Dubai debt woes may cut CO2 but much more needed

Andrew Newby Yahoo News 6 Dec 09;

DUBAI (AFP) – Dubai's debt crisis may make a small dent in its greenhouse gas emissions but the Gulf emirate faces an enormous task to cut carbon to the levels to be proposed at the UN climate summit starting this week.

Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates have the world's highest per capita carbon footprint according to the authoritative WWF Living Planet report, which says the federation must slash them 75 percent to be sustainable.

"Dubai is quite simply an environmental catastrophe," John Foster, a British Green Party member who worked in Dubai for three years and a half years, told AFP.

"Dubai is the epitome of unsustainable living at a time when 'sustainability' is the word on world leaders' lips as they gather in Copenhagen to set out a global road map to combat climate change," said Foster, former editor of Banker Middle East.

The WWF's most recent version of its study found that an average of around 9.5 hectares (23.5 acres) of land per person were needed to provide the resources and waste facilities used by people in the UAE, slightly more than the amount taken up by Americans, the second worst offenders.

If the world's resources are not to run out, the average global requirement must be reduced below 2.1 hectares (5.2 acres) per person, the campaign said in the biennial analysis issued in late 2008.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wants developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas production at least 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit).

Masood Ahmed, the International Monetary Fund's Middle East chief, told the Financial Times last week that the Dubai economy could contract again in 2010 after Dubai World's shock request for a six month halt to debt payments.

Phil Dickie, WWF international news editor, said the global downturn has led to a reduction in CO2 emissions in some industrial countries and "we would expect something similar" if Dubai's debt moratorium sparks a deceleration of the local economy.

However, while agreeing that the UAE has a lot of work to do, he said the UAE's rulers are fully aware of the problem and are taking action.

"We are actually cooperating with them and a former member of the WWF staff has gone to work on the Masdar project," Dickie told AFP.

The Masdar Initiative, launched by the government of Dubai's neighbouring emirate Abu Dhabi, is splashing out 22 billion dollars to build the world's first carbon neutral city.

Spread over 6.5 square kilometres (2.5 square miles), Masdar City is scheduled to house 55,000 people when ready in 2015 and will run totally on renewable energy.

Despite its rulers' environmental concerns, the UAE sold oil worth more than 100 billion dollars last year, making it the second biggest exporter in the OPEC cartel, only behind Saudi Arabia.

In June, Abu Dhabi won an international vote to host the new International Renewable Energy Agency after it promised loans worth 50 million dollars a year to promote the use of renewable energy in developing countries.

"Many see a contradiction between us being one of the largest oil exporters in the world and our seeking to house the agency," Reem al-Hashemi, a state minister, told AFP at the time.

"On the contrary, this confirms the commitment of a fossil fuel exporter to the enhancement of renewable energy. Since we export energy, we want to export all kinds of it," she added.

"The UAE is committed to environmental issues as a top priority," Hashemi said.

In September, classes started at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, billed as the world's first graduate academic institution dedicated to research into alternative energy, environmental technologies and sustainability.

Dubai's own efforts to reduce its carbon emissions are centred on practical measures within the city. A metro rail line opened in September, the first in the Gulf Arab region, and another is under construction.

It is also building a one billion dollar tram line, which, among other stops, will link the metro network to the monorail which runs up the trunk of Dubai's iconic Palm Jumeirah tree-shaped island resort.

But Foster, who stood for the Green Party in the London constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow in the last British general election, is unconvinced.

"It's window-dressing, PR and spin, which Dubai is a master of. People will not use the metro over their 4x4s, partly because of the status of the 4x4, which has become the modern-day equivalent of a thoroughbred Arabian stallion.

"Dubai is the city of excess in every sense of the word. You can see this as you drive from the airport past manicured lawns and the grand greens of Emirates Golf Course, all soaked in water -- water that has been reclaimed at great expense in a wholly unsustainable way.

"You can see this as you drive past the unregulated construction of hordes of towers on your way to 'New Dubai' which has been reclaimed from the sea, but at the cost of a rare coral reef."