Manuel Rabate has been appointed the director of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Rabate, who is French, has previously worked at the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Quai Branly Museum and Agence France-Museums. The new director has not released the projected opening date of the museum.

182 new parking spaces have been allocated for women throughout Abu Dhabi, according to The National. Marked with pink, the spaces will reportedly be near the Liwa Centre, the Corniche, Zakher Hotel, the Ministry of Health, in Liwa street and Al Noor Hospital. Male motorists will be fined for using the women’s only spaces.

A 29-year-old transgender Emirati man filed a lawsuit with the Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance for permission to undergo a gender reassignment operation. The case follows a new Medical Liability Law which eased the process for undergoing a gender reassignment operation. In addition, a fatwa was issued by the General Authority for Islamic Affairs and Endowments prior to the Medical Liability Law. The fatwa held that in cases where the sex of the petitioner was physiologically or biologically ambiguous and approved by medical professionals, a sex-change operation could occur.

At the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees held at the United Nations headquarters this week, the UAE announced a five-year plan to receive 15,000 Syrian refugees into the country. Reem Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, spoke of the 123,000 Syrians welcomed to the country since the start of the crisis five years ago and $750 million of aid provided to neighboring countries.

On Sept. 22, the UAE ratified its participation in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment His Excellency Dr. Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi mentioned that the Paris Agreement, “allows each country to contribute climate actions in accordance with their own economic and development priorities”. The UAE is currently seeking to invest more in knowledge-based industries in order to diversify the country’s economy. Projects included in the UAE’s carbon reduction plan range from nuclear and renewable energy to water efficiency and carbon sequestration. The aim is that the UAE has 24% clean energy usage by 2021.