ةئيبلا ةرازو هايملاو Ministry of Environment & Water. Al Basma Al Beeiya (Ecological Footprint) Initiative

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "ةئيبلا ةرازو هايملاو Ministry of Environment & Water. Al Basma Al Beeiya (Ecological Footprint) Initiative"

Lilian Ross
5 years ago
Views:

1 Al Basma Al Beeiya (Ecological Footprint) Initiative

2 Presentation overview 1. Overview of the UAE 2. Ecological Footprint of the UAE 3. The UAE initiative Goals and areas of focus Core strategy 4. Initiative achievements 5. Next steps 6. Challenges & Lessons learnt

3 Growth: GDP Lifestyles Population

climate is particularly energy demanding Options for a resource

4 High Footprint of the UAE UAE has high per capita GDP and high standard of living Maintaining a high standard of living despite the harsh arid climate is particularly energy demanding Options for a resource conscious lifestyle do not exist in all the emirates an Nafud Desert Rub al Khali

5 The UAE interest challenge

6 The UAE response: Al Basma Al Beeiya Federal Project launched in October 2007 making UAE the 3 rd country in the World to undertake such in depth research Four government and NGO partners Abu Dhabi Global Environment Data Initiative (AGEDI with the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi) Emirates Wildlife Society in association with WWF (EWS WWF) and the Global Footprint Network (GFN).

7 Goals of Al Basama Al Beeiya understand what the Footprint is; identify what factors are driving our high Footprint; and develop strategies to help us manage it responsibly. Areas of focus: Data collection and verification Science and research Policy analysis Capacity building Awareness and outreach

8 Initiative achievements up to date Data review and verification contributed to the development of a National Statistics Bureau Raised technical capacity among government and NGO sector on Footprint Ensuring Footprint methodology context is regionally appropriate High level government engagement Increased awareness on footprint and consumption Advanced footprint research

9 Research: Breaking down UAE Ecological Footprint Footprint by Land type (Gha /person) Footprint by three players (%) Footprint by Final Demand Built-up Land 0% Cropland 11% Grazing Land 0% Forest Land 4% Businesses & Industries 30% Other 1% Carbon Uptake Land 83% Fishing Grounds 2% Government 12% Household 57%

10 Demand placed on Economic Sectors Allocation based on the 1995 Sector behaviour for Abu Dhabi

11 UAE Ecological Footprint by ةئيبلا ةرازو Household consumption gha per person Food Housing Mobility Goods Services Cropland Grazing Land Forest Land Fishing Grounds Carbon Uptake Land Carbon Uptake Land (Import) Built-up Land

12 Advanced research: Science for Policy (scenario development) Objectives: To understand how the development of the power sector might affect the UAE footprint up to 2030 To facilitate targeted policy development To develop a methodology that can be replicated for other sectors Achievements: Abu Dhabi data collected and starting to engage other emirates/entities Scientific research delivered phase 1 of scenario model (Masdar Institute researchers) Two technical roundtables consulting key stakeholders to ensure model is robust, relevant and useful

13 Next steps

14 Challenges & lessons learnt Data constraints lack of in country data and transparency of data Communication challenges Building capacity and raising awareness on the Ecological Footprint concept to stakeholders in the country. Making the indicator relevant in the debate on climate change and in policy development for the country.

EVENTS PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE GREEN PANDA EWS-WWF

EVENTS PARTNERSHIP INITIATIVE GREEN PANDA EMIRATES WILDLIFE SOCIETY IN ASSOCIATION WITH WWF A leading UAE environmental NGO EWS-WWF s mission: To conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to