Future Beat: Young wisdom

Make no mistake, the future is in good hands. How do I know that? I spoke to some of the many Youth Climate Delegates at Cop28 in Dubai.

In particular, I heard from the delegates from the Middle East and North Africa.

It would be easy for them to freeze on the big stage of Cop28, become shy and simply observe, but the exact opposite is taking place.

They’re vocal, crystal clear about their desires for climate solutions and full of ideas.

One of the delegates with whom I spoke, Houyame Hakmi, a 25-year-old from Morocco , corrected me when I called her a climate activist.

“I prefer advocate,” she explained, telling me that advocates have more of a direct effect on public policy.

That’s just one example of the precise critical thinking I’ve witnessed from the Youth Climate Delegates at Cop28, but it’s an important one.

They know what they want and they know who they are.

That’s not just ecological wisdom, that’s wisdom on a grand scale, and it’s an important lesson they’re teaching all of us.

Cody Sigel Combs , Future Editor

The Big Story

AI looms large at Cop28

In brief | Just when you thought it was safe to take a brief hiatus from the artificial intelligence hype as Cop28 consumes a lot of mindshare and print space, yet again AI has found a way to nudge its way into the much-anticipated climate conference in Dubai.

There's the usual list of Big Tech companies with a presence on the ground at Cop28 promoting their visions for how AI can help the world face pressing climate problems.

It's easy to get lost in the hype, but it's also easy to see where some of these AI-driven solutions could come up against a harsh reality.

The critics say AI data farms consume a lot of energy. They also point to the slowly but surely growing carbon footprint of the web which could soon rival the aviation industry in terms of emissions.

Optimists, however, say all those concerns are being addressed, and given the ticking clock on climate change, there's no choice but to use AI to try to find solutions.

Why it matters | There’s only one topic that has the capability to overshadow the much-anticipated climate conference that is Cop28, and that’s artificial intelligence.

It strikes at our greatest hopes and our worst fears, and much like climate change, we have the ability to make decisions as to how much we can influence it.

Don’t get me wrong, Cop28 is still, by far, the big story, but you don’t have to cover much ground at Cop28 to see companies, NGOs and even governments talking about their plans for harnessing AI to improve the world around us.

Quoted | “I think AI is fundamentally about enabling, it's about enabling people and organisations to do more, and in this case, to take action” – Kate Brandt, chief sustainability officer at Google

Future in focus

Touching the Earth lightly | Plans have been revealed for a net-zero mosque to be built in the UAE

Meet Gemini | Google’s generative artificial intelligence tool Bard got its biggest upgrade as the company launched Gemini

Start me up | Hub71, Abu Dhabi's global technology system, has launched a programme to support climate technology start-ups

Sustainable building surge | End-user and investor demand for sustainable buildings has risen in the Middle East and Africa

Predicting the future: Signal or noise?

“They call me the loo king,” says Imad Agi, founder and chief executive of Ecoloo Group , as he promotes his sustainable toilet product at the sustainable start-up section in Dubai.

Ecoloo offers lavatories that are sewage and odour-free.

They don’t need water and are easy to install.

That raises the question, what’s wrong with the usual toilet? Does it need to be replaced?

This is a signal: According to Unicef, 60 per cent of the world lacks access to a toilet at home or to a toilet that can safely manage human waste. That sobering statistic, combined with the pricey, inefficient and difficult-to-install conventional toilet, leaves a significant gap in the market for a device that can be installed almost anywhere, requires minimal water and improves health and cleanliness for millions of people. Products like the Ecoloo offer practical solutions to limit the spread of diseases caused by improper human waste disposal, and in the long run, they’re far more sustainable than anything we currently use. It’s a win-win.

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