 |
| |
Dr Essam On Kuwait Environmental Protection | |
| Staff Writer |
With the global alignment of people and resources towards sustainability and environmental protection, Kuwait has taken steps, domestically and internationally, to address the country's environmental problems including the launching of ‘Arab World Nobel Prize For Development And Innovation’
A finalist, Dr. Essam Hassan has focused his presentation on new technologies for the safe processing of contaminated wastewater treatment plants as well as their broad as well as long-term impact on environmental protection. Closely involved with the monitoring, management, and safe disposal of harmful (and potentially environment damaging) effluents by industrial companies in the region, Dr. Hassan has closely seen the positive impact of Kuwait’s regulatory policies on the environment.
Here we speak to Dr. Hassan on Kuwait’s sustainability agenda and how he is personally involved in supporting the region achieving its SDPs:
 |
Q: Please tell us more about how are you involved in driving the sustainability agenda across internal and external stakeholders at the EPA?
A: I have done considerable research dedicated to the protection of the environment as well as over 150 large scale projects. Through these, I have actively participated in and helped to find strategic solutions to existing environmental problems and work to overcome any pollutants that affect human health and are an obstacle to environmental sustainability. Furthermore, through these projects, I was also able to reduce and detect environmental influences to help sustainability and through the application of environmental protection laws (EPA).
Q: How have the new agreements signed at COP26 affected Kuwait both in terms of ongoing and new projects and policies?
A: COP26 made progress towards delivering on the Paris Agreement goals of limiting global warming to ‘well below' 2 degrees Celsius (C) on pre-industrial levels, but the world is definitely not on track to limit the increase to 1.5C on the basis of plans submitted to date.
In a scenario where all the climate pledges announced to date were met in full and on time, then the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that global warming could be kept to 1.8C. However, the lack of firm plans for 2030 means the actual increase could be 2.4C.
These commitments must be delivered upon if these temperature goals are to be achieved. This still represents progress since Paris, where the world was heading for 3C-4C of warming, and COP26 should be seen as part of that ongoing process that started nearly 30 years ago and now plans to continue indefinitely to tackle climate change.
In this regard, it was reassuring to find that Kuwait remains committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and encouraging afforestation campaigns, in an effort to reduce risks and increase resilience to climate change. This confirms the keenness of the State of Kuwait to adopt this resolution and a national low carbon strategy to 2050.
The State of Kuwait will start preparing a low-emissions development strategy 2050 according to the requirements of the Paris climate agreement, based on the principle of a circular carbon economy.
Kuwait has made enhanced climate resilience to improve community livelihood and achieve sustainability, the crux of its ‘National Adaptation Plan 2019-2030’, that the country submitted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 2019. The long-term National Adaptation Plan (NAP) is prepared and published by Kuwait’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA).
The country is particularly vulnerable to climate change-related repercussions such as heatwaves, rainstorms, increased number and intensity of dust storms, as well as sea-level rise and its impact on livelihoods, infrastructure projects and long-term future investments.
The national action plan proposed several medium and long-term strategies to increase resilience and build national capacities to face the risks and negative impacts of climate change. As a result, Kuwait has launched the Environmental Monitoring Information System (Project eMISK), a unified and comprehensive database of all environmental data for the environmental e-government service, and includes 11 environmental ranges covering all environmental sectors and related aspects, and it includes more than 250 updated geographic layers prepared for use by applications and environmental analyzes, high-quality satellite images covering the entire state of Kuwait and massive tranches of data for monitoring and surveillance for over two decades. EMISK has been launched in accordance with the Environmental Protection Law and is the largest operating project in the region.
 |
Q: What do you feel are Kuwait’s biggest 3 areas of opportunity for achieving net-zero in the shortest possible time frame?
A: Kuwait’s biggest 3 areas of opportunity for achieving net-zero in the shortest possible time frame:
Q: What do you feel are Kuwait’s three biggest areas of opportunity for protecting the environment? Technology-wise where do you anticipate the biggest environment protection disruptors to come from?
A: Kuwait relies almost fully on the energy sector, which includes oil products, natural gas, and desalination of water. Given that the country has limited natural freshwater, desalination accounts for more than 90% of Kuwait’s water consumption, whereas the oil sector accounts for almost 90% of export revenues (US$ 46 billion in 2017, close to 40% of GDP). Kuwait is in the process of formulating a new energy strategy, combined with a plan to foster economic diversification and reduce fossil fuel dependency.
Whereas, Kuwait has vast solar and wind resources. However, they are not being deployed properly and efficiently. Renewable energy capacity among plants accounts for less than 1% of the total generating capacity of the country. Even though renewable-energy capacity is expected to increase to 5GW (gigawatt) as per the future plan, this will still not meet the country’s stated goal of 15 percent of energy demand from renewable energy. For that purpose, Kuwait is planning to enhance the usage of renewable energy in different ways.
Kuwait is now producing 1.5 megawatts of solar energy. It is located in the Shaqaya area, northwest of Kuwait, on an area of 32 sqkm. It is worth mentioning that the project comes within Kuwait's plan to produce 15% of its total energy from renewable and alternative sources by 2030.
Q: And finally, please tell us about your favorite city and book of all time and why?
A: Berlin city because I lived there during my studies after my master’s degree, and I found all the welcome and all the interest there for those interested in science and research.
And my favorite book is The Greatest Cover-Up in History—From Wuhan to the White House by Dylan Howard and Dominic Utton, Published by Skyhorse.
The real number of deaths and infections from the virus will never be known. The figures have not only been underreported in China, but by supposedly transparent governments in the West for reasons less connected with public safety and more to do with their own mendacity, incompetence, and corruption.
Written with the urgency and tension of a thriller novel but grounded in rigorously factual reporting, this book is the essential read on the most horrifying scandal of our age.