The world population is growing by approximately 74 million people per year, but this growth is not evenly distributed globally. With an estimated 7.3 billion people on earth, the population is one of many factors influencing the environment.
According to a UN report, the world’s population is expected to reach 8.5 billion in 2030, and to increase further to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100 and projects that over half of that population growth would be mainly in the developing world and mostly in major cities. Several forecasts expect that number to decline due to climate change, insecurity, migration, decline in fertility etc.
Despite the economic gains of these rapidly-developing cities, they constitute a significant conundrum for governments like food security, health, and environmental pressure, further bolstered by climate change.
“One of the threats to the ecology and biodiversity of the planet in the decades to come will be global climate disruption due to the build-up of human-generated greenhouse gases along with industry in the atmosphere,” Neeshad Shafi, a Doha-based environmentalist and Executive Director of the Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar (AYCMQ) told The Peninsula on the occasion of World Population Day, recently.
“But unsustainable human population growth can overwhelm those efforts, leading us to conclude that we do not only need smaller footprints. As the number of human beings on the planet continues to grow, climate change and food insecurity threaten comfortable living,” Shafi added.
In the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC), climate change has always posed a challenge due to the region’s climate and reliance on hydro-carbon.
The GCC has an estimated population of nearly 60 million, Saudi Arabia being the most populated at over 35 million, followed by the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. Major cities like Riyadh, Doha, Muscat, Dubai, etc., are densely populated due to job opportunities and a better standard of living.
“This tremendous growth consumes vast resources and emits about 75% of world Greenhouse gases. Cities are a significant factor of unsustainability, and at the same time cities and urban inhabitants will increasingly suffer from global environmental changes.
“Gulf cities are no exception. The recent record-breaking temperatures in Kuwait and UAE touching highest in the world highlights the unbearable summer heats in Gulf cities and will affect the future of cities in this region,” Shafi added.
Qatar’s significant economic diversification strategy can drive population decongestion and sustainable environmental development, aligning with the country’s sustainability strategy and the Qatar National Vision 2030.
For instance, the tourism and hospitality sector is expected to grow from QR58.8bn in 2016 to QR200bn in 2028. This growth is bound to redistribute the population in Doha, which holds nearly 80 percent of people in Qatar, to other cities like Al Wakrah, Al Khor, Al Shamal, and Al Shahaneeya are linked by excellent road and rail infrastructure to these tourist places.
“The governments and urban authorities in the region know that cities are both the cause and the victims of global threats, but they can also be the solution. Hence, cities have to be the place for implementing solutions, and policies have to be designed at the level of cities.
“The goals of these policies must be on the one side to reduce the urban environmental footprint and on the other side to address the resilience of cities. The continuous growth of population and urban surfaces in the coming years means that the ecological footprint will continue to rise, even if at a reduced pace,” Shafi stressed.
