A COP of action

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A COP OF ACTION IN SOME WAYS COP22 IN MARRAKECH COULD BE CONSIDERED EQUALLY AS IMPORTANT AS THE HISTORIC MEETING THAT PRECEDED IT. THIS WAS TO BE A COP OF ACTION; CRUNCH TIME, SOME MIGHT SAY, WITH EUPHORIA AROUND THE PARIS AGREEMENT WINDING DOWN AND THE TEDIOUS REALITIES OF IMPLEMENTATION SETTING IN. QATAR TODAY BRINGS YOU HIGHLIGHTS FROM COP IN MOROCCO, ALONG WITH INSIGHTS INTO THE ROLE OF QATAR, AND THE LARGER GCC REGION, IN CLIMATE ACTION NEGOTIATIONS.

BY AYSWARYA MURTHY

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or the average person, the first exposure to COP can be a bit overwhelming.

The energy is ceaseless.

There are dozens of events happening at the same time across the different zones, a complicated "climate-speak" to keep track of in order to follow the negotiations and an end-of-the-world urgency that one wishes could be transmitted to the world outside the COP. 2016 was the hottest year on record. The carbon in our atmosphere has crossed 400 parts per million (with 450 ppm considered the safety threshold) and our current emissions are already projected to raise global temperatures by 1.3 ºC above pre-industrial levels. Considering that, parties to the Paris Agreement committed to containing the temperature rise to 1.5 ºC, the window of opportunity to prevent catastrophic climate change is narrowing.

And the international community has certainly woken up to this urgency. It can’t be underestimated what an incredible achievement the Paris Agreement is, especially when you think about how only seven years ago in Copenhagen it seemed the world would never be able

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to come together to address a challenge of this scale. You don’t realise, till you are there, the sheer scale of effort that is needed to fundamentally shift the way we power our development; how many different stakeholders need to be involved, multiplied by the close to 200 countries working together to harmonise their diverse economic, social and environmental interests. It provides a fascinating peek into what may as well go down in history as the grandest demonstration of internationalism.

The 22nd Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), or COP22, took place in Marrakech from November 7 to 18, with the mandate to decide on the action agenda to implement the Paris Agreement which entered into force on November 4. Following the global agreement last December, the threshold of signatories (55 Parties to the Convention accounting for at least 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions ratifying the agreement) for it to enter into force was passed less than 12 months after being agreed and far earlier than expected. To date, 115 out of 197 Parties have ratified; 11 countries ratified it during

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the conference. This has added pressure to quickly develop the necessary rules and procedures to support the agreement.

There is optimism surrounding the bottom-up, voluntary approach to reducing emissions that was agreed in Paris last year.

Before COP21, all countries submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC), commitments from each party on what kind of climate action they will undertake between 2020 and 2030. Once a party signs and ratifies the agreement, these INDCs become NDCs and will be translated into concrete climate policy in the respective countries. If one adds up the carbon reductions registered from all NDCs globally to date, this will only keep us below a 2.7 ºC rise in global temperatures, not the Paris promise of 1.5 ºC. Bridging that gap is what the next few years are going to be about, when countries will be invited to scale up their targets.

At COP22, which was the first meeting of the CMA (the governing body of the Paris Agreement), countries gave themselves two years to agree rules and procedures for implementing the Paris Agreement.

CMA will be responsible for making key decisions and driving implementation forward. This will include technical work that will produce work plans focusing on NDCs, a transparency framework, global stocktake, technology development and transfer, adaptation and market and nonmarket approaches. So the deadline of 2018 will give those parties who haven’t yet ratified the Paris Agreement enough time to become part of a process that is robust and inclusive while also concluding in a timely manner well ahead of 2020.

Climate finance is always a hot-button topic during these negotiations. One holdover issue from Paris was whether the Adaptation Fund, established under the Kyoto Protocol which provides adaptation support to developing countries, would

Above: Executive Secretary of UNFCCC, PATRICIA ESPINOSA, and President of COP22, SALAHEDDINE MAZOUAR, chair a plenary session; below: close to 15,000 accredited participants attend COP22 in Marrakech; around 90 heads of states and ministers also visited the conference to reaffirm their commitment to fight climate change.

continue under the Paris Agreement.

Although developed countries would prefer to channel support through the newly established Green Climate Fund, developing countries pushed very hard to keep the Adaptation Fund alive because of its direct access structure, which eliminates some of the red tape required to access funding and allows accredited countries to manage their projects instead of relying on multilateral organisations.

Developing countries also enjoy a majority share of the fund’s governing board seats and there is a sense of developing country ownership unique among climate finance mechanisms.

The Paris Agreement placed adaptation (making changes in the way humans respond to changes in climate) on a more equal footing with mitigation (controlling emission of greenhouse gases) in importance and need, and strives to mobilize increased regional and national support for adaptation. Specific text referencing the Adaptation Fund was

included in the decisions accompanying the Paris Agreement, which recognised that the Adaptation Fund “may” serve the agreement. Ultimately, at COP22 the issue remained unresolved.

Hitherto, the Adaptation Fund has been monetizing carbon assets for funding adaptation through the 2% share it receives from the UN Clean Development Mechanism. But the floor has since dropped out of the carbon credit exchange, and despite the few contributions announced at COP22 that rescued it from nearbankruptcy, the future of the fund remains unclear. Pledges made by Germany (€50 million), Sweden (SEK100 million), Italy (€5 million) and the Walloon and Flanders regions of Belgium (€3.25 million and €6.25 million, respectively), have helped the fund surpass its 2016 fundraising goal of $80 million that will help finance projects already in the pipeline.

The other big money issue at the COP was the $100-billion fund; in Copenhagen in 2009 and Cancun in 2010, developed 51 > QATAR TODAY > DECEMBER 2016

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BAN KI-MOON attends his last COP as Secretary-General of the United Nations. Ban, who leaves offices in January, was commended for his role in making the Paris Agreement possible.

countries committed to jointly raising $100 billion annually from 2020 to 2025 to help developing countries cope with climate change by building low-carbon and climate-resilient economies. This pledge was reaffirmed in Paris at COP21. A few weeks before the COP at Marrakech, developed countries launched a roadmap to 2020 on reaching the agreed goal. But from the outset it is clear that it is a political rather than a technical document aimed at “building confidence and providing increased predictability and transparency about the actions developed countries are and will be taking to achieve the $100 billion goal”. The lack of clarity on this fund has also been a cause for concern at the COP. Developed countries were also criticized for not paying enough attention to pre2020 action before the Paris Agreement kicks in, during which only they would have to meet certain mitigation and finance commitments.

But there were a lot of positive developments at Marrakech as well.

In the final days of the conference, the Climate Vulnerable Forum, which is an international partnership of countries highly vulnerable to a warming planet, committed to update their NDCs before 2020, prepare long-term low-emissions development strategies, and generate 100% of their energy from renewable sources as soon as possible.

The USA, Canada, Mexico and Germany became the first countries to submit what have come to be known as mid-century strategies, outlining the kinds of actions needed to achieve much deeper emission 52 > QATAR TODAY > DECEMBER 2016

reductions. A new initiative called the 2050 Pathway Platform was launched, with support from a broad array of national governments, cities, states and companies, to help other countries develop their own mid-century strategies.

Implementation of climate action plans also received a boost from the launch of the NDC Partnership – a coalition of 33 developing and developed countries and international institutions working together to ensure countries receive the technical and financial support they need to speedily meet their climate and sustainable development goals.

During COP22, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), a multilateral funding arm, announced a Capacity-building Initiative for Transparency backed by 11 developed country donors providing $50 million-worth of funding. Countries also pledged over $23 million to the Climate Technology Centre and Network, which supports developing countries with climate technology development and transfer.

There were also announcements that directly impacted the Middle East.

Towards the end of COP, the World Bank Group announced a new plan to ramp up support for countries in the MENA region to confront the multiple threats of climate change. Over the next four years, the World Bank aims at nearly doubling the portion financing dedicated to climate action, taking it to around $1.5 billion a year by 2020.

Speaking at a press conference at the COP 22 global climate summit in Marrakech, World Bank MENA Vice President Hafez Ghanem said the plan would focus on the

four priorities of food and water security, sustainable cities adapted to new climate conditions, the transition to low-carbon energy, and the protection of the poorest who are most exposed to the impacts of climate change.

Undoubtedly climate-sceptic Donald Trump’s election to the highest office of one of the biggest economies, coming as the COP was getting underway, felt like a major earthquake. Trump famously called climate change a “Chinese hoax” and promised to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement if he were elected. As the COP reconvened after the weekend, it seemed speculation about what this meant for global climate action was on everyone’s mind. But as the week wore on, nerves were calm partly due to one country after another declaring that their efforts towards implementing the Paris Agreement will continue irrespective of what decision the new US government would take. It would seem that the massive threat posed by Donald Trump to the climate talks served galvanised into action those present at Marrakech. Fears were further assuaged

by US Secretary of State John Kerry who, speaking at COP22, declared that “no one should doubt the overwhelming majority of the citizens of the United States who know climate change is happening and who are determined to keep our commitments that were made in Paris... I can tell you with confidence that the United States is right now, today, on our way to meeting all of the international targets that we’ve set, and because of the market decisions that are being made, I do not believe that that can or will be reversed”.

When asked to comment on this matter, a senior negotiator for Saudi Arabia said, “The United States is the backbone of the process and their withdrawal will impact everyone, no doubt. But we all know the US has taken the right decision in these matters in the past. When they pulled out of Kyoto, no doubt, there was a big impact on ambition. But they went ahead to do a lot of work on the ground, even if it was outside the process. We are sure that the US administration and institutions will maintain a level of continuity and consistency. There are so many approaches in this process. So going forward, their approach might be different – they might not focus as much on regulation but rather on technology, innovation, incentives, etc. But let’s not make our judgment now before we see what the new administration plans to do.”

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GCC’S PLACE IN CLIMATE NEGOTIATIONS

THE GCC PAVILION AT COP22 PALED IN COMPARISON TO THE DEDICATED UAE PAVILION NEXT DOOR; THERE WERE NO GLITZY SCALE MODELS OR PLUSH COUCHES. IN FACT, BY GCC STANDARDS, IT WAS QUITE SOBER. BUT IT WAS ALWAYS BUZZING WITH ENERGY, BE IT IN THE VARIOUS DELEGATION OFFICES, THE CONFERENCE ROOM OR ON THE FLOOR WHERE VARIOUS PUBLIC TALKS WERE HOSTED THROUGHOUT THE DAY. AS ONE GCC DELEGATE PUT IT, A COP IN AN ARAB COUNTRY BROUGHT WITH IT A SENSE OF PRIDE AND OWNERSHIP, NOT UNLIKE FOUR YEARS AGO WHEN THE COP WAS HOSTED IN DOHA.

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he Gulf States, particularly Saudi Arabia, tend to receive negative to no coverage at COPs, noticeably last year in Paris when they were accused for trying to scuttle the deal. In the eyes of the climate change community, these states are irrevocably tied to the root cause of our climate problems – fossil fuels. With these economies deeply linked to the export of hydrocarbons, their commitment to climate action is constantly called into question and their wealth makes it almost impossible for them to be cast in a sympathetic light. But the harsh truth is, as things stands today, the GCC is caught between a rock and a hard place, between economic catastrophe

and climate catastrophe. Vulnerable to rising seas, desertification and “unlivable” temperatures, the stakes are high for the GCC if climate action doesn’t go on track. But as sustained low oil prices over the past couple of years have shown, the region is nowhere close to being diversified enough to weather the impending global decarbonisation agenda. So where does this place the GCC at the negotiating table?

Shifting dynamics According to Dr Mohamed Abdel Raouf, Sustainability Research Program Manager at the Gulf Research Center, “GCC countries realized a few years back they will be isolated in the global climate change talks... this especially came home to KSA

just before the Paris Agreement... and as a result they are now very actively involved with the global community in its fight against climate change.” As evidence of this, he points to Saudi Arabia’s arrival at COP22 as a nation in transformation, with the main message to diversify its economy away from a heavy over-reliance on hydrocarbons.

“Besides, for the first time Saudi Arabia established its INDCs in a clear signal of its contributions and practical engagement with the issue of climate change,” he added.

Speaking to Qatar Today, a high-ranking member of the Saudi delegation expressed his satisfaction that the agenda for CMA had been established at Marrakech, calling it “an excellent way forward in implementing the Paris Agreement”, and reiterated Saudi 53 > QATAR TODAY > DECEMBER 2016

green scene > tag this Arabia’s commitment to climate goals.

“Now we want to see a roadmap from here to 2018 to accomplish all the mandates of Paris. We are confident that by 2018 all aspects of the Paris Agreement will be finalised. We are looking forward to that and fully support working very hard to implement all 26 mandates.”

In the Arab region, seven countries have ratified the Paris Agreement, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Dr Kishan Khoday, Team Leader in the Arab Region for Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), says the GCC's INDCs are relatively ambitious in reducing carbon footprints by scaling up energy efficiency and rapidly expanding solar energy as part of the national energy mix. “This is a major shift and entails a massive levels of investment; a totally new development trajectory that is being attempted at this scale for the first time in the Gulf,” he says.

The UAE government plans to reduce energy use across the country by 30% and generate 25% of its power from renewable resources and nuclear power by 2030.

Saudi Arabia has committed to reducing emissions by 130 million tonnes per year by 2030, which amounts to one-third of their current emissions. They have set up an institution – Designated National Authority – that monitors the reductions on an annual basis to see how we are measuring up to their commitments. Kuwait has set a target of increasing its renewable energy share to 15% by 2030 and Bahrain plans to increase its renewable energy share to 5% by 2020.

Qatar, meanwhile, plans to get 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.

“It is good to see these greater levels of ambition arising in the Gulf on the climate agenda and there is room for ever greater results,” says Dr Khoday. “The NDCs were only initial intentions, and the idea is to progressively ratchet up targets during implementation of the Paris Agreement.

There are points during the process (the next one being in 2018) where the commitments are meant to be reviewed and, if possible, scaled up. Definitely countries with the capacity and resources, like those in the Gulf, should invest more in taking stronger actions along this direction.”

The economic rationale and opportunities No one today can argue against the path towards renewable energy, and especially in the GCC where the benefits are multi54 > QATAR TODAY > DECEMBER 2016

"Definitely countries with the capacity and resources, like those in the Gulf, should invest more in taking stronger actions in ratcheting up their ambitions."

DR KISHAN KHODAY Team Leader in the Arab Region for Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience United Nations Development Programme

pronged – addressing emissions, meeting growing local energy demand and freeing up oil production for exports. “In the Gulf, the vision exists to diversify the energy mix; there is a clear economic rationale for going low carbon. Some estimates suggest that in a business-as-usual scenario, with local energy consumption growing at about 7% per year, the Gulf might register up to half a trillion dollars in lost energy export revenues owing to the rapid diversion of energy to meet local needs,” says Dr Khoday.

“In countries which now may be exporting two-thirds of their production and using only a third locally, this might flip by 2030, affecting their development model.”

Apart from the obvious effect on reduced greenhouse gas emissions, this shift toward the use of renewable energy will also help develop human capital and build a sustainable economy. Also, shifting to clean energy will require new technologies and scientific research, which could benefit the Gulf economies, according to Dr Raouf. In

this regard, the drop in oil prices has been a blessing in disguise, and have encouraged the shift to clean energy technologies. But further encouragement is needed from policymakers to drive innovation in the renewable energy sector, Dr Raouf says.

Despite what it seems like at first glance, global decarbonisation need not interfere with the diversification strategy. “In the Gulf, large opportunities are emerging in private finance. Irrespective of the drop in oil prices, achieving a transformation to a low-carbon economy goes well beyond a reliance on traditional energy export revenues,” says Dr Khoday. “Countries have to start looking beyond traditional sources of funding and try to generate large-scale private sector finance and build innovative public-private partnerships.

For the first time in many years, we are seeing a large scale-up in the role of private sector investment in the climate process. Countries in the Gulf can build new partnerships with the private sector to achieve their NDC goals locally and also to help companies scaleup their global activities in support of climate action.

Places like Dubai and Doha are emerging as hubs for finance and private sector activity globally, with particular benefits for partners in Asia and Africa who can serve as important partners for SouthSouth cooperation on new climate change actions.”

All thing considered, there are very few obstacles for GCC countries to shift towards renewables, especially solar power, because they have all the elements of success – relatively cheap labour, ability to secure funds to invest in renewables, pioneering

initiatives in the field of renewables such as Masdar in the UAE, joint ventures that can help transfer the necessary technology and, most importantly, the political will to do so. In fact, these same favourable circumstances might be available to us in the future.

A piece of the climate finance pie Access to climate finance has always been contentious, as matters of money generally are. While the road to equipping these funds, the responsibility of developed countries with a historic burden of emissions, has been slow and unclear, developing and underdeveloped nations clamoring to access these funds have been growing in number. In the past, when countries like Saudi Arabia stated that they were a special case in need of climate aid to compensate for the loss in revenue as the world shifts to clean energy, it was met with disdain and irritation by the international community.

“Yes indeed, no one is willing to give funds to the GCC unlike other developing or LDCs,” says Dr Raouf. “This is very clear, as none of the GCC countries who had recently joined the Global Environment Facility is active, except Kuwait. GEF insists that the GCC should contribute to this common resource despite the fact that GCC countries are classified as developing, according to the Kyoto Protocol. They reason that the GCC are a set of wealthy nations and should contribute. The best compromise, in my opinion, is to be classified as both donors and receiving countries at the same time, similar to many other countries that are part of the GEF. This might unlock climate finance from the

"GCC countries realised a few years back they will be isolated in the global climate change talks... this especially came home to KSA just before the Paris Agreement."

DR MOHAMED ABDEL RAOUF Sustainability Research Program Manager Gulf Research Center

GEF and other sources as well.”

This is certainly the case with the UNDP which classifies Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain as Net Contributor Countries. The UNDP’s particular focus in the GCC is to help establish new policies on renewable energy and energy efficiency to scale up low-carbon solutions.

“We have provided technical assistance to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain in establishing national centres of excellence which work towards creating national strategies for specific, highenergy consuming sectors like transport, buildings, industries, etc., and building partnerships between the government and private sector. In Saudi Arabia, for example, we have a $35 million programme which helped to establish the Saudi Energy Efficiency Center and mobilise government and private sector partners to reduce the energy intensity of growth in key sectors,” Dr Khoday says.

In fact, in recent years, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the GCC have tempered, or rather restructured their demands – the

stress is now not on funds but on technology transfer and capacity building. A senior Saudi negotiator told us, “At COP18 in Qatar, all GCC members agreed on a deal that will help us contribute to the efforts of the international community in combating climate change. Through this decision we wanted to make sure the global community helps us in our efforts to diversify our economies and lend us the technical capacity and support to move away from a single-source income towards a bigger pie that will be much less dependent on our fossil fuel resources.”

Apart from this, several GCC members have been active in forging global partnerships for climate action. “At COP22, UNDP launched a new programme in partnership with the UAE, through a generous grant of $11 million from local partners, to support the establishment of a new World Green Economy Organisation in Dubai. WGEO is meant to support developing countries on climate action and engage the role of UAE as a global partner for climate action,” Dr Khoday mentions. “Another important project we are doing with Qatar’s support in the region is the integration of solar power into crisis recovery. Through a generous $5 million grant from Qatar, we have launched a project in the Darfur region of Sudan to provide decentralised solar solutions to villages for the benefit of returnees of the conflict under the Darfur peace agreement.”

These kinds of initiatives help in earning goodwill among the global community and reiterating the commitment of regional governments to climate action. And they also lend weight to GCC voices on the international stage, which should be channeled towards supporting developing countries in their advocacy to achieve the target of scaled-up climate finance meant to reach $100 billion per year from 2020 onwards.

It might feel like the GCC’s aloofness from climate negotiations might actually be a good thing. When the world makes no demands of you (except maybe to not get in the way) and you have few expectations of the world, it might be tempting to take things at your own pace, be reactive rather than proactive. But never has the world come together this way before, in a massive joint effort to craft a shared destiny. It’s a privilege to be part of that, and history would judge us harshly if we are not earnest in our efforts to honour that privilege.

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QATAR AND THE CLIMATE DEBATE

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THROUGHOUT THE UNFCCC’S EXISTENCE, QATAR HAS BEEN A LOYAL SUPPORTER OF CLIMATE ACTION. FROM RATIFYING THE UNFCCC IN 1996 AND THE KYOTO PROTOCOL IN 2005, TO SIGNING THE PARIS AGREEMENT THIS YEAR, THE COUNTRY HAS ALWAYS PUT ITS WEIGHT BEHIND CLIMATE ACTION. AT THE FOREFRONT OF ALL THIS DIPLOMATIC ACTION IS QATAR’S DIRECTOR FOR CLIMATE CHANGE, ABDULHADI NASSER AL MARRI. QATAR TODAY SPEAKS TO HIM IN MOROCCO DURING COP22 ABOUT THE LOCAL PERSPECTIVES ON CLIMATE CHANGE.

ABDULHADI NASSER AL MARRI

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iving in relative luxury in Qatar, it is sometimes possible to feel removed from the consequences of climate change. But the harsh truth is that this small peninsula is as vulnerable as it gets. It suffers from a scarcity in drinkable water and local food supply with an average annual rainfall of only 82 mm. If average temperatures rise and rainfall does not increase, there would be moisture losses from Qatar’s water-stressed land. Two broad effects would arise – further desertification and increased water needs. Since the country is dependent on desalination, which is energy intensive, energy consumption would rise and, correspondingly, CO2 emissions. Increased temperatures would also exacerbate air quality problems and adversely affect human health.

Qatar is one of three countries in the

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Director Climate Change Department Ministry of Environment

Arabian Gulf (along with Kuwait and Bahrain) with extreme vulnerability to sea level rise as it is liable to inland flooding of 18.2% of its land area, at less than a 5 metre rise in sea level, along with the associated adverse impacts on the population as 96% are living in the coastal areas. Due to the shallow depths of Qatar’s marine waters, even small rises in temperature will have a profound influence. Furthermore, climate change would cause the extinction of species such as whales, dolphins and turtles in addition to causing coral bleaching.

The Ministry of Environment’s marine sensitivity atlas classifies mangroves, coral reefs and sea grass beds as sensitive ecosystems which will be adversely impacted by climate change. Migratory patterns for some sea birds and other marine species could also change.

Taking all these factors into consideration, Qatar has as high a stake

as anyone else in mitigating the negative impact of our changing climate while preserving economic and social interests.

This is why our place at the negotiating table is crucial and valuable and should not be underestimated. Abdulhadi Nasser Al Marri has been part of this process for a decade now, even before he was appointed the director of the newly-formed climate change department in the Ministry of Environment, back in 2014.

While all the Gulf States were represented in the pavilion at COP22 as a single entity, the GCC doesn’t quite negotiate as a bloc.

However, within the GCC there is an active climate change working group which is chaired by whichever country is currently holding the presidency. We meet and discuss our positions before the COP. We already published some general framework for adaptation strategies in the Gulf.

But Qatar is very active within the Arab

Group, Al Marri says. “Many of the GCC counties are part of the Like Minded Group of Developing Countries (LMDC) and the G77 and China. We don’t really work individually but we do have some distinct positions and interests, which are always accommodated through the groupings. This way, we try our best to support the ideas that are related to Qatar’s environmental, social, and economic interests,” he says.

Sitting down with us during the final hours of the last days of the summit, Al Marri talks about his expectations from COP22. “We want to lay down the rules for the implementation of the Paris Agreement, see more operationalisation. We also want to see our interests as a developing country reflected. It’s a step in the right direction to have bottom-up and nationally driven targets but we need further support from the developed world in the areas of capacity building and technology transfer,” he says. Qatar has already signed the Paris Agreement and it will be ratified in the coming weeks once the Shura Council gives its formal approval, according to Al Marri.

Qatar’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, which will no longer be “intended” but actual national climate goals once the Paris Agreement is ratified, lists a series of goals of economic diversification and adaptation, both with mitigation cobenefits. Al Marri says this was arrived at through a stakeholder consultation workshop to get all the cornered parties in the country involved and aware. There was also a degree of coordination with other GCC countries, for all of whom economic diversification forms the strategic core of all national development plans. “We worked with the UNFCCC who sponsored a workshop for developing INDCs in the Gulf, with consultants from the South Centre,” Al Marri says. However, unlike the NDCs of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, for example, Qatar’s INDC doesn’t set any specific, concrete targets around emission reduction or energy generation through renewables.

Al Marri assures us that this is the next step, expanding the summarised INDC into something more detailed and projectsoriented. “We are working on aligning it with the Qatar Vision 2030 so that they complement each other. In the short term, the National Development Strategy for 2017–2022 will also be developed with the Paris Agreement in mind. We are very serious about climate action and want to take a leading initiative in the Gulf and in the region; our national vision clearly places

HH THE EMIR SHEIKH TAMIM BIN HAMAD AL THANI was in Morocco, his second consecutive appearance at a COP, which is seen as a clear indication of Qatar’s commitment to climate action at the highest levels.

environment among the four pillars. Qatar is one of the very few countries in the region with a dedicated department for climate change. But at the same time we don’t want to rush into anything without having everyone on board or without studying the social and economic consequences of response measures. Our single-commodity economy is especially vulnerable to such policies. So we are serious and want to move forward with other parties in the convention, but we are also realistic.”

“Next year, we’ll see more news around our climate action plans after our next stakeholder consultation in the first quarter of 2017,” Al Marri says. “After this we will go ahead with the development of our NDC, with the support of our UNFCCC colleagues.” He stresses that the Ministry of Environment is not alone in this process, and the make-up of the Qatari delegation at the COP is proof of that. “We are here not only as the Ministry of Municipality and Environment but as a group representing different partners from the private sector, academic and semigovernmental organisations. For example, we have representatives here from Qatar University, the meterological department, KAHRAMAA, Qatar Petroleum, Civil Aviation Authority, etc. When we are back to Doha, these same parties will also be part of our strategy. And this is indicative of how we intend to proceed on climate action – in a fully transparent manner and with the support of our partners,” he says.

Climate finance is almost always a contentious subject during COPs and Al

Marri knows this, having been a board member of the Adaptation Fund for three years. With the CDM markets on their last legs, the fund has not been healthy, he says, while underlining how important it is for the fund to continue beyond Kyoto. “It’s important to keep alive the Adaptation Fund’s direct access approach. However what we are seeing now are delays with a lot of projects in the pipelines and no clarity on how they will be financed. If the process is slow, it will take longer for developing countries to implement adaptation measures,” he says.

As a developing country, Qatar could benefit from the funds, especially considering adaptation is a priority for Qatar, Al Marri says. But Qatar is working concurrently with the likes of UNDP and UNEP to focus on capacity building and technology support outside of the UNFCCC. “These two aspects are sometimes not given as much importance as the financial side,” he says. “For Qatar, these are very important because despite all the work we are doing in mitigation and adaptation, technology limits our ambition.

On the environmental side, we are focusing a lot on pollution control technology at the end of the pipe and enhancing existing performance of units. We still need to have R&D support to push the technology on the emission control side, especially suited to our harsh and arid climate. These innovations are coming up but they need to be commercialised as soon as possible. This doesn’t include just physical technology but also applied tech like blue carbon.”

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