Green technology is 'the way forward'

Dubai: The UAE should take example from European efforts when it comes to reducing air pollution as per the recent goals to cut down emissions by 20 per cent by 2020, said an environmental expert.

According to a Dubai-based researcher, the UAE should make the most of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) set up by the Kyoto Protocol, to have local renewable energy projects funded by foreign countries.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, the UAE is classed as a developing country and has no targets regarding the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to comply with. Countries working towards cutting their own emissions can receive credit for cutting down emissions abroad.

"The clean development mechanisms are incentives for the UAE to get free technology, create jobs and a way to shift and diversify energy resources by trying to attract a country to fund or partly finance a project," said Mohammad Raouf, senior environment researcher at the Gulf Research Centre.

'Make use' of Kyoto deal

"The UAE is a receiving or host country. If another country, for example Germany, funds a wind power project here to reduce 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, Germany will get an emissions reduction certificate and the UAE will get the technology," said Raouf.

"It looks like all industrialised countries set to reduce emissions by five per cent by 2012 will miss their targets because they are not committed. The UAE, as a developing country, is not required to reduce its emissions but it can mitigate emissions in other parts of the world," he said.

"I don't understand why the UAE is not making more of these opportunities. We need a committee to focus on CDM. Latin America has the most projects underway financed by European countries," he said. As a host country for CDM, the UAE could avoid environmental mistakes made by other countries, he added.

"It is possible that the UAE is seen as a rich, stable country that can finance its own renewable energy projects, but the fact that it is stable economically and politically also makes it ideal for foreign countries to launch projects here," said Raouf.

He said energy and industry sectors in the UAE create 85 per cent of carbon dioxide emission, transport creates 10 per cent while residential emissions only count for about five per cent.

"Petroleum companies could develop natural gas power plants," said Raouf.

He added that the Kyoto Protocol has opened up the environment as a market to invest in and should not be sidelined by countries who are signatories or who have ratified the treaty.

"If they joined the protocol in the first place it shows that nations are aware of environmental issues. The only reason they join ... is because there is something in it for them, and clean development goals is it," he added.