31. Qatar’s Natural Sustainability: Plans, Perceptions, and Pitfalls
- Author:
- Mari Luomi
- Publication Date:
- 12-2012
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Center for International and Regional Studies: CIRS
- Abstract:
- Growth in Qatar in the past decade has been tremendous: the total population has increased by one million and the economy has grown four-fold, leading to the skyrocketing of energy and water demand and greenhouse gas emissions.2 This research paper argues that a crucial question in need of answering is: how important is the environment for Qatar? Fast growth in population and natural resource consumption, together with a pronounced emphasis on economic growth, have had devastating impacts on the country’s environmental and sustainability performance. Recently ranked as the country with the world’s highest ecological footprint,3 Qatar urgently needs to balance its natural resource use with the local environmental and ecosystem limits so as to ensure prosperity for its people and the environment far into the future. The same question applies to Qatar’s neighboring monarchies, which share very similar economic and demographic dynamics as well as similar political and climatic conditions.
- Topic:
- Environment and Climate Finance
- Political Geography:
- Qatar