In 2024, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) recorded 393 natural hazard-related disasters. These events caused 16,753 fatalities and affected 167.2 million people. Economic losses totaled US$241.95 billion. The year 2024 was marked by extreme temperature events in Asia that caused thousands of deaths, severe droughts in Africa affecting over 25 …
The UAE has the potential to invest up to $76 billion in projects to develop its hydrocarbon sector over the next five years to become the second largest Arab energy investor after Saudi Arabia, overtaking Iran, a news report has said. Official estimates showed energy capital investments in the Middle …
Canada and the European Union are embroiled in a dispute over a key piece of EU climate legislation which Ottawa claims discriminates against one of its key exports—crude from the oil sands of Alberta. At issue is the EU Fuel Quality Directive, which aims to encourage the use of low-carbon …
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, through the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) donated $1.8 million to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to support the agency’s efforts in building permanent one-room shelters for the displaced families of Orakzai Agency. Under the agreement, UNHCR will construct 1000 permanent one-room …
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), may invest over $1.5 billion in exploring for oil in a block that was awarded to it by the erstwhile Saddam Hussein regime. "We are nearing finality on the contract for Block-8. It is likely to …
SOME are petrified while others squeal at the mere sight of these scaly reptiles. Lizards that scurry past walls to hide and sometimes free-fall into the kitchen sink with a splat face a serious threat across the world. Scientists say climate change is one of the biggest reasons. There are …
Many traders and hedge funds are nursing losses after a whiplash reversal in one of the biggest commodity trading trends of the year – a bet on a widening spread between different types of crude oil. Traders say the unexpected release of the Western countries’ petroleum strategic stocks last week …
Is this the face of future water conflicts? China, India and Saudi Arabia have lately leased vast tracts of land in sub-Saharan Africa at knockdown prices. Their primary aim is to grow food abroad using the water that African countries don't have the infrastructure to exploit. Doing so is cheaper …
WikiLeaks is now turning the heat on the oil industry. The whistleblowing website has unearthed confidential cables from the US embassy in Saudi Arabia that show the world’s largest crude oil exporter may not have enough reserves to prevent escalation of oil prices. The cables urge Washington to take seriously …
South Africa expects to seal a deal with buyers in Saudi Arabia and India for about 1,00,000 tonne of its surplus maize before the end of February, a senior government official said on Monday. Africa
Saudi Arabia, the top oil exporter, is planning to host the world's largest gold factory by the end of 2011, Arab News reported on January 4. It will become a reality by the end of this year,
Dust storms scour Iraq. Freak floods wreak havoc in Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Rising sea levels erode Egypt's coast. Hotter, drier weather worsens water scarcity in the Middle East, already the world's most water-short region. The Arab world is already suffering impacts consistent with climate change predictions. Although scientists are …
Magma has worked its way up to just under the surface in a remote region of northwest Saudi Arabia, causing a flurry of small to moderate quakes and threatening to form a new volcano, researchers said Sunday. A swarm of 30,000 quakes shook the region of Harrat Lunayyir from May …
AHEAD of the August round of negotiations at Bonn, the BASIC (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) countries will meet in Rio de Janeiro in late July. This will be the third quarterly meeting of the four countries. It is expected that the other developing countries will be invited to …
The drab and dull climate meetings in Bonn finally saw some sparks of excitement on Thursday when the grouping of small island states sparred with oil producing nations led by Saudi Arabia over the need to have a scientific evaluation done on options for restricting the global rise in temperatures …
A NEW line of division has appeared in the climate change negotiations, this time on the issue of a temperature threshold of 1.5 degrees Centrigrade. Small island states were pushing for a technical paper by the UNFCCC secretariat to study the impact of a 1.5 degrees temperature threshold. The effort …
The main objective of this study is to analyze and evaluate road traffic noise in the City of Al-Dammam. Digital sound level meters with frequency weighting networks were used in this study. All measurements were taken on an A weighting frequency network, at a height of about 1.5 m from …
