This week’s World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi was big on talk of renewables and the energy transition. But at least as far as the Mena region itself is concerned, action has sorely lagged.

The heavy renewables (and nuclear – MEES, 13 September) focus of this year’s WEC was characterised by a large degree of hyperbole. Anyone with even a passing acquaintance with policies in Denmark or the Netherlands would struggle to recognise car and aircon-dependent Abu Dhabi as “the frontier of the new energy future” as Younghoon David Kim, chair of organizers the World Energy Council, obsequiously referred to his hosts. (CONTINUED - 386 WORDS)