Sea level rise (SLR), due to rising temperatures, has the potential to cause the loss of significant portion of Qatar's agricultural land.

A one meter SLR could potentially reduce Qatar's land area by 2.6percent, warns the first annual report released by the 'Arab Forum for Environment and Development' (AFED).

In addition to the agricultural sector, the industrial and tourism sectors, urban areas and the GDP in a number of Arab countries, including Qatar, are threatened to be affected by the rise in sea level.

The report "Arab Environment :Future Challenge", warns that the Arab region will face an increase of 2 to 5.5 degrees centigrade in the surface temperature by the end of the 21st century. This temperature increase will be coupled with a projected decrease in the rainfall of between 0 and 20 percent resulting in shorter winters, dryer and hotter summers, a high rate of heat waves, increased weather variability and a more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events.

The report, which has its focus on the Arab region's critical environmental issues, including air quality, marine and coastal environment drought and desertification; use of fertilizers and pesticides, waste management and urbanisation, says that Qatar's urban population rate will become 92 percent of its total population in 2020.

"Urbanisation is a phenomenon that can be observed across the Arab region, and is fuelled by such factors as high fertility rates, rural-urban migration, international labour migration, and the concentration of economic activity in urban areas. While the urban proportion of the Arab population is currently estimated to be 56 percent, this figure is projected to rise to 66 percent by 2020; urbanization levels are especially high in Kuwait (97 percent) and Bahrain and Qatar (92 percent)", the report said.

The report that warns that the air quality in Arab cities continues to steadily deteriorate attributed the challenge to the huge presence of private vehicles on the roads.

In the Arab countries, Qatar has the second highest number of private cars in the region.

The number of vehicles per 1000 persons in Qatar is 378. Against the total population of 340,000 in Doha city, it has a total number of 252,959 private vehicles.

Per capita carbon oxide emissions have risen steadily in most countries of the region during the last three decades.

Regionally, Gulf countries emit about 50 percent of the total of all Arab countries.

The countries in this Arab sub region are the only one with carbon dioxide emission levels above the world average. In 2003, emissions in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait were respectively 13, 9, 8 and 7 times higher than the world average.

The report stressed the need of Arab countries, including Qatar, to mitigate the possible threats through scientific researches, discussions and through effective implementation of critical projects.

Climate change has been of major concern across the world,setting off major studies and discussion at scientific fora.

© The Peninsula 2008

 Contribute to Zawya Select

 

Community Comments (0) - Comment on this article

The opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect Zawya. Read our Comment Policy.

 

 

 

close x

Loading ...

 

close x

Report Abuse

Loading ...

 

 

close x

Loading ...