The growing impact of climate change on natural environments, plants, animals, and even population density is being felt rapidly worldwide. Globally, around 24% of deaths can be traced back to avoidable environmental factors, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). People need clean air to breathe, freshwater to drink, and places to live that are free of toxic substances and hazards.
It is estimated that climate change will have a progressively increasing impact on environmental degradation and environmentally dependent socio-economic systems with the potential to cause substantial population displacement. Continued anthropogenic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions will further increase changing climate patterns.
In recent times, Qatar has rolled out several strategies detailing its commitment to fighting climate change and preserving the environment, an integral aspect of the Qatari heritage.
This year, to mark Qatar National Day, the government w has come up with a significant theme, “Ancestral meadows: A matter of trust.” This theme will serve as another wake-up call for Qataris and residents to appreciate the country’s eco-system and play their path in protecting the environment.
According to the theme’s texts, the environment dramatically influences “the simplicity of Qatari life.” This, in turn, reflects “that of their environment, and the placidness of the land is equally manifested in the moral rectitude of the people, their modesty, the smoothness of their language and the clarity of their expression, qualities which, in turn, reflect on their clothing style and architecture.”
Several government policies have targeted air, soil, and air preservation. Also, recently, the government set the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.
In the same vein, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior H E Sheikh Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Thani launched Qatar’s national Environment and Climate Change strategy. The strategy will significantly cut groundwater extraction by 50 percent, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2030, and more than 25 percent of Qatar’s land area would be dedicated to conservation.
Authorities have set up the National Air Quality Monitoring Network, the most extensive national monitoring system in the region, to tackle air pollution threats that kill over half a million people in the Middle East annually. Authorities stated that work is going on to link many other stations belonging to other parties, such as Hamad International Airport (HIA) and Qatar Energy, with the Ministry to form a unified network linking all monitoring stations.
Most of the installation of air quality monitoring stations at FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 venues have been completed.
Meanwhile, Qatar is making significant strides in recycling. The Climate Strategy relies on developing waste management infrastructure and improving the consumption of materials such as construction, food, and the industrial sector.
The Center for Waste Management had recycled a large quantity of wastes into usable materials such as organic fertilizer, biogas, electricity, iron, and plastic in 2020. The center produced 30,202 tonnes of green manure, 33,180,890 cubic meters of biogas and 268,776 megawatts of electricity from waste management and recycling.
On the other hand, Qatar’s effort to conserve the soil has been significant considering the hot climate and its drive to boost food production through innovative agricultural practices.
Qatar occupies a peninsula of a total area of 11,437 square kilometre with highly flat but variable terrain. Notable geomorphological features include coastal salt pans, elevated limestone formations along the west coast under which lies the Dukhan oil field, and massive dunes surrounding the Khawr al Udayd region. The mineral composition of Qatari soils generally varies from predominantly sandy to heavy calcareous clay. Properties of soils in Qatar generally reflect arid and hyper-arid environments: they are usually shallow, saline, alkaline (high pH), compact, and have extremely low fertility.
Since 2005, Qatar has increased its protected area coverage from 11% to 29%, hitting a higher target than initially. There have also been multiple other efforts to monitor and preserve the fragile soil environment in Qatar. The Environmental Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change launched a major two-round field survey and environmental monitoring of soil in 2018.
The Water Quality Section at Environmental Monitoring and Laboratory Department of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change is implementing a number of projects to preserve marine environment and maintain water quality in Qatar.
The projects aim to achieve sustainability and environmental protection goals of Qatar National Vision 2030. The projects are focusing on marine environmental programmes and real-time monitoring network, contributing to database establishment and analyzing time-series of the major data indicators such as temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll along with their positive and negative trends.
The Ministry is developing and preparing strategies to be implemented at the national level in cooperation with other stakeholders in supporting environmental projects such as the conservation of shark, whales, dugongs, endangered hawksbill sea turtle.
