There can be little doubt that Qatar is a major polluter.
City lights blaze out from high rise buildings 24 hours a day 7 days a week 52 weeks a year, electricity and water for Qataris is free and petrol costs 20 cents a litre. Qataris favourite hobby is charging up and down sand dunes in giant SUVs that people in other parts of the world are increasingly unable to afford.
Yet, at the same time, the rulers of Qatar are very aware that they are living off the back of a finite resource.
Qatar has watched its neighbour Saudi Arabia's GDP per person plunge as its population increases. It has for years been focussing on trying to diversify its industries: tourism - see our recent post on hotels - is just one of the industries it is encouraging.
Now, along with other Gulf States, it is also investing heavily into green energy.
According to a recent New York Times article on the topic, Gulf Oil States Seeking a Lead in Clean Energy, Qatar has invested $220 in a low carbon fund in the UK - an amount that dwarfed money raised in Britain.
This, however, is just the start. Plans, both large and small, in Qatar also include:
- a solar power complex with a capacity of 3,500 megawatts
- an experimental wind turbine
- a waste plant which will produce enough electricity (40 mega watts) to power all the plant's need
- the establishment of a camel farm that will be powered purely by solar and wind power
- a possible nuclear power station
- a desert greenhouse to utilise solar power and salt water to produce crops with a fraction of the energy currently used
Countries like the UK frittered away their natural resources. If current trends contine, they may find they have been left lagging behind when it comes to clean energy production too.
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