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The Dubai Future Forum (DFF) 2024 opened on Tuesday with a thought-provoking keynote address by H.E. Khalfan Belhoul. In his address, the chief executive officer of the Dubai Future Foundation reminded us of how rapidly things are evolving in our dynamic world with predictions for change over the coming 12 months. Following are seven developments that Belhoul described as signals of a world in motion, together with my thoughts on each:
The world moves beyond GDP
For decades, the common measure for a country’s economic performance has been gross domestic product (GDP) — the total value of goods produced and services provided in a country during one year. Yet GDP is an imperfect measure of because it focuses solely on economic output, ignoring important factors such as environmental degradation and the sustainability of growth. Recognizing these limitations, the United Nations has adopted a new framework that includes the contributions of wetlands, forests and other ecosystems when measuring how an economy is doing.
The world doubles its energy from the sun
While the world continues to increase the generation of solar energy, this prediction seems, unfortunately, overly optimistic. The UK-based energy think tank Ember estimates that the world is on track to install 29% more solar…
