Carbon burial risks not fully known

Dubai: Environmentalists in the UAE have refuted the idea that Gulf countries should bury greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the ground to reduce air pollution and slow down climate change.

Efforts to reduce pollution are already under way according to the Minister of Environment and Water, Dr Mohammad Saeed Al Kindi, with a pilot scheme for cars that run on compressed natural gas (CNG) in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Sharjah.

So far 150 cars are running on CNG and the project has potential to be applied nationwide, he told Gulf News.

Professor Frank Sherwood Rowland, who won the Nobel Prize after discovering the hole in the ozone layer, recently spoke to Gulf News and outlined that Gulf states could play an important role by catching carbon dioxide (CO2) and re-injecting it underground into oil fields.

An environmental delegation from the UAE will attend forthcoming talks planned in Bali later this year to assess a successor to the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. As a developing country, the UAE have no targets to reach.

Al Kindi said the national Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Board, of which he is a member, has discussed CO2 burying here but right now the UAE is not ready to apply the process or present any targets to do so at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meet in Bali.

CO2 sequestration, or carbon capture and storage, is used in oil field improvement programmes in many Gulf countries but not specifically as a means to reduce air pollution. The process is also not approved as a CDM from which carbon credits can be accrued.

"The main obstacle is that we do not know the full risks of leakage from putting carbon under the ground. It is difficult to apply a timeline to start applying this," said Al Kindi.

Green city

He said the Masdar City Development, a zero-carbon, zero-waste six square kilometres green community, and alternative energy city due to open in 2009 in Abu Dhabi is a big step in sustainable development.

Habiba Al Marashi, chairperson of the Emirates Environment Group agreed, and said re-injecting CO2 into the ground is not the sole solution.

"We need a clearer methodology than capturing it and putting it in the ground. We need cleaner energy sources. Renewable energy is always going to the main solution," she said.

Senior environment researcher Mohammad Raouf from the Gulf Research Centre, under the Kyoto Protocol carbon sequestration does not yet qualify as a CDM.