Balancing Financial Progress and CO2 Emissions in Qatar

The linkage between financial development and environmental degradation is a well known matter. The burning query has turn into whether or not there’s a trade-off between sustaining financial actions and sustaining the situations of pure sources, or whether or not financial development can go in concord together with environmental safety measures. The direct interconnected relationship between fossil gas consumption and environmental degradation has posed an attention-grabbing coverage problem.

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Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and different greenhouse gases that entice warmth within the ambiance, making them main contributors to local weather change. However, excessive industrial actions, alongside quickly rising populations, put rising strain on power demand.

The Instance of Qatar

Qatar has made exceptional financial achievements over the previous few many years. But Qatar is going through a trade-off between boosting its financial development and decreasing its carbon dioxide emissions. Its strategic mandate to spice up financial improvement, together with different areas associated to sustainability, makes Qatar an attention-grabbing nation to research.

The World Financial institution defines Qatar as one of many richest nations on the earth by way of GDP per capita. Its economic system is extremely depending on oil and fuel manufacturing, which accounts for greater than 50% of GDP, 85% of export earnings and 70% of presidency revenues. The nation can be a serious participant in liquefied pure fuel. Nonetheless, Qatar’s excessive dependence on fossil fuels has resulted in a rise within the CO2 emissions degree when in comparison with international averages.

To fight the rising carbon emission percentages and decrease environmental pressures, Qatar is introducing strict coverage measures to attain sustainable improvement by way of 4 central pillars: financial, social, human and environmental improvement. Whereas many disruptions have occurred over the previous few years, together with fluctuations in oil and fuel costs, financial downturns and a lethal pandemic, no one anticipated an financial blockade.

The Diplomatic Rift

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt reduce diplomatic relations with Qatar. They prohibited Qatar-registered planes and ships from using their airspace and sea routes, and the Saudis additionally blocked Qatar’s solely land border.

This level is of explicit significance because the deterioration in relations among the many Gulf neighbors urged Qatar to rethink its sustainable improvement targets whereas assembly native demand. Initially of the blockade, the nation relied closely on importing a number of commodities, particularly meals gadgets. Later, it accelerated initiatives and applications to diversify the economic system and cut back reliance on imports.

Reaching carbon neutrality can be factored into all Qatar’s initiatives. For instance, by the tip of 2022, Qatar goals to ship the primary carbon-neutral FIFA World Cup within the historical past of the occasion. All stadiums and infrastructure are subjected to rigorous sustainability requirements. A number of air high quality monitoring stations and in depth recycling applications are being launched, together with the development of the eight stadiums that might be used throughout the soccer match.

Qatar has since turn into far more unbiased throughout a number of sectors, together with meals manufacturing and transport, making it a case examine on how one can rework challenges into alternatives for development.

This was additionally evident with whole carbon emissions. In keeping with my very own evaluation, carbon emission per capita fell by 13% as of 2018 from a historic document in 2000. Since then, whole carbon emissions have elevated because the economic system has grown however at a slower charge, that means that Qatar is present process increasing relative decoupling. Within the 2008 to 2018 interval, a 1% change in GDP resulted in a fall of CO2 emissions, from 0.65% to 0.44%. This drop could be very related to Qatar as a number of measures have been utilized, notably during the last 10 years, to cut back emissions.

A Discount in Emissions

Whereas Qatar’s whole emissions have declined over latest years, insurance policies to extend power effectivity, diversify the power combine by introducing extra renewables, help technological improvement to enhance power effectivity in a desert local weather, and implement power demand administration applications to take care of the identical pattern of decline and obtain local weather change targets have been more and more essential.  

The heightened strain brought on by the blockade on Qatar is now over, however what is required are extra synergies and collective efforts throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to stimulate financial diversification and decrease carbon emissions. Member states of the GCC are sharing a number of environmental, social and financial components that ought to incentivize them to cooperate to satisfy their local weather change targets and financial improvement targets.

*[Saad Shannak is a scientist at Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) in Qatar. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the university’s official stance.]

The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Honest Observer’s editorial coverage.