Qataris Get Seminar on Carbon Market Trading From UK Specialists

Making their wealth from the non-renewable energy resource natural gas, Qataris are going to learn a little more about the carbon market this Sunday. According to the Gulf Times, UK-based carbon-related firms looking to do business in Qatar will be part of the Carbon Market Business Opportunities seminar, held under the auspices of Minister of Environment HE Abdullah Mubarak al-Midhadi and the British Ambassador to Qatar John Hawkins.

Taking place at the Movenpick Towers & Suites participants will look to promote the carbon market and build UK-Qatar partnerships. This is new. Of course people in the Middle East like to keep up with currency trading, green trading games, and foreign exchange trading on sites like Forex, but carbon trading is completely different. Here’s how:

A spokesman for the organisers told the Gulf Times: “Developing a low-carbon, high-growth economy is a key challenge for countries around the world today. The carbon market has a vital role to play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and last year doubled in size compared with 2007 to be worth over $120 billion.

“With the growth of the carbon market has come the growth of companies with particular expertise in climate-change projects and emissions trading. The UK government has encouraged private sector companies to participate in the market and the City of London has taken the lead in building the carbon investment and advisory services infrastructure necessary to finance greenhouse gas reduction projects.”

The UK side will be led by the UK Climate Change Projects Office, and its part of the seminar will focus on the funding and development of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), projects and other carbon trading and climate change services that can be adopted in Qatar.

Besides practical advice on how to prepare for the CDM, and how to finance and develop projects, future business opportunities in the broader carbon market will also be discussed.

Putting the cart before the horse, I think Qataris need to learn a little more about environmental awareness before they embark on carbon market schemes. But this meeting with UK reps anyway, is likely to only focus on the business sector.

::Gulf Times
Image credit: moaksey

More on Qatar’s environment:
Qatar Sets Some Environmental Goals
Qatar’s Desert Seawater Greenhouses

(Pictured above is H.E. Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, Qatar’s Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Energy & Industry and Chairman of Qatar Petroleum. This guy is in charge of the world’s third largest supply of natural gas.)