By Satish Kanady
DOHA: Qatar is set to enact a comprehensive National Water Act for the effective conservation of its precious water resources.
The country is also moving towards more efficient forms of desalination and is investing heavily in research and development of new technologies, including the usage of renewable energy to power desalination plants to minimise the environmental impacts of the country’s desalination projects, Qatar stated in its new climate action plan report submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Qatar’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) report comes in advance of a new universal climate change agreement which will be reached at the UN climate conference, which is opening today in Paris. The Paris agreement will come into effect in 2020, empowering all countries to act to prevent average global temperatures rising above 2 degrees Celsius and to reap the many opportunities that arise from a necessary global transformation to clean and sustainable development. Including Qatar, 170 parties to the UNFCCC, have formally submitted their INDCs.
Qatar’s action plan report noted the country has been contributing indirectly to the global efforts to mitigate climate change by exporting Liquefied Natural Gas as a clean energy. Efforts have been made into solar energy generation with a view to becoming a regional supplier of solar-generated electricity.
The INDC report said some national entities started considering solar and wind sources to generate electricity for small buildings aiming to open a new market, in the hope of strengthening the economic diversification. Utilising clean energy and renewables is an adaptive precaution to climate change impacts that would open a window to diversify the economy and reduce emissions to the atmosphere from the fuel combustion. Some of clean energy and renewable sources are available, however, they cannot be utilized without the needed support; especially, technology transfer.
Qatar has invested heavily in research and development in various areas including sustainable energy, in line with its National Research Strategy.
Many research activities are being carried out in various fields, improving the environment to adapt with climate change impacts, utilising clean energy and renewables, reducing emissions to the atmosphere and developing technologies that convert emissions into useful products. These research efforts consider economical validation, economic-diversification and efficiency.
Qatar aims to use upgraded wastewater treatment plants to improve the treated water quality and further support using it for agriculture to reduce demand on fresh water and accordingly decrease fuel consumption in water desalination and associated gaseous emissions. In addition, Qatar is undertaking the following key initiatives in relation to water management:
3.1.1 Water Conservation: Qatar will enact a comprehensive National Water Act establishing an integrated system of quality requirements, discharge controls and incentives for conservation.
Qatar’s infrastructure is being improved and directed towards an efficient adaption and mitigation measure for reducing climate change impacts.
Several projects are serving the goal. Qatar introduced public transportation to reduce demand on private vehicles and direct the nation towards the use of the public transportation and expressway programmes that would enhance traffic and divert it outside the cities.
Hence, the local roads and drainage programme is expected to enhance the network of drinking water, wastewater and treated sewage effluent.
In Qatar, Vehicles Inspection Services regulates emissions from vehicles. Qatar continues to improve emission standards for new motor vehicles in accordance with regional and global standards.
A dedicated department for climate change at the Ministry of Environment has been established to strengthen governance of climate change on national level and implement standardised data collection and reporting. This national Monitoring, Reporting and Verification system could be used to track progress of actions and projects that may push towards achieving the aim of this INDCs.
The Peninsula
