Qatar The world’s first carbon neutral nation
The race is on The continuing rise in the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases is driving changes in the Earth’s climate. The long-term consequences will be exceedingly threatening, especially if nations continue ‘business as usual’ in the coming decades. Most countries now recognise the need to shift to a low-carbon economy, and nothing should divert us from kicking the greenhouse gas habit of current times. Yet arising from the threat of unbridled climate change is an opportunity to demonstrate groundbreaking international leadership. It’s the race for the greenest of the laurels, the contest for the ultimate global accolade at the nationscale. As the competition to be the first of the world’s 195 nations to go entirely carbon neutral begins, we invite you to join the ‘world cup of carbon’. To claim the position of the world’s first carbon neutral nation, a balance must be struck between the amount of carbon dioxide the country releases with the amount that it captures or offsets by, for example, planting trees or building large-scale solar power plants. For example, as the world’s third largest exporter of oil, Norway aims to become climate-neutral by 2030, with global carbon offsets accounting for part of the target, and carbon sequestration – a method of trapping emitted gases and storing them underground or beneath the sea – helping to reduce its domestic emissions. We believe it is time for GCC member states to match this ambition, joining the governments already participating in the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Carbon Neutral Network in working to balance their national carbon accounts. Moreover, this is an opportunity to become internationally recognized as a green leader, not only in the GCC and the NEMA region, but the world.
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How The process of becoming Carbon Neutral at a macro-scale can be broken down into three stages. These are Measurement, Reduction and Offsetting.
Measurement
Once the decision to become carbon neutral is taken at the highest level of the country, it will be invaluable to have another senior figure championing the purpose of the decree, one ideally who symbolises the continuing prosperity of the nation and is able to induce fundamental change in inspiring organisations to rewrite business as usual for the economy – on both sides of supply and demand. Then comes the stage of measuring the national carbon emissions of the country and analysing their source – making an inventory, in other words. Coupled to this will be a set of scientificallymeaningful targets to reduce emissions, either through energy efficiency projects or fuel substitution. Whilst the national emissions are already recorded for most countries, granulised measurement at the entity scale will unlock the greatest force for real reductions, detailed below.
Reduction
Decisions taken at country level can have a profound effect on GHG emissions and patterns of consumption and production. Through initiating a national programme of organisational carbon footprinting and disclosure, the ‘invisible hand’ of enterprise will rapidly decarbonize entire markets, as investors and customers base preferences upon the now readily available carbon credentials of their suppliers. And the benefits are mutual – effective carbon management enables a business to achieve competitive advantage, building revenue and market share in both domestic and international spheres, a fact demonstrated by GE and its Ecomagination service line which generated $18 billion in revenue during 2010, or the 80% of FTSE 500 companies who now report their emissions through the Carbon Disclosure Project.
Year-over-year disclosure levels Responded
350 (70%) 332 (66%) Disclose GHG emissions
294 (59%) 262 (52%) Publicly available
294 (59%) 255 (51%) Report on GHG emissions in annual corporate report
269 (54%) 251 (50%) Board or executive-level oversight
226 (45%) 222 (44%) Disclose emissions reduction targets
170 (34%) 169 (34%) Verify emissions
116 (23%) 132 (26%)
0%
20%
40% 2010
60%
80%
2009
Eventually every government organisation, NGO, company and household in your country, will have access to their own carbon account. And whether top-line reduction figures are calculated by aggregating organisation accounts or by utilising existing national datastreams, prominent ‘carbon signals’ will form the strongest impetus for organisations achieving deep carbon reductions across your economy.
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Offsetting For most projects, there comes a point where the efficiency of investment capital begins to decline relative to returns. The same goes for carbon emission reductions at the organisational scale. For instance, a property company that has upgraded their buildings to include costeffective energy efficiency measures such as solar shading will soon be left with increasingly expensive options, yielding the same level of carbon reductions and often from untested technologies. Yet at the same time, there are likely to be ‘low-hanging’ carbon reduction opportunities left untaken elsewhere in the country. Carbon offsets provide a mechanism for the efficient distribution of capital, ensuring the maximum ‘bang for each buck spent’ in achieving reductions. Offsets are already an integral part of the regulated European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), and are likely to be rolled out across the US in coming years. Indeed, in New Zealand, where the target is to become carbon neutral by 2040, a newly established ETS will fund national projects such as increasing the national forest area by 250,000 hectares by 2020. To our knowledge, an ETS has never been established by any of the GCC states. Our proposal is that every organisation within your country be required to become certificated as carbon neutral in as short a time possible. As they offset their unavoidable emissions using a properly regulated national ETS, unprecedented levels of green investment will flow into largescale carbon abatement projects based within your country. A clear target embedded within national policy and championed by a respected leader will provide business with the confidence to recalibrate to a low-carbon environment. Ecoinnovations will bloom in every corner of your economy. You will collect the information necessary to learn what does (and does not) work, putting this to use in securing the future low-carbon prosperity of your country. And in the period of modern history, you will become the world’s first country to contribute net zero emissions to atmosphere.
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Next steps After agreeing these broad principles, the next stage is to develop a detailed action plan that puts flesh on the bones of the strategic outline. This plan will include a timeframe, responsibilities, the targets to be achieved and the indicators used to measure success. Of course, national governments are in a strong position to pass the word on about the opportunities for going climate-neutral, by the examples they set and the policies they adopt. Therefore, in the first instance, we propose that a public body, such as a property investment body, pilot the process of carbon neutrality – we have formed strategic alliances to enable the streamlined measurement of this estate using the same method as utilized by major bluechip firms including Standard Chartered Bank, EDF Energy and BNP Paribas. The next step will be to roll out this process across all government agencies; with emission plans put in place, or updated to reflect the carbon neutral target. At the same time a national ETS scheme will be developed to engage all private organisations based within your country. As we needed to get something to Mr Abdullah this week, this document is an overview of our proposition. Something more substantial is being designed over Ramadan in order to present to Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser Al Missned
References:
United Nations Network for Carbon Neutrality. Access: United Nations Environment Programme, 2008. Kick the Habit – A Guide to Carbon Neutrality. Available from:
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