logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2020
1s

Repowering Lebanon with wind energy

HAKAWATI | حكواتي
About this episode
Salah Tabbara is co-founder of Naseem Akkar Windfarms, Lebanon's first wind energy project that will power 220,0000 homes. In this episode recorded before the August 4th explosion at the Port of Beirut, he talks about the project's progress, how the private sector can help restructure that country's failed economy and eliminate the need for subsidies and ad ... Show More
Up next
Jul 2022
Altered state: Making it through the storm
Dolores Shelleh was the first Jordanian woman to summit Mount Everest in 2019, a year which marked many deadly expeditions. In an interview recorded from Serbia, Dolores talks about the tragedy she witnessed on the mountain and her struggle to readjust to the mundane routine and ... Show More
1s
Jun 2022
The Power of Sharks: Why you should love them and swim vertically
Nouf Al Oseimi is the Saudi Founder of Red Sea Citizens Dive Club and a scuba diving instructor. She shares her tips for avoiding shark attacks, explains why she started a movement for Saudi women divers, how life feels under the sea and why humans are doomed if the oceans die. 
1s
Jun 2022
A Record Breaking Journey to the Highest Peaks on Earth
Saeed Al Memari talks from a basecamp in Costa Rica about his ongoing “Peak for Peace’ expedition, a mission to climb the highest peak in all 246 countries backed by the sponsorship of the Crown Prince of Fujairah in the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi. Al M ... Show More
1s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2021
Lebanon's Energy Sector
This week on Babel, Jon Alterman talks with Jessica Obeid, energy consultant, a senior global advisor at the London-based consultancy Azure Strategy, and an academy associate with Chatham House's Energy, Environment, and Resources Programme. They talk about the Lebanese power sec ... Show More
34m 57s
Jul 2023
Steel in the Water: U.S. Offshore Wind Energy Scales Up
Excitement is brewing over an Atlantic offshore wind project 15 miles east of Massachusetts. Developers of the first utility-scale project in the country have begun laying the foundations for 62 planned turbines.   Vineyard Wind, the nation’s first commercial scale offshore wind ... Show More
47m 54s
Jun 2023
How Lebanon’s economy collapsed
Protests, power cuts and bank hold-ups – Lebanon was already struggling before the 2020 port explosion that devasted its capital, Beirut, but now it’s in a desperate economic collapse. The Lebanese people are struggling to buy basic food and medicine. And the country also hosts t ... Show More
18m 56s
Jun 2022
The EU's Plan For Energy Self-Sufficiency
The energy crisis is showing no signs of abating. There’s a shortage of energy, and the world’s efforts to transition to low-carbon energy are met with countless hurdles. Countries around the world are taking steps to mitigate the crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine how ... Show More
1h 2m
Aug 2020
What it will take to rebuild a shattered Beirut
This week, Mustafa Alrawi and Kelsey Warner talk to Fadi Adra, a partner with Strategy&, on the impact assessment his team did to help route aid to those most in need in Beirut. In this episode: The Strategy& impact assessment (0m 51s) What are the urgent needs in Beirut? (5m 05s ... Show More
23m 11s
Aug 2020
Rebuilding Lebanon’s Fashion Industry
Elie Saab Jr, chief executive of Elie Saab Group, and Lebanese designers Roni Helou and Amine Jreissati speak about the urgent need for global solidarity in the face of crisis. BEIRUT, Lebanon — At around 6pm on August 4, 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in the Beirut port ... Show More
46m 7s
Jan 2020
Germany’s Energy Transition
Germany has long been considered a leader in renewable energy – a model even for others to follow with its subsidies for wind and solar. Householders were encouraged to put solar panels on their rooves as early as two decades ago. But its so-called “Energiewende” or “energy trans ... Show More
26m 28s
Oct 2023
Women in Beirut: Facing up to the climate crisis
The cedar tree is Lebanon’s national symbol: it can be seen everywhere, on flags, banknotes and souvenirs. But this majestic tree is under threat as a result of climate change and has come to symbolise the greater environmental crisis facing Lebanon: heatwaves, wildfires and an e ... Show More
27m 31s
Oct 2022
OPEC+ cuts daily production target
OPEC+, the alliance of oil-exporting countries has agreed its deepest cuts to oil production for more than two years, despite pressure from the US to increase production. Opec Secretary General, Haitham Al Ghais says the move is not a political act. But what are the implications? ... Show More
27m 53s
Sep 2021
Lebanon in dire need
The new Lebanese government has been in place for a week, but with the economy still spiraling, Lebanese people lack confidence anything will be done in the short term to relieve the extreme economic crisis. Mohamed El Aassar, Middle East journalist with Fortune Magazine, tells t ... Show More
17m 28s