Qatar Airways ambitious new plan to erect a $19 billion Pearl project that will be the largest gas-to-liquids plant in the world, is receiving massive praise and optimism over its future success. The President of the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Roberto Kobeh González said at the recent climate event COP18 in Doha that the project could revolutionize air travel and alternative energy efforts.

“We really welcome this project as an example of the varying biofuel solutions that can be applied in different areas around the globe,” stressed Kobeh in Doha as he detailed the ICAO’s status updates for the aviation industry on energy. Qatar has the largest per capita carbon footprint in the world. 

“The Qatar project is notable in that it is State-backed and employs resources natural to the surroundings. These do not depend on arable land vital to food consumption,”  Kobeh added.

Royal Dutch Shell said in November that the Qatar plant is to pump airline fuel made from natural gas from its gas-to-liquids plant near Qatar Airways’ Doha International Airport, which is to open in 2013 and has received much fanfare from airline industry executives.

A top American airline executive told Green Prophet that the North American carriers are optimistic that if Qatar can develop the natural gas industry for planes, it could translate into reducing overall costs for US carriers.

“We have seen prices rise dramatically in recent years because of the overall price hikes in oil and this endeavor is very curious for us here in the US,” the executive said on condition of anonymity as they did not want to speak to a competitor’s potential advantage. “Natural gas gives much more energy for less and if successful, this could see airlines able to travel similar distances using much less fuel.”

The Pearl project will process around three billion barrels of oil-equivalent over its lifespan, Shell added in a statement in October discussing the project some 80 kilometers north of Doha.

The plant currently produces 120,000 barrels of the liquified natural gas and ethane.

The post Qatar Airways Praised for its Natural Gas/Biofuel Push to the Skies appeared first on Green Prophet.

The reasons for that are both complicated and simple: aside from an obvious collective denial about the difficulties that are hurling down the path as a result of climate change, rich nations are especially unwilling to acknowledge their role in the accumulation of greenhouse gases that has put us in so much trouble because they don’t want to pay for it.

Although some analysts considered COP17 in Durban to be less of a disappointment because nations agreed to write a successor to the Kyoto Protocol by 2015, this year’s conference was a waste of time, effort and money. (Because frankly, at this stage, anything short of revolutionary will not keep the globe safe from harm.)

This would be less frustrating, perhaps, if everybody who attended the Doha meetings were completely clueless about climate change, if no reports in the last two weeks had revealed in no uncertain terms how thoroughly storms and bugs and heat and rising seas are going to destroy life as we know it.

Everybody knows, but only a handful of countries, namely Lebanon, the Dominican Republic, Belarus and Ukraine are prepared to cut their own emissions.

And only Germany, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and the EU Commission in Doha agreed to contribute to the $20 billion global climate change fund agreed to at COP15.

“The question of climate management is extremely serious,” said Laurent Fabius, France’s foreign minister, according to Reuters.

“It appears we have already exceeded the 2-degree limit. If that is the case, there are absolutely catastrophic consequences. We must react.”

That’s the consensus, but rich countries like the United States, Canada and Japan refused to sign an interim agreement to cut emissions and the very mention of a Loss and Damage fund owed to poor, vulnerable nations seems to give everybody hives.

Both the EU and US cite the global economic crisis as justification for their reluctance to make commitments.

But here’s the great fallacy. Delaying payments now will not forestall the inevitable, which is destruction on a scale never before seen on earth. Hurricanes and typhoons are going to keep ripping through coastal towns and we’ll be forced to clean up the mess, year after year.

Hurricane Sandy alone is expected to cost $50 billion USD, according to early estimates, which is half of what all the developed nations committed to raise by 2020. So we’re going to pay some time down the line, whether we like it or not.

Our leaders have failed us. Miserably. Again. Is it time for the people to take matters into their own hands?

Image of Hurricane Sandy damage by Leonard Zhukovsky, Shutterstock

The post Failed COP18 Climate Talks Boil Down to Money (Op-Ed) appeared first on Green Prophet.

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 the need for Muslim and Arab-led action in the fight against climate change. Now the World Bank is following the lead of activists in the Middle East region calling for the attention of Arab leaders to help in the global fight, before it is too late. 

The Arab world has been adapting to climate change for centuries. There is a long history and tradition of coping with the associated challenges, such as changes in temperature and rainfall. New climate change risks are emerging at a much faster rate, including the prospect of a world that is four degrees hotter, and resilience built up over years is being severely tested.

According to the World Bank impact of climate change will be especially acute in the  Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and immediate action will be needed to avoid the projected consequences of worsening water shortages and rising food insecurity.  A new report Adaptation to a Changing Climate in the Ara Climate in the Arab Countries provides a comprehensive assessment of the threat to the region posed by increasingly severe weather, and offers a set of policy options for the urgent task of managing current effects and building resilience against those yet to come.

 “Reducing vulnerability to climate change will require concerted action on multiple levels,” said Rachel Kyte, World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development. “Political leadership now, will be critical in establishing climate change as a national and regional priority.”

These risks have been identified and assessed in the new climate report which was prepared in partnership with the League of Arab States, involving specialists, researchers, policymakers and civil society organizations from across the region.

The report reinforces the warning that decades of poverty reduction efforts could be reversed as contained in the recent World Bank publication, Turn Down The Heat: Why a 4° C Waritalic”>° C Warmer World Must be Avoided.

Over the past 30 years, climate change has affected 50 million people in the Arab world, costing about $12 billion directly and many multiples of that indirectly. Recent trends suggest that dry regions are becoming drier and flash floods have become more frequent. The 2006 flooding of the Nile River Basin led to 600 deaths, with a further 118,000 people affected, while in 2008 a record five-year drought finally ended in the Jordan River Basin.

Globally 2010 was the warmest year since records began in the 1800s, and of the 19 countries that set new record temperatures, five were in MENA. Regional temperatures are projected to reach new record highs, coupled with less rainfall which, in a region with the world’s lowest endowment of freshwater, could make this precious natural resource even scarcer.

A harsher climate threatens livelihoods throughout the region. Extreme weather could affect both the annual US$50 billion tourism industry and agriculture, already under severe climate stress. The combination of higher temperatures, lower rainfall and increased frequency of drought could cause more crop failures and lower yields putting MENA’s rural population, nearly half the region’s total, under growing stress. Migration to already overcrowded cities and vulnerable costal zones would accelerate.

Yet a further consequence of climate change could be the upending of traditional social roles, as it is usually the men who migrate for low-wage, low-skill jobs, and the women who remain behind with all the farming and community responsibilities.

“Climate change is a reality for people in Arab countries,” said Inger Andersen, World Bank Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa region. “It affects everyone – especially the poor who are least able to adapt – and as the climate becomes ever more extreme, so will its impacts on people’s livelihoods and wellbeing. The time to take actions at both the national and regional level in order to increase climate resilience is now.”

The report stresses that adaptation should be integrated into all national policies and actions to ensure they are climate resilient. This spans efforts from collecting climate data to strengthening basic services. Accurate weather information is critical for preparing for extreme events. Improved access to services such as education, health and sanitation, along with effective social safety nets to compensate for sudden loss of livelihood, will give citizens the skills and resources to navigate climate challenges.

The World Bank Group is currently engaged across the region in supporting countries and communities in coping with the effects of a changing climate. A project in Morocco is financing the integration of adaptation measures into the national agriculture strategy, while in Yemen more effective land management is being promoted, along with research into drought resistant crops.

Moreover, sustainable development, increasing social and economic inclusion and improving governance – the essential ingredients for building and maintaining resilience – are overarching goals of all Bank activities throughout the region.

Action for change

According to the World Bank  Arab countries can take steps to reduce the impacts of climate change. The report outlines measures that not only potentially reduce the region’s vulnerability, but can also contribute to more sustainable long-term development. The report offers a model, an ‘Adaptation Pyramid Framework,’ to strengthen public sector management in a changing climate, and to assist stakeholders in integrating climate risks and opportunities into all development activities.

The main messages suggest that countries and households will need to diversify their production and income generation, integrate adaptation into all policy making and activities, and ensure a sustained national commitment to address the social, economic and environmental consequences. With these coordinated efforts the Arab world will be able to rise to the challenge once again and, as it has for centuries, successfully adapt to a changing climate.

Above image via the World Bank Facebook page

The post World Bank Warns Arab World About Action on Climate Change appeared first on Green Prophet.

Workers from Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines make up a staggering 70% of the population and 94% of the labor force, The Guardian reports.

But they only earn, on average, about $300 per month – compared to the Qatari’s average earnings of $2,140 per month. What’s more, they are completely divested of all personal freedom upon entering into any employment contracts.

Their passports are confiscated, they frequently work more than a dozen hours a day – often seven days a week, and their living conditions are appalling.

Deutsche Bank is among the companies that want to be seen as upholding their moral obligation to ensure that the workers who lay the foundations and swelter in the hot sun are walking away with a decent wage, but they appear to be hiding behind their own self-deception.

“DB management seems concerned about codes of conduct,” write the report’s authors, “but they define their responsibilities as ‘within the sphere of their influence,’ which virtually excludes their contractors and sub-contractors from any accusation of violating labour rights.”

The post Climate Change to Worsen Migrant Workers’ Lives in Qatar appeared first on Green Prophet.

Robin Hood lookalikes from Sweden, Norway, Australia, Kenya and Taiwan displayed signs and banners at the COP18 meeting in Doha which read: “Robin Hood Tax, a global solution,” according to the organizer’s press release.

Whilst it might seem like an idealist’s dream, it turns out that several European countries have agreed to implement a Financial Transactions Tax (FIT), while France has already raised an annual sum of €37 billion through its own version implemented earlier previously.

How the new tax will be implemented or distributed is still up for discussion, although climate and youth activists are calling for countries to apportion one quarter of a 0.05% tax to the global climate change fund, in order to help the most needy countries cope with pending challenges.

““Implementing this tax can help to deal with some of the global economic problems we have seen in the last years but can also be used for good causes like the fight against climate change,” said Oxfam International’s Tim Gore.

In the last couple of weeks, a variety of disturbing reports have been published about escalating climate change and what we can expect as a result.

The World Bank claims that global temperatures could rise by four or more degrees, which is double the amount deemed safe. And there is increasing evidence that sea levels are rising a lot faster than previously thought.

COP18 host Qatar is among the nations that stand to lose a lot of land to rising sea levels.

About the Robin Hood tax, Laurence Watson, a member of UK Youth Climate Coalition, took part in the demonstration said that he and other representatives are calling for a global solution.

“We’re pleased to see countries implementing this in Europe and we would like to see it spread around the world,” he said. “This is a very easy way to kick-start climate change funding.”

The post Activists Call for a ‘Robin Hood Tax’ to Boost Climate Change Fund appeared first on Green Prophet.

This year Qatar joined 16 other industrialised, emerging economies and developing countries in signing the Agreement on the Establishment of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, invests heavily in Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute, and recently announced that it plans to build a $20 billion solar plant.

And most recently the OPEC producer announced at the climate talks that it will begin to seek tenders for an 1,800 megawatt (MW) solar-powered plant in 2014. The $10-$20 billion plant is expected to be complete in 2018 and will be built in a concession format, Reuters reports.

When complete, the new solar-powered facility will bring the small nation’s renewable energy mix up to 16%, which is crucial to its sustainable development, according to its top climate negotiators.

“We need to diversify our energy mix,” said Fahad Bin Mohammed al-Attiya, chairman of the Qatari organizers of climate talks in Doha.

The new plant will produce the energy required to power its own desalination plants, which currently rely on liquefied natural gas (LNG.)

Albeit still controversial, Qatar has demonstrated its capacity and willingness to take a greener turn. The convention center hosting the COP18 event is solar-powered and the state research group GORD unveiled a homegrown hybrid vehicle concept that would produce fewer emissions and use less coal.

And by 2022, Qatar will be able to show off it’s solar-powered football stadiums in time for that year’s World Cup.

:: Reuters

The post Qatar to Spend Up to $20 Billion on Solar appeared first on Green Prophet.

“The engine captures thermal waste energy that is utilized to generate electric energy to run hydrogen fuel cells using the potable water as a source for the gas,” GORD announced in a press release. Initial studies show that this technology emits 50% less carbon monoxide (CO) & nitrous oxide (NOX) than conventional oil or natural gas-powered vehicles.

GORD unveiled their Eco-Hybrid car at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP18) meetings in Doha.

The car’s fuel cell is powered in part by a thermoelectric generator which recovers heat from exhaust-gases and a thin film photovoltaic that is installed on the sunroof. This system slashes fuel consumption by approximately 20% and it can be applied to existing vehicles as well.

Explaining the difference between GORD’s Eco-Hybrid vehicle and other hydrogen power concepts, GORD Chairman Dr. Yousef Al Horr said that their car requires no extra electricity since it produces its own by capturing wasted thermal energy.

“Also, bulky compressed-hydrogen cylinders are a thing of the past, as our concept accomplishes the production of hydrogen by using water through fuel cells integrated within the car,” he continued.

That Qatar is the world’s biggest per capita consumer of fossil fuels has been a source of valid criticism, but GORD, the non-profit governmental research subsidiary of Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company, is helping to clean up the country’s act.

Dr. Al Horr said that hosting the COP18 conference gave GORD the opportunity to showcase the fruits of their R&D labor.

“The hybrid concept that is fully designed, built and installed in Qatar, is a landmark achievement and testament to GORD’s alignment with Qatar National Vision 2030,” he said.

“This indigenous product demonstrates Qatar’s capability to reduce environmental impact and to make a contribution to sustainable development.”

:: GORD

The post Eco-Hybrid Car From Qatar Unveiled During Climate Talks appeared first on Green Prophet.

With more than a billion Muslims in the world, Arab activists claim that Muslim leaders are pretty much silent about global warming and environmental issues. AP is reporting this as world leaders gather in Doha, Qatar for the UN-mediated COP18 climate change talks this week. Arab activists from Lebanon sent Green Prophet the same message today in a press release asking for Arabs, not necessarily Muslims, to step up to the plate to be part of the solution. 

Qatar is one of the world’s polluting countries, with the largest carbon footprint per capita. Its economy like others in the Arab Gulf region is built on natural gas wealth (in other cases oil) and extravagance. But the situation is polarized when we talk about Muslims and Arabs since many Arab/Muslim countries like Egypt, Jordan and Syria are very poor and compared to western nations are relatively benign when it comes to the over all picture of carbon emissions per capita.

Still the Muslim imans and clerics can be pretty powerful if they send a message to their community through the mosques.

Activists from more than 15 Arab countries such as Qatar, Mauritania, Morocco, Jordan, Libya, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria, Sudan, Oman, Egypt and Bahrain will also call on their own leaders – during the first climate negotiations ever held in the Middle East -to submit concrete voluntary pledges for mitigation targets at COP18 in order to fulfill their own responsibilities in reducing Greenhouse gas emissions.

IndyACT also recently formed the  Arab Youth Climate Movement.

The post Activists at COP18 in Qatar: Islam and the Arab-world Not Eco Enough appeared first on Green Prophet.

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 profile in the negotiations so far, according to the Climate Action Network (CAN), it is “clearly their time to step onto the fossil stage,” according to the award announcement.

Fossil-worthy

CAN awards the prize to countries that have done most to block progress on the UN climate negotiations.

Turkey has already announced it will not make any pledges for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. Turkey ratified the first commitment period of the Protocol three years ago but never had to honor the requirements since it wasn’t a member of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) when the protocol was first adopted.

In Turkish paper Hurriyet Daily News, a CAN representative lays out the other reasons why Turkey has won this very dubious honor:

We’ve given the award to Turkey because it is the fourth largest country in the world in terms of coal mines. What’s more, its Energy Ministry announced 2012 as ‘coal year.’ Turkey has still not announced a target reduction of greenhouse gases, as is determined in the Kyoto Protocol. So, the ‘Fossil of the Day’ award has been given to it.

Turkey also posted the largest relative increase in annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 1990 and 2010, according to CAN.

High potential, little impetus to reduce emissions

Even though Turkey was among the major carbon emitters who avoided binding reduction commitments at the UN’s Durban conference last year, the government has requested more funds in this year’s climate negotiations.

There’s plenty of potential for Turkey to reduce its carbon footprint — even more so than most developed countries. Its vast solar and wind energy resources are largely undeveloped, and have attracted substantial investment interest from inside and outside Turkey.

Turkey is already suffering from global climate change. A representative from a major Turkish export association recently declared that the country’s wheat exports this year would be 2.5 million tons less than they were in 2011. Earlier this year, three international financial research firms agreed that Turkey’s addiction to imported fossil fuels had contributed to its $86.6 billion current account deficit and was preventing the country from achieving its full economic growth potential.

Despite all this, the Turkish government remains committed to building more polluting power plants, as indicated by the World Resource Institute report on planned coal-fired power plants. Little surprise that CAN has chosen Turkey for a “Fossil of the Day” award.

:: Climate Action Network

Read more about energy policy in Turkey:

Turkey Avoiding Greenhouse Gas-Reduction Despite Rapid Increases in Emissions, New Report Finds
Turkey Ripe For Renewable Energy Boom – So Why The Delay?
Turkey’s Economic Growth Hampered By Oil Addiction, Analysts Say
Turkey’s Wheat Exports Decline Due To Climate Change, Says Industry Official

Image via Çin Günlüğü

The post Turkey Wins “Fossil of the Day” Award At Doha Climate Change Negotiations appeared first on Green Prophet.

Only, this 1,700 gigaton bomb has not been accounted for in prediction models. That a huge concentration of latent ice-age old carbon poses potential danger not just to humanity and to other species but to the roads, pipelines and buildings lying above it has been neglected, said UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner. A suggested three-pronged course of action will hopefully change that.

A Thawing Bomb

“Permafrost is one of the keys to the planet’s future because it contains large stores of frozen organic matter that, if thawed and released into the atmosphere, would amplify current global warming and propel us to a warmer world,” said Steiner.

“Its potential impact on the climate, ecosystems and infrastructure has been neglected for too long,” he added.

The UNEP report, Policy Implications of Warming Permafrost was designed to spur dialogue among climate-treaty negotiators, policy makers and the general public as they prepare to create a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that expires this year. It also hacks a path to the way forward, instead of dropping concerned parties in an alarmist cloud.

Three proactive steps 

First, the report’s authors recommend that the IPCC – the official voice of climate change – commission a special report that reveals the potential impact that carbon released from 30-85% of the permafrost might have on the environment, which would in turn support emergent (and enormously important) policy decisions.

Then, northern countries, especially Russia, Canada, China and the United States, should assume responsibility for permafrost monitoring stations that share data across a network. “The International Permafrost Association should continue to coordinate development and the national networks should remain part of the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost,” UNEP urges.

And finally, it behooves these nations to prepare for the worst. Structural damages, habitat destruction, migration, longer growing seasons, and increased risk of fire are just a few potential consequences.

Infrastructure collapse

But the biggest fear for those of us shy of oil spills, we already have an idea of what will happen if pipelines laid over this territory are destabilized as a result of the shifting ground.

“Infrastructure failure can have dramatic environmental consequences, as seen in the 1994 breakdown of the pipeline to the Vozei oilfield in Northern Russia, which resulted in a spill of 160,000 tonnes of oil, the world’s largest terrestrial oil spill,” UNEP reports.

These events are always financially crippling, politically disastrous, and environmentally criminal, which is powerful ammunition for the likes of Bill McKibben and the 350.org (global) crowd, as well as other activists, moviemakers and indigenous people who are determined to fell the Keystone XL Pipeline project.

For a much more detailed and scientific analysis of the permafrost bomb, we beg you to visit the UNEP website.

Image of old Russian bomb in snow, Shutterstock

The post A 1,700 Gigaton Carbon Bomb is Thawing in the Permafrost appeared first on Green Prophet.