicable across several sectors, from employees at major multinationals to workers at small local businesses, as well as across the globe with similar figures found in the US and Europe.

So why is this happening? A number of answers have been posed by the FT. It’s possible that technology and its instant connectivity to others has led to tighter deadlines and the immediate need to address demands. Machinery has also pushed employees to be able to keep up with the faster pace while more tech is being employed to monitor and regulate their work. Another possible explanation is that workplaces have simply cut headcount to save costs without coming up with more efficient ways of doing things. It’s also possible that email and instant messaging platforms, which keep employees accessible beyond work hours and outside of the office, simply tire people out mentally as they lead to constant distractions.

What can be done? The four-day workweek could be a good solution, because if “we can’t work less hard, perhaps we should just work less.”

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Microsoft’s metaverse plans take a hit with departure of HoloLens boss: The executive that led Microsoft’s augmented reality headset project — HoloLens — is leaving the company following allegations of misconduct, The Verge reports. Alex Kipman will leave the company in two months’ time, according to an internal email obtained by GeekWire. Business Insider had earlier reported that over 25 Microsoft employees have accused Kipman of misconduct and verbal abuse. Microsoft’s augmented reality team has lost some 100 people in the past year, many of them to Meta, the Wall Street Journal reports, as the company’s headset project reports disappointing sales — shipping only some 200-250k units since its launch in 2016 — despite bns of USDs in investments poured into the project by the company.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

Now that Disney+ has officially landed in Egypt and the MENA region, watch Marvel series Moon Knight, which celebrates Ancient Egyptian mythology: The series, co-directed by Egyptian director Mohamed Diab, and follows the story of a comic book vigilante who assumes multiple alter egos to battle with the criminal underworld. The title character, played by Oscar Isaac, is the avatar of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon who provided Moon Knight with supernatural powers to fight against evil. Diab’s casting selection and focus on the authenticity is a main feature of the director’s interview with the Hollywood Reporter, wherein he says that a major part of the 200-page pitch to Marvel was to avoid the “orientalist look, which always dehumanizes us.” Diab, Marvel’s first Arab filmmaker, tapped talents such as composer Hisham Nazih — known for his work in the Golden Parade in April last year — for Moon Knight’s soundtrack. Others include Ahmed Hafez, one of series’ three editors, Ramy series star May Calamawy, and The Kite Runner leading actor Khalid Abdullah.

⚽ Belgium faces Poland and Wales faces the Netherlands tonight in the European Nations League. Both matches are set to take place at 9pm.

There are several matches taking place in the 2023 African Nations qualifiers today, the most important of which is Tanzania against Algeria at 6pm.

???? OUT AND ABOUT-
(all times CLT)

Head to a weekly tango night every Wednesday, brought to you by HiGi at the Swiss Club Cairo. The dance enthusiasts are hosting a La Milonga night today at 9pm where they dance to the special style of Latin music.

Noha Fekry is performing today at Kempinski Nile Hotel’s Jazz Bar at 9:30pm.

Attend a conversation titled What do we want from speculative fiction? tomorrow at Contemporary Image Collective at 7pm. Malak Helmy and Mohamed Abdelkarim will lead a discussion that aims to pose answers for questions such as why we make images of the future.

???? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

Childhood in Ancient Egypt is the most comprehensive attempt at recounting the experiences of children in Ancient Egypt: Drawing on textual, iconographic, and archaeological sources stretching over a period of 3.5k years, Amandine Marshall — with help from Colin Clement — reconstructs a detailed image of life as a youngster from the Predynastic period to the end of the New Kingdom. Marshall explores how ancient Egyptians perceived children and childhood and how they were seen in the eyes of law, society, and the state. The book also goes into more everyday details about their lives such as what they wore, the activities they engaged in, games they played, and how their parents would protect them from illness, evil spirits, or ghosts. Illustrated with 160 drawings and photographs, the book is a major contribution to the growing field of ancient-world childhood studies.

The EGX30 rose 1.9% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 902 mn (7.5% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 14.3% YTD.

In the green: Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (+7.0%), Heliopolis Housing (+5.4%) and Fawry (+5.1%).

In the red: CIRA (-2.2%), e-Finance (-0.9%) and Egypt Kuwait Holding-EGP (-0.1%).

A new report shows climate change accelerated in 2021: Four key climate change indicators — greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat and ocean acidification — set new records last year in another sign that the world is falling behind on climate change mitigation, according to a World Meteorological Organization (WMO) report. The average global temperature in 2021 was about 1.11 (± 0.13) °C above the pre-industrial level — 0.22°C to 0.29°C warmer than 2011, bringing us closer to the 1.5°C benchmark.

Don’t say you haven’t been warned: The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) rang alarm bells in a report earlier this year, saying that we have to act “now or never” to implement “immediate but deep” emission reductions to stave off real climate disaster. The report indicated that we would need to cut the planet’s emissions by 43% by 2030 if we want to limit annual global warming to 1.5°C. In what was termed “the bleakest warning yet” by some scientists, another IPCC report released in February warns of “irreversible” environmental damage if temperatures are allowed to exceed 1.5 °C. Increasingly extreme weather is causing “widespread, pervasive impacts” to ecosystems across the world, some of which are already beyond repair.

Where does Egypt stand on its emissions targets? Egypt is expected to announce soon its revised national targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions, or its nationally determined contribution (NDC) to cut emissions and adapt to climate impacts, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said last month. As per the Paris Agreement, all parties to the 2015 treaty are required to update their NDC every five years. The last NDC we submitted was in 2017 and it did not include binding targets for specific emissions reductions. While we have signed onto the original Paris Agreement and the updated COP26 pledge, Egypt did not meet a deadline to submit its updated NDC last year for COP26 and has in the past lagged other countries in submitting climate targets, David Waskow, a director of the nonprofit World Resources Institute said.

This is all pushing the UN to urge rich countries to share their climate mitigation tech: Developed countries should share the intellectual property for energy technologies that can help developing countries adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a video message (watch, runtime: 06:28). Batteries and related power-storage technology should be treated as “freely available public goods,” he said. Guterres also called for a global coalition on battery storage to be formed to fast-track deployment, indicating that it should be led by the governments and include tech companies, manufacturers, and financiers.

The push comes as part of a five-point plan to boost renewable energy usage: Renewable energy has become more accessible than ever over the past decade as the cost of wind energy declined by more than half while solar energy and batteries saw their prices fall 85%, Guterres said. The UN is now proposing that we also need to broaden access to supply chains and raw materials that go into renewable technologies, ensure governmental policy supports the use of renewable energy, remove subsidies for fossil fuels, and increase investments in clean energy. Private and public investments in renewable energy must triple to at least USD 4 tn a year, he added.

We could get more plans and specifics at COP27 in Egypt: The international organization will spearhead new action to ensure that all countries have access to early warning systems that indicate whether extreme weather is headed their way, Guterres said in a separate address (watch, runtime: 02:02). The WMO will lead these efforts and the action plan will be announced at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh in November, he added.