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| Mari Luomi presenting her views on new approach to sustainability in the Gulf region |
The lecture was presented by the university’s post-doctoral fellow, Mari Luomi, who shared her research on environmental sustainability in the region.
In her presentation, entitled “Natural Resources and Environmental Unsustainability in Qatar and the GCC,” Luomi argued for a new way of conceptualising and understanding the political economy, politics and development in the Gulf.
“The regional governments’ dependence on fossil fuels, fossil fuel revenues, and the social contracts based on these revenues produces unsustainability,” she argued.
The ‘business-as-usual’ of Gulf economies and societies is increasingly challenged by a number of environmental and natural resource-related pressures, she said.
“The most urgent ones originate from within the states: fossil fuel dependence, soaring population, economic growth, high per capita consumption and waste of natural resources, and social contracts that include abundant fuel and utility price subsidies,” Luomi said, adding: “We live in a constructed illusion of plentiful and limitless natural resources.”
Qatar’s share of total global carbon emissions stood at 0.2% in 2007, placing it first in terms of global per capita emissions, and according to Qatar Petroleum, the oil and gas industry accounted for the majority of Qatar’s emissions, with close to 70% in 2006.
Qatar’s ecological footprint – its human consumption in relation to the earth’s resources – is also the world’s second largest.
“There are a number of areas in which Gulf governments can work to steer their societies towards sustainable futures - among the most important ones are: embracing environmental sustainability as a cross-sectoral topic,” argued Luomi.
Further ways to increase sustainability, she said, were building an ‘infrastructure for sustainability,’ for example in the form of recycling infrastructure, better public transport coverage and setting up feed-in-tariffs for renewable energy.
“Most importantly, however, governments should open up a frank public debate on the environmental externalities, or negative impacts, of current patterns of natural resource consumption - this would pave way for the introduction of natural resource pricing that truly reflects this cost.”
“It is only when people are made to understand the cost of their lifestyles for the surrounding environment that we can start making a change,” she added.
CIRS director Mehran Kamrava said: “Through the monthly dialogue we’ve encouraged discourse on topical issues of the day, and bring to light research by members of the education community for the local community.”
