Qatar has been at the forefront in the fight against climate change and for the protection of environment for decades. Qatar’s efforts in this regards was never just talk, but on every issue regarding climate change and environment the country had taken firms stance and followed its words with decisive actions.
The country had hosted the 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which was the 18th yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the eighth session of the Meeting of the Parties (CMP) to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference took place from November 26 to December 8 at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha.
The conference went down in history as the one which reached an agreement to extend the life of the Kyoto Protocol, which had been due to expire by the end of 2012. It had reified the 2011 Durban Platform, meaning that a successor to the Protocol was set to be developed by 2015 and implemented by 2020.
Reaching the agreement was hailed across the world as a big victory for the climate campaigners and milestone in the fight against climate change. It was also a testimony to Qatar’s diplomacy, its ability to host major international conferences and strike important global deals.
In the combat against climate change, Qatar is not only setting its house in order, but helping other countries in reducing environmental pollutants by supplying the cleanest energy, natural gas.
Qatar Petroleum President and CEO Saad Sherida Al Kaabi said recently that Qatar was achieving great progress in implementing the plans it had announced last year to increase the country’s LNG output by30 percent from 77 million to 100 million tonnes per annum.
In his address to the Global Leaders Panel during the Gastech 2018 Conference and Exhibition in Barcelona, Al Kaabi said: Due to its environmental qualities as the cleanest fossil fuel, natural gas is playing an increasingly key role, not as a transition fuel, but rather as a destination fuel.
Realising the hazards of other fossil fuels, countries across the world are fast switching to liquefied natural gas (LNG) as the more environment-friendly and the cheaper alternative. LNG represents an excellent substitute in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and help combat global warming.
Use of natural gas is expected to account for 25 percent of the world energy portfolio by 2035 compared to the present 21 percent. The combustion of natural gas does not emit soot, dust or fumes and it generates 30 percent less carbon dioxide than fuel oil and 45 percent less than coal, thus it plays a significant role in reducing environment pollution.
That is why natural gas gained its fame as the energy of the future and Qatar is not sparing any effort in pushing it further.
