Qatar Economic Outlook Issue Number 13

Qatar Economic Outlook 2021 - 2023 
38 
Economic Development and the 
Causes of Climate Change 
The prevailing assumption now among those 
studying the environment is that there is a 
direct relationship between the increase in 
economic growth and the growth in 
greenhouse gas emission (GHG), which is 
the driving cause of climate change. They 
understand that when an economy expands, 
its 
demand 
for 
energy-consuming 
commodities increases.
Therefore, they envision that one of the 
solutions is to restructure the economies of 
the world’s countries to become more 
attuned to the real costs of environmental 
externalities (negative impacts) instead of 
ignoring them, to become increasingly eco-
friendly over time to reach, globally, “green” 
and climate-resilient economies that are 
deeply invested in, and adapted to, new 
patterns of behavior for both consumption 
and production that are associated with low 
GHG emissions.
Technological Development and 
Reduction of Greenhouse 
Emissions 
To reach the Paris Agreement goal of a 
global limiting warming to 1.5 degrees may 
be not feasible given the structure of global 
consumption and production processes, but 
the technologies now available, if rolled out 
at-scale today, would set the world on the 
right path. This includes using available low-
emission energy sources and green 
technology, for example, a gradual transition 
to a cleaner energy source initially, such as 
natural gas, to replace the world's 
dependence on high-carbon fossil fuel 
energy (coal and crude oil)
20
, then move as 
rapidly as possible transitioning to renewable 
energy including tidal, solar, and wind, as 
20
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x?ItemId=3682
well as planting trees which absorb CO
2
such 
as mangrove species
21
and Prosopis that can 
be irrigated with brackish and/or recycled 
wastewater, and scaling-up carbon capture 
and storage (CCS) beyond its current stage 
of infancy.
As the uses of renewable energy in the State 
of Qatar, it almost goes without saying that 
Qatar, like other Gulf states, is in an 
exceptionally good position for solar energy 
options, and Qatar has even started building 
projects towards producing reasonable 
amount of solar energy. But it should be 
taken into account that due to the sand and 
dust blown by the north wind, it makes the 
maintenance of solar panels expensive in the 
GCC - especially given the scarcity of fresh 
water, which is required to clean the solar 
panels because the use of salt water 
corrodes the electronics of the panels. 
One of the technical options that can be 
implemented in Qatar is recycling the waste 
into useful products (including composts from 
household and restaurant waste) instead of 
sending them to methane-emitting landfills, 
finding viable alternatives to the use of 
pesticides, herbicides, and chemical 
fertilizers in agriculture – the last of which 
when nitrogen-based emits the powerful 
greenhouse gas of nitrous oxide (N
2
O).
Therefore, it is better for several reasons to 
produce organic fertilizers from treated 
agricultural and animal waste. 
Among the measures that can contribute 
significantly to rationalizing the use of energy 
are: (1) rationalizing the consumption of 
natural resources, including water and 
energy, especially since the State of Qatar 
depends on desalination of seawater that 
requires energy to produce it, (2) building 
housing in a way that provides them with 
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The State of Qatar has started implementing afforestation projects 
for more than one million trees

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