Staff Writer
According to a top official, the National Action Plan has given Qatar a roadmap for carrying out its commitments under international law to mitigate the effects of climate change, particularly through cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Over 300 solutions have been found to lessen the current or anticipated effects of climate change, according to Eng. Ahmed Mohamed Al Sada, Assistant Undersecretary for Climate Change Affairs at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MoECC).
The economic sector, infrastructure, health care, food security, water, biodiversity, and other relevant areas are included in these initiatives, according to him.
Al Sada was speaking at the opening ceremony of a workshop titled “Climate Vulnerability & Impact Assessment for Qatar” to go through the early findings of the assessment of the country’s six sectors’ vulnerability to climate change.
The two-day conference, which the MoECC is hosting in collaboration with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), got underway in Doha yesterday.
Numerous ministry representatives, over 120 representatives from pertinent government ministries, representatives from the corporate sector, a sizable number of academics, and representatives from civil society organizations attended the workshop.
Al Sada claimed that Qatar has made significant efforts in recent years to realize the Qatar National Vision 2030 in terms of preserving the natural world, encouraging green economic development, and lessening the consequences of climate change.
This is accomplished, according to Al Sada, “by creating a clear national action plan for climate change in Qatar, which will continue over the next ten years.”
In order to accomplish these objectives, coordination between stakeholders and national and international organizations is crucial, according to the Assistant Undersecretary for Climate Change Affairs.
He emphasized the MoECC’s collaboration with the GGGI in putting the National Climate Adaptation Planning Project into action. This project intends to boost Qatar’s National Adaptation Planning (NAP) process by identifying and addressing the country’s medium- and long-term objectives in combating climate change.
According to Al Sada, this project’s workshop is one of its initiatives. It aims to conduct a participatory national assessment based on evidence, in which the participating experts identify and prioritize the expected effects of climate change and the necessary adaptation measures to address them.
The initiative and the fundamental ideas to improve people’s comprehension and knowledge of adaptation to climate change were presented by Chiden Oseo Balmes, Senior Program Officer, GGGI Qatar Office.
He stated that by identifying and addressing Qatar’s medium- and long-term adaptation goals, the GGGI wants to guide Qatar’s national adaptation planning process.
He noted that Qatar is dealing with various issues caused by climate-related consequences and noted that by identifying and putting adaptation measures in place in the country, these challenges might be turned into opportunities to improve resilience.
Through this workshop, Balmes invited participants to contribute their expertise, experiences, and suggestions to the national adaptation planning process.
According to Mahmoud Al Marwani, Assistant Director of the Climate Change Department, the goal of the workshop is to produce a database on the industries most adversely impacted by these changes and their impacts as well as a map of Qatar’s most significant climate change concerns.
He said that with this data, a strategy would be created to address these issues, try to find solutions, and prepare for the effects of climate change.
The workshop, according to environmental specialist Sultana Abdullah at the Climate Change Department, aims to inform participants of the preliminary findings of the Climate Vulnerability Assessment, which cover the energy, water, infrastructure, biodiversity, agriculture, and public health sectors.
