Qatar yesterday passed yet another milestone in its sustainable development efforts through harnessing its natural resources to meet the energy needs of the country. Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani inaugurated the Barzan Gas Project at Ras Laffan Industrial City yesterday, which marked an important step in the march toward optimal utilisation of the country’s resources in providing clean energy.
After the function, H H the Amir on his official Twitter account said that by inaugurating the Barzan Gas Project, the State of Qatar has taken important steps toward optimal utilisation of its vital resources in providing clean energy, meeting local needs and supporting the country’s major strategic projects and development plans based on the harmonisation between energy use and environmental preservation.
Barzan Gas Project is a $10.4bn project developed by joint venture (JV) of Qatargas and ExxonMobil with the JV appointed RasGas as the project manager.
The Barzan LNG plant is located in the North Field at a green-field site in Ras Laffan Industrial City. The plant provides natural gas to augment the current and future developments such as power plants, desalination plants, new airport, sea ports and other vital infrastructure projects as the country is in its finals stages of preparations to host the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
From the beginning, Qatar has been very diligent in its exploitation and use of natural resources, making sure that developments and environment protection goes hand in hand. Now, every development taking place in the country is based on four pillars such as Human Development, Social Development, Economic Development and Environmental Development as part of Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV 2030). Qatar has implemented several programmes to control air pollution, reduce emission of harmful gases and increase reliance on renewable energy.
As a fruit of these efforts, Qatar topped the GCC region in The 2018 Environmental Performance Index. In January, the country was ranked 18th overall in the Earth.org Global Sustainability Index and 5th in the Policy Category. In the same year, Qatar led the Mena region in World Economic Forum’s Energy Transition Index 2021.
Qatar has been playing an important role in global efforts to mitigate climate change. Doha will host the world’s first carbon neutral FIFA World Cup this year. Qatar was among the first countries to sign global climate pacts. The country provided $2bn to help developing countries advance sustainability efforts, in 2019, Qatar contributed $20m to the UNDP Accelerator Labs and announced $100m to support small island states and least developed states to help deal with climate change.
