UAE tops league of wasteful countries

Vesela Todorova

• Last Updated: October 30. 2008 12:13AM UAE / October 29. 2008 8:13PM GMT

A global report compiled with the help of the Government has ranked the UAE as the worst in the world for its per capita environmental footprint.

Released today, the most up-to-date version of the Living Planet report put the UAE at the top of the list measuring various countries’ impact on the earth.

The US was second, followed by Kuwait, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The report was produced by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in conjunction with the Global Footprint Network and the Zoological Society of London.

When the UAE was first listed as a leader in the chart, in the 2006 edition of the report, UAE officials pointed out that no verified locally sourced data was used in compiling the rankings. Instead, the WWF had to rely on estimates by international organisations.

The report released today contained local data for the first time.

The authors of the report and the Government jointly collaborated on a project coined
Al Basama Al Beeiya to gather 6,000 data points to help produce the document. The data points mainly covered two areas – population and energy consumption – that are the main factors in calculating a country’s environmental footprint.

The environmental footprint measures the territory - for example crop land, grazing land, forest or fishing grounds - required to produce the food, fibre and wood a country consumes, in addition to the area needed to absorb the waste and carbon dioxide (CO2) released through activities, and the land necessary to build infrastructure.

This measurement is known as a global hectare.

When compared with the total amount of productive land available, this measure could indicate how quickly people would use up the planet’s resources or, in cases of serious overuse, how many planets would be needed to provide all the resources to sustain a certain lifestyle.

The UAE’s per capita footprint fell to 9.5 global hectares, from 11.9 global hectares in the previous edition. The 2008 report used statistics from three years ago.

It is not just the UAE that has been living beyond its environmental means.

More than three quarters of the world’s people live in nations that are ecological debtors, where national consumption has outstripped biological capacity.

For the first time, the report also featured a new “water footprint” measuring water use and the significance of water traded in the form of commodities.

A cotton T-shirt, for example, requires 2,900 litres of water in its production.
On average, people around the world each consume 1.24 million litres (about half the amount contained in an Olympic-sized swimming pool) of water a year, but the total varies widely between countries.

The UAE was not ranked in the water index as data for the country was not available for the report.

Overall, because of its relatively small population, the UAE only accounted for one
per cent of humanity’s overall environmental footprint.

But the country’s very high per capita environmental footprint needed to be understood, experts said.

The UAE’s geographic location put it at a disadvantage compared to countries with more moderate climates, said Majid al Mansouri, the secretary general of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD).

“We are living in a dry climate. We need to use more energy for air conditioning and desalination,” Mr Mansouri said.

Because of the energy need to cool homes and offices in summer, the UAE’s winter power demand is only 30 per cent of the summer peak, data from Transco, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority shows.

Another reason, Mr Mansouri said, had to do with the country’s status as a re-exporting country.

This, he said, created difficulties with calculating the amount of imported goods consumed in the country.

Many of these goods are being re-exported, but the report still counted them as having been consumed here.

The issue, Mr Mansouri said, had been partly resolved in the 2008 report.
Razan al Mubarak, the managing director of the Emirates Wildlife Society, which works in association with the WWF, said while the desert environment put some constraints on sustainable living, people’s “high consumption patterns” also contributed to the problem.

Ms Mubarak added: “The options for a more sustainable lifestyle are not available here.”

Despite ambitious government plans, initiatives such as recycling schemes and public transport are in their infancy.

Sustainable products, such as hybrid vehicles that use less petrol, are not being sold, while bureaucratic hurdles and the lack of government incentives have been hindering the adoption of renewable energy systems.

Changes are coming, however.

Dubai is a year away from launching the first of four light rail lines to serve the emirate, while earlier this week Abu Dhabi launched three new bus routes. Both emirates are preparing green building codes that are expected to start being implemented next year.

“The green building codes are addressing a big portion of energy efficiency. Again, the key here is how do you push industry to ensure implementation,” Ms Mubarak said.

After launching Masdar, the world’s first carbon-neutral city, as well as a clean-energy investment fund, the Abu Dhabi Government was considering other ways to promote renewable energy, Mr Mansouri said.

The Government’s Estidama initiative, designed to make the city the most environmentally friendly in the region, will require buildings to be powered at least 10 per cent by renewable resources, he said.

On Tuesday, Dubai officials announced the emirate’s own green building code was looking to mandate the use of solar thermal power to produce hot water and even electricity.

Measures to encourage energy efficiency and clean energy are essential if the UAE’s environmental footprint is to be reduced.

The biggest contributor to the UAE’s environmental footprint is due to carbon dioxide emissions, which account for almost eight of the 9.5 global hectares per person the country uses.

Ms Mubarak and Mr Mansouri said people, through everyday lifestyle choices, also had a role to play in lowering the UAE’s environmental footprint.

Driving less, sharing car trips and choosing public transport when available make a difference, Ms Mubarak said, as do using energy-efficient electrical appliances and turning off devices that are not in use.

vtodorova@thenational.ae