Qatar is a small country in the United Arab Emirates.
Consequences of climate change especially acute in the Arab world, and traditional methods for coping with climate are severely stressed finds new World Bank assessment. All eyes are on Qatar now as the country hosts the UN-sponsored climate change event COP18. We’ve been reporting on COP18 before it began and during, and recently posted about […]
Trade unionists have used the COP18 discussions in Qatar to bring the silent but disturbing plight of migrant workers to light. While the emirate boasts about its plans to build a bevy of solar-powered stadiums in advance of the 2022 World Cup in addition to a host of other eco-boosting projects, very little has been […]
Activists have gathered at the global COP18 climate event in Doha, Qatar to press negotiators to put aside money from a ‘Robin Hood tax” to boost the climate change fund. Evoking the legend of England’s Robin Hood, who either stole from or persuaded the rich to help the poor depending on which story one believes, a […]
Like Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, Qatar uses up a lot of its own fossil fuels – either to power energy-intensive desalination plants or complicated subsidies. The emirate is the world’s largest per capita consumer of energy, a topic that has come up time and again at the ongoing COP18 climate talks in Doha, and […]
Counteracting overwhelming criticism leveled at Gulf nations for their lack of environmental accountability, the Gulf Organisation for Research and Development (GORD) unveiled a low-emission, lower fuel consumption hybrid car-concept that can be applied to any vehicle. “The engine captures thermal waste energy that is utilized to generate electric energy to run hydrogen fuel cells using the potable […]
Young Arabs in Doha are telling the Arab world it’s time to take a lead on climate change during the first climate change talks to be held in the Middle East. With more than a billion Muslims in the world, Arab activists claim that Muslim leaders are pretty much silent about global warming and environmental […]
With the world’s fourth largest number of planned coal-fired power plants, Turkey is flouting international concern about climate change. As the United Nation’s climate change talks in Doha enter their second day, Turkey has been called out on its irresponsible climate policies with the “Fossil of the Day” award. Although Turkey has kept a low […]
Negotiators working on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol in Qatar ought to know that 1,700 gigatonnes of carbon lie buried in the permafrost, which is double the amount that currently wreaks so much havoc here on earth, reports UNEP. Then, as arctic temperatures rise as a result of global warming and the permafrost melts, […]
A sea level rise of 100 inches or eight feet in Ar Ru’ays, a city at the northern tip of Qatar, would render 100 percent of the population homeless. Considered one of the top ten developing nations that is most vulnerable to rising seas, the host of the 18th Conference of the Parties to the […]
A SARS-like respiratory illness has claimed the life of a second person from Saudi Arabia, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently announced. The coronavirus sparked worldwide attention in September when an initial alert was sounded, but now a total of six cases have been reported, two of which have been fatal.
Who’s got the wind in the Middle East? Morocco and Egypt have the biggest wind power plants, but don’t discount Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Wind power has taken a backseat to solar power across the Middle East and North Africa, but there are still some ambitious projects in wind power […]
Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, who is the president of the COP18 got a thorough telling off for courting big oil executives in the lead up to the climate talks The annual UN climate talks are coming the Middle East for the first time ever. As such, climate change and environmental issues are hitting the local […]
Every year it’s the same thing. Hundreds of delegates from around the world fly somewhere to agree to climate change solutions. Journalists bemoan the lack of progress, environmentalists criticize the amount of carbon emissions spewed into the atmosphere as a result and the public at large completely loses faith in the process. The UN Convention of […]
The opening of the Sahara Forest Project’s first pilot plant in Qatar is set to coincide with the United Nations Climate Conference (COP18) in Doha, Qatar, which kicks off on November 26, 2012, and operations are expected to be fully underway in December. By combining a seawater greenhouse with concentrated solar power (CSP) technology, SFP […]
Qatar Airways’ natural gas push could help combat climate change, reduce costs for passengers. Photo: Qatar Airways With massive natural gas reserves, it is a wonder that Qatar has not pushed natural gas for the aviation industry. Granted, no country, or airline, has made the move to gas, but Qatar and its flagship Qatar Airways hopes […]