Qatar enhances efforts to address challenges of climate change

Doha: Qatar enhanced its efforts in addressing climate change by creating Ministry of Municipality and Climate Change and launching  Qatar National Environment and Climate Change Strategy in 2021.

Qatar has achieved remarkable achievement in protecting environment and addressing climate change at national, regional and international levels, in addition to setting future plans for further accomplishments in line with Qatar National Vision 2030. 

Qatar pays great attention to the issue of environment, as it established its Ministry of Environment about 20 years ago, and recently created the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, with duties that include limiting emissions that cause climate change. 

This confirms the continuous interest and unlimited support given by the wise leadership to the issue of environment and climate, which is of great importance on the international agenda, because of its severe impact on planed Earth. 

Qatar had an active participation in the 26th session of the conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26), in the Scottish city of Glasgow, during which it reviewed its plans to combat climate change and its ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as Qatar has also hosted the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP18). 

In October of 2021, Qatar developed the Qatar National Environment and Climate Change Strategy (QNE), which aimed to protect and enhance Qatar’s environment and ensure the long-term resilience of the economy. 

Alongside the National Action Plan for Climate Change 2030, the Strategy contributes to balancing the urgent need to act in the field of climate change with environmental protection, as well as the need to promote sustainable social and economic development in an economy based mainly on the export of liquefied natural gas and related products. 

QNE has identified five key environmental priority areas: GHG emissions, air quality, biodiversity, water and circular economy, and waste management and land use, with the establishment of a governance system to implement the strategy, in order to achieve its goals by 2030, reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent, establish 30 air quality monitoring stations by 2023 and increase the number of biodiversity reserves.

This strategy comes along with Qatar’s accomplished projects related to monitoring and environmental labs, as well as preparing, implementing and approving monitoring plans and programs for air, water and soil to measure and control the rates and percentages of different pollutants in nature, establish, operate and follow-up networks and continuous monitoring systems for monitoring stations for air, noise and marine environment water quality, and environmental awareness. 

In this regard, the competent authorities have begun implementing a comprehensive plan to monitor the air quality around stadiums and training venues for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, in cooperation with the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, in selecting the locations in accordance with the highest international standards.

The plan also included the completion of the installation of two air quality monitoring stations at Al Janoub International Stadium in Al Wakra and Al Thumama International Stadium, as well as linking them to the national air quality monitoring network in the country. 

At the regional level, Qatar implemented many environmental projects and initiatives to limit the effects of climate change, including ‘Plant Million Tree’ initiative , which has achieved the planting of more than half a million trees so far, while the remaining number will be planted before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.