Counting the Carbon: Assessing Qatar's Carbon Dioxide Emissions

Abstract

Climate change is the most pressing global environmental issue today, with a potentially devastating impact on human development. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, Qatar is ranked as the highest CO2 per capita emitter globally. Qatar is contributing to the reductions of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) by supplying the world with Liquid Natural Gas (LNG), yet Qatar is being negatively imaged as highest CO2 per capita emitter. The reading of the highest CO2per capita has affected Qatar's ability to attract green investments and to improve the country's attraction in the tourism market. Qatar's position as the leader CO2 per capita has made it unattractive for investors both internally and externally because of the perception that the investment would not be ‘green’. The per capita emissions are a result of two main factors: the total absolute emissions and the total population. Two major and significant factors, consumption and population, should be taken into consideration when discussing the total absolute emissions for Qatar: The assumption for this equation is that the population uses all the produced energy, which is the denominator. This assumption is a disadvantage to Qatar due both to its low population and the fact that it is an energy producer. CO2emission would be much lower for Qatar if a consumption-based accounting system was used for the calculation of the per capita value. The use of emissions accounting measure is of vital importance to individual countries. There are two feasible carbon emissions accounting units: production-based accounting and consumption-based accounting systems. Production-based accounting is linked to economic system boundaries (greenhouse gas emissions from resident institutional units, analogous to gross domestic product). It involves measuring the emissions occurring within a country's boarder and does not take into account production chains extended across boundaries. An illustration of a production-based system examines the emissions generated from fuel purchases and allocates them the country producing the fuel, not the country consuming the fuel (OECD, 2016). While the Consumption based accounting system is related to how much this country emit for its domestic uses. Data are more difficult to obtain for the consumption-based approach because the computations are more complicated to compile as it relies on input-output tables, which includes all steps in production from raw material extraction through the final assembly and ultimately the final sale of the product (General Secretariat for Development Planning, 2009).The controversy comes in determining responsibility: is it the player initiating the polluting process (consumer) or the player producing the pollution (producer)? Consumption-based measures are preferred by developing countries while production-based measures are preferred by developed countries. Qatar is unfairly portrayed as the highest carbon dioxide emitter in the world in terms of per capita measures. Qatar's carbon footprint takes into account Qatar's energy production rather than the country's domestic consumption. The main argument of the paper is to discuss Qatar's CO2 emissions per capita compared to other reporting measures, and to examine the difference between using a consumption based CO2 emissions accounting system versus a production-based one for Qatar. The paper discusses the complications of using a production-based accounting versus a consumption-based accounting system for Qatar carbon dioxide emissions calculations. The research applies both of Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis. The Quantitative analysis is related to roughly re-estimate Qatar's CO2 Per Capita emissions figure based on Consumption based accounting system. The qualitative analysis focuses on creating different comparisons to compare Qatar's CO2 emissions in terms of different reporting measures to three different categories. First category is comparing Qatar's emissions against GCC countries; these countries have the major common attribute that they are mainly dependent on oil and gas revenues, similar demographic location, weather and lifestyle. The analysis outcomes of this category illustrates that KSA has the highest emissions for CO2 intensity and for the absolute emissions. The second comparison category is comparing Qatar's CO2 emissions against major Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) producers which are Australia and Malaysia. These comparisons showed that Australia has the highest emissions of Absolute CO2, CO2 intensity as well as the emissions per GDP. The third category was to compare Qatar's position related to the major global emitters, such as China, India, Russia, and USA. This comparison resulted in China having the highest absolute emissions, CO2Intensity as well as emissions per GDP. The Analysis outcome of the comparisons highlights that Qatar is not the highest CO2emitter in terms of absolute CO2 emissions, emissions intensity, and emissions per GDP compared to the GCC countries, major LNG producers and the world largest emitters. Qatar has the highest CO2 emissions per Capita due to two main factors: Qatar is the largest LNG producer and Qatar has a relatively small population when compared to other countries. Qatar is a developing country, it is the largest LNG exporter and it has third highest natural gas reserves in the world. Qatar makes an indirect contribution to mitigating the impact of climate change, which is done though exporting a clean form of energy, i.e., Liquefied Natural Gas. Even though Qatar is a major contributor for the supplying the world with clean energy, Qatar has taken other initiatives to minimize its carbon emissions. Continuous research and development will be a key element to Qatar overcoming the climate change challenges through Research and Development Centres. In summary, the research paper has four main sections. The first section of the paper includes a background on climate change, its impact and mitigations. The second section discusses Qatar's global position using different CO2 emission reporting measures, including Absolute CO2emissions (kt), CO2emissions per GDP (kg per PPP$ of GDP), CO2intensity (kg per kg of oil equivalent energy use), CO2emissions per capita (metric tons per capita). The third part explores Qatar's CO2 per capita calculation incorporating the consumption-based accounting system and assessing the complications of using a production-based accounting versus a consumption-based accounting system for Qatar carbon dioxide emissions calculations. The last section covers Qatar's clean initiatives and offers recommendation towards net zero emissions and improving Qatar sustainability figures.