Qatar’s mission to improve the state of the environment

With yet another World Environment Day observed last Friday, authorities in Qatar have moved further ahead in their mission to improve the state of the environment in the country.This year’s celebration was held under the theme “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care”. It elaborates how the well-being of humanity, the environment and economies ultimately depends on the responsible management of the planet’s natural resources. Evidence is building that people are consuming far more natural resources than what the planet can sustainably provide.As part of celebrations marking the day, HE the Minister of Environment Ahmed Amer Mohamed al-Humaidi said that under the leadership of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani,  Qatar had been taking care for environment protection and preservation of natural resources’ storage.He noted that Qatar was one of the most important sites for migratory birds, noting that the Ministry of Environment maintained continuous co-operation with international and regional organisations and concluded agreements with the UN and other organisations on environment protection. While a lot of good work has been done on the environment front, Qatar clearly has to do more, as indicated by the results of a recent study into the country’s air quality.The “Particulate Air Pollution in Qatar and the Air Quality Index” project was a collaboration between biological science students, Syed Abbas Mehdi and Nourhan El Khatib, under the mentorship of Terrence Murphy, teaching professor of chemistry at CMUQ.It received the “Best Project” award at the ninth annual “Meeting of the Minds” undergraduate research symposium of Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar in May .The year-long study showed the annual average air pollution in Qatar exceeds not only guidelines set by Qatar’s National Standards but those of the World Health Organisation and the US Environmental Protection Agency. It was in 2012 that the Living Planet Report, produced by the World Wildlife Fund and the Global Footprint Network, among others, stated that Qatar’s carbon emissions per capita are the highest in the world and three times as high as the US.Though the oil pumped from Qatar was not counted against the country’s consumption, it was the very high energy usage that set the alarm bells ringing. The report estimated that energy demand was rising by 7% a year to run the desalinators and air conditioners.Amid the gloom one good news that came in April this year was about the country making an effective saving of about QR600mn since the launch of the Tarsheed campaign by Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) to reduce consumption of electricity and water.Since the campaign began on April 22, 2012, there has been an identical overall reduction of 11% in the total consumption of water and electricity in the country. The target set by Kahramaa is to make a gross reduction of 35% in the consumption of water and 20% in electricity until 2017.