Climate Action 2012-2013

www.climateactionprogramme.org 

2012-2013 

Produced for: 

COP18 

United Nations 

Climate Change Conference 

Doha, Qatar 

26 November - 7 December 2012 

Published by: 

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FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

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Climate Action: Nick Nuttall, 

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In June 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the United Nations 

Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed by 

154 nations. Members of the Framework have been meeting annually 

since 1995 at the Conference of the Parties (COP) and this has paved 

the way for legally binding agreements to be reached. Now in its 18th 

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COP18 in Doha, Qatar is the perfect opportunity to reignite topics 

including climate change policy, the green economy, renewable energy, 

the use of fossil fuels and the original ambition of the COP process of 

stabilising the levels of greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere. 

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and environmentalists to debate the business case for climate 

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through ongoing dialogue and dedicated actions. 

Designed to bring to light the key issues in the climate change dialogue, 

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the environmental issues that so urgently need action. 

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GLOBAL CHALLENGES 

REQUIRE GLOBAL 

LEADERSHIP 

Climate change represents one of the greatest 

challenges facing humanity in the 21 st century. 

It is an impossibly complex challenge requiring 

an unparalleled response at a global level. As a 

consequence we have, for the last twenty years, 

struggled to find a suitable global response to 

this challenge. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION – 

A BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY 

CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION – 

A CRUCIAL COMPONENT OF OUR 

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT POLICY 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Predicted climate impacts

EDF’S CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION STRATEGY 

Launched in 2010, EDF’s adaptation strategy comprises 10 key points, implemented through action plans 

within each Group business line or company. 

Gaining access to relevant and sufficient information 

 

 

Adapting existing facilities certain to stay in the landscape for a long time 

 

Mainstreaming the expected consequences of climate change into our 

design of future assets and facilities 

 

 

Boosting our resilience to extreme climate events through direct application 

of our Climate Hazard Plan – Preparing for crisis management 

 

 

Adapting our offers to climate change 

 

 

Adapting our internal operations and expertise to climate change 

 

Activating the right R&D to address the right topics 

 

 

 

Mainstreaming national and international solidarity when implementing our adaptation measures 

 

Incorporating knowledge breakthroughs into our strategy 

 

 

Crédit photos : RAOUL Jean-Claude, CONTY Bruno – Médiathèque EDF 

Reinforcing dialogue between our entities and our respective public authorities 

 

design

CONTENTS 

10 32 

34 

10 FOREWORD 

By Achim Steiner, Executive Director, 

United Nations Environment Programme 

(UNEP) 

COP18 AND BEYOND 

16 SPECIAL FEATURE 

Qatar’s commitment to sustainable 

development 

22 THE PRE COP MINISTERIAL 

MEETING AND THE GREEN 

GROWTH CHALLENGE 

By YooYeon-Chul, Ministry of 

Environment, Republic of Korea 

25 UNEP AND THE GREEN 

ECONOMY – FOUR DECADES 

IN DEVELOPMENT 

By Nick Nuttall, United Nations 

Environment Programme 

(UNEP) 


Sustainable use of earth’s natural resources 

28 CORPORATE CLIMATE 

LEADERSHIP 

By Georg Kell, Executive Director, 

United Nations Global Compact 

(UNGC) 

POLICY, GOVERNANCE 

AND FINANCE 

32 THE CLIMATE JUSTICE DIALOGUE 

By Edward Cameron, World Resources 

Institute (WRI) and Tara Shine, Mary 

Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice 

(MRFCJ) 

36 CONTROLLING SHORT-LIVED 

CLIMATE POLLUTANTS 

By Johan C I Kuylenstierna, Stockholm 

Environment Institute (SEI) 

40 LINKING CLIMATE ACTION TO 

ECONOMIC RECOVERY IN EUROPE 

By Johannes Meier, European Climate 

Foundation (ECF) 


Ecuador’s leading role in climate change 

mitigation 

46 THE BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE 

ON A NEW MARKET 

MECHANISM 

By Dirk Forrister, International 

Emissions Trading Association (IETA) 

49 ADAPTATION AND THE 

INSURANCE INDUSTRY 

By Mike Kreidler, Washington State Insurance 

4

65 91 


Vale’s commitment to adaptation and 

mitigation 

54 MINING AND SUSTAINABLE 

DEVELOPMENT 

By Dr. Anthony Hodge, International 

Council for Mining and Metals (ICMM) 


The Anglo American way 

ENERGY AND POWER 

59 RENEWABLE ENERGY, 

POWERING OUR FUTURE 

By Adnan Z Amin, International 

Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) 


Nuclear power and spent fuel final disposal 

65 THE FUTURE OF 

CONCENTRATING SOLAR POWER 

By Carol Werner and Blaise Sheridan, 

Environmental and Energy Study Institute 

(EESI) 

71 ENERGY EFFICIENCY: 

A VALUABLE RESOURCE 

By Kateri Callahan and Rodney Sobin, 

Alliance to Save Energy (ASE) 


Turning ideas into concrete actions: 

sustainable development at the heart of 

climate change action 

76 TACKLING CLIMATE 

CHANGE IN THE OIL AND 

GAS INDUSTRY 

By Brian Sullivan, International Petroleum 

Industry Environmental Conservation 

Association (IPIECA) 

81 FOSSIL FUEL SUBSIDY REFORM 

By Mark Halle, International Institute for 

Sustainable Development (IISD), Europe 

85 QATAR’S ENERGY AND 

ENVIRONMENTAL OUTLOOK 

By Dr Rabi Mohtar, Qatar Environment 

and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) 


Innovations Unlimited: Walking the 

walk on Qatar’s green journey 

THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 

91 A NEW PARADIGM 

FOR URBAN PLANNING 

By Dr Joan Clos, United Nations 

Human Settlements Programme 

(UN-HABITAT) 

climateactionprogramme.org 5

119 130 


VTT’s EcoCity concept aims for 

sustainable neighbourhood 

development 

96 SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT 

IN A GLOBAL MARKET 

By Ali Malkawi, T.C. Chan Center, and 

Godfried Augenbroe, Georgia Institute 

of Technology 


Fostering climate change practices in 

Latin American countries 

101 GREEN RETROFITS FOR 

BUILDINGS 

By Jane Henley, World Green 

Building Council (WGBC) 


Creating sustainable value with light 


Smart cities: a pathway to inclusive 

growth 

110 THE ROAD TO LOW 

EMISSIONS GOES THROUGH 

THE CITY 

By Gino van Begin, ICLEI – Local 

Governments for Sustainability 


FOAMGLAS ® insulation: a valuable 

contribution to the protection of the 

environment 

114 SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORT ON 

A GLOBAL SCALE 

By Michael Replogle and Ramón 

Cruz, Institute for Transportation and 

Development Policy (ITDP) 

119 AMERICA’S CITIES PLUG INTO 

ELECTRIC DRIVE 

By Brian Wynne, Electric Drive 

Transportation Association (EDTA) 

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 

TECHNOLOGY 

122 POLICY AND INNOVATION 

IN THE ICT INDUSTRY 

By Dr Hamadoun I Touré, International 

Telecommunication Union (ITU) 

126 ICT FOR ONE-PLANET LIVING 

By Luis Neves, Global e-Sustainability 

Initiative (GeSI) 

130 A SUSTAINABLE DIRECTION 

FOR ICT 

By Sarah O’Brien, Green Electronics 

Council (GEC) 

6

144 

158 

AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND WATER 

134 AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE 

CHANGE – THE CHALLENGES 

AND OPPORTUNITIES 

By José Graziano da Silva, Food and 

Agriculture Organization of the United 

Nations (FAO) 


Development of a sustainable agriculture 

140 LOW CARBON AGRICULTURE 

By Shenggen Fan and Tolulope Olofinbiyi, 

International Food Policy Research 

Institute (IFPRI) 

144 WATER: AT THE CENTRE OF THE 

WATER-ENERGY-FOOD NEXUS 

By Adrian Sym, Alliance for Water 

Stewardship (AWS) 

148 WATER AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY 

By Kathy Shandling, International Private 

Water Association (IPWA) and Jeanette 

Brown, American Academy of Water 

Resources Engineers (AAWRE) 

153 SUSTAINABLE POWER 

FOR DESALINATION 

By Dr. P.K. Tewari, Indian Desalination 

Association ((InDA) 

CONSERVATION AND BIODIVERSITY 

158 NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS TO 

CLIMATE CHANGE 

By Julia Marton-Lefèvre, International 

Union for Conservation of Nature 

(IUCN) 


Understanding our oceans: the 

climate engine 

164 ECOSYSTEM-BASED 

ADAPTATION IN THE RED SEA 

AND GULF OF ADEN 

By Professor Ziad Hamzah Abu Ghararah 

and Dr Ahmed S M Khalil, Regional 

Organization for the Conservation of the 

Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of 

Aden (PERSGA) 


By Saudi Asma Environmental Solutions 

(SAES): Environmental services in the 

Middle East and North Africa 

169 ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES 

IN THE ARABIAN PENINSULA 

By Dr. Faisal Awawdeh and Dr. Ibrahim 

Hamdan, Association of Agricultural 

Research Institutions in the Near East and 

North Africa (AARINENA) 


WITH THANKS 

TO OUR PARTNERS... 

UN GLOBAL COMPACT 

www.unglobalcompact.org 

The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to 

specified principles in the areas such as the environment, human rights, labour and anticorruption. 

By doing so, business, as a primary driver of globalization, can help ensure that 

markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and 

societies everywhere. The UN Global Compact addresses sustainability issues in partnership 

with a range of stakeholders, including UN agencies, governments, civil society, labour, and 

other non-business interests 

CARBON DISCLOSURE PROJECT 

www.cdproject.net 

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent not-for-profit organisation collecting 

key climate change data from some 3,000 companies around the globe and has assembled 

the largest database of corporate greenhouse gas emissions and climate change information 

in the world. Founded in 2000, CDP facilitates the collection of climate change data within 

investment portfolios - representing 534 global institutional investors with a combined US 

$64 trillion in assets under management - as well as through corporate and public sector 

supply chains. 

ICLEI 

www.iclei.org 

ICLEI is an association of over 1,220 local government Members who are committed to 

sustainable development. Members come from 70 different countries and represent more 

than 569,885,000 people. ICLEI is an international association of local governments as well 

as national and regional local government organisations who have made a commitment to 

sustainable development. 

WORLD GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL 

www.worldgbc.org 

The WorldGBC is a coalition of 90 national green building councils, with more than 25,000 

company members in these countries, making it the largest international organization 

influencing the green building marketplace. The WorldGBC’s mission is to facilitate the 

global transformation of the building industry towards sustainability through market driven 

mechanisms. 

STAKEHOLDER FORUM 

www.stakeholderforum.org 

Stakeholder Forum is an international organisation working to advance sustainable 

development and promote democracy at a global level. Their work aims to enhance open, 

accountable and participatory international decision-making on sustainable development 

through enhancing the involvement of stakeholders in intergovernmental processes. 

NRG4SD 

www.nrg4sd.org 

The Network of Regional Governments for Sustainable Development, nrg4SD is a nonprofit 

international organisation representing subnational governments and associations 

of subnational governments at global level. Established in 2002 at the World Summit of 

Johannesburg, today the Network represents over 50 subnational governments from over 30 

countries and 7 associations of subnational governments. 

8

FOREWORD 

FOREWORD 

By Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive 

Director, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) 

Can the Rio+20 Summit of 2012 – convened two decades after the Rio Earth Summit of 1992 – assist 

the international community to combat climate change, and in doing so provide much needed support to 

the UN climate convention at its Doha, Qatar conference? The answer would have to be yes. 

Rio 1992 spawned some of the landmark UN 

environmental treaties on biodiversity and 

desertification and of course on climate change. 

Rio+20 was different, and not a moment in 

history for more big treaty making. Instead it 

was far more about how a community of nations 

can actually implement what has already been 

agreed. As such it has provided perhaps fresh 

pathways towards realising a sustainable century, 

while also recalibrating wealth as fundamentally 

linked to a healthy, productive environment and 

fostering positive social improvements, including 

decent jobs. As a result of Rio+20, countries 

have now begun a process designed to lead to a 

suite of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 

to complement the poverty-related Millennium 

Development Goals by 2015. 

The SDGs underline that issues such as climate 

change, loss of the natural world, deforestation 

and pollution are everyone’s challenge and are 

unlikely to be resolved unless developed countries 

rapidly decouple growth from over-consumption 

of natural resources – fossil fuels included. 

The precise set of goals have yet to be decided 

but many may echo the challenge of climate and 

wider sustainability issues, sometimes in ways that 

seem unconnected at first glance. The European 

Commission, for example, is suggesting goals on 

food waste and food loss – one way of boosting 

food security and reducing hunger in a world 

where by some estimates more than 30 per cent 

of produce never makes it from farm to fork. 

But there is a climate contribution here too 

– every apple or sheaf of wheat lost or wasted 

represents a waste of fossil fuels used in, say, farm 

machinery, or electricity in storage facilities and 

supermarkets. Meanwhile, curbing these losses 

could also take some pressure off forests and soils 

and land – the deforestation and degradation of 

which are key sources of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Rio+20 also gave the go-ahead to an inclusive 

Green Economy in the context of sustainable 

development and poverty eradication. Analysis 

10

FOREWORD 

under UNEP’s Green Economy initiative 

indicates that investing about 1.25 per cent of 

global GDP each year in energy efficiency and 

renewable energies could cut global primary 

energy demand by 9 per cent in 2020, and by 

close to 40 per cent by 2050. 

Employment levels in the energy sector would 

be one-fifth higher than under a business as usual 

scenario as renewable energies take close to 30 

per cent of the share of primary global energy 

demand by mid-century. Savings on capital and 

fuel costs in power generation would, under a 

Green Economy scenario, be on average US$760 

billion a year between 2010 and 2050. 

This transition is under way – the latest figures 

from a UNEP–Bloomberg–New Energy Finance 

study shows that investment in new renewables 

stood at over US$265 billion in 2011, higher than 

investment in new fossil fuels. 

The decision by Heads of State in Rio to give the 

go-ahead for a 10 Year Framework of Programmes 

for Sustainable Consumption and Production 

also supports such transformations including 

in respect to energy and transport – again a 10 

year programme and a potentially useful ally in 

combating climate change. 

As part of the Rio+20 outcome, governments 

in collaboration with the UN and others are 

exploring a new indicator of wealth beyond GDP, 

which is a crude measure of progress as it fails 

to take into account environmental and social 

impacts including climate change. 

“Every apple or sheaf of wheat 

lost or wasted represents a 

waste of fossil fuels.” 

Meanwhile several countries including Brazil, 

Denmark, France and South Africa, in 

collaboration with UNEP and the Global 

Reporting Initiative, are taking forward 

corporate sustainability reporting. Around 

one-quarter of the companies tracked by finance 

houses report their environmental, social and 

governance footprints including greenhouse gas 

emissions – but 75 per cent do not. It is thus 

difficult for pension funds and other investors to 

know whether or not to invest in these 

companies and essentially reward those meeting 

high standards. The new initiative, supported by 

insurers and organisations such as the Carbon 

Disclosure Project, aims to change the ground 

rules by making it an opt-out rather than an 


FOREWORD 

opt-in scheme – in other words companies who 

do not wish to report will have to explain to 

regulators why not. This could profoundly 

change the carbon profile of companies across 

the globe. 

And there are other initiatives also emerging that 

can assist in combating climate change while also 

delivering multiple Green Economy benefits. 

After over a decade of scientific assessment 

and analysis into so-called short-lived climate 

pollutants, a new initiative called the Climate 

and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) was launched 

in early 2012. The aim of this voluntary 

partnership focuses on black carbon – known 

to you and me as soot – produced by ships 

and oil and gas flaring as well as millions of 

other point sources across the planet. These 

include inefficient brick kilns, cooking stoves, 

diesel engines and the burning of agricultural 

wastes; the practice of swaling (burning scrub 

vegetation) in Russia is considered to be a 

significant source of soot in the Arctic. 

When in the atmosphere, black carbon can absorb 

heat and thus aggravate climate change, linked 

with the build-up of carbon dioxide and other 

greenhouse gases. Falling onto ice, black carbon 

can reduce its ability to reflect heat back into 

space, accelerating melting. 

Other SLCPs include methane emitted from 

rotting organic material in landfills, oil and 

gas infrastructure and agriculture; low level or 

so called tropospheric ozone and a range of 

substances called hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) 

being now increasingly used as replacement 

refrigerants. While HFCs have zero impact on 

the ozone layer that protects the earth from 

dangerous levels of ultra-violet rays, many are 

powerful greenhouse gases. 

Overall it is estimated that fast action on short-lived 

pollutants could have a direct impact on climate 

change, with the potential to reduce the warming 

expected by 2050 by up to 0.5ºC. At the same 

time, by 2030, such action can prevent millions 

of premature deaths linked with, for example, 

breathing in soot, while avoiding the annual loss of 

more than 30 million tonnes of crops. 

The CCAC, whose secretariat is hosted by 

UNEP, was launched earlier in 2012 as a way of 

catalysing worldwide action on SLCPs. Today its 

membership stands at close to 30 governments 

and non-state bodies including Bangladesh, 

Canada, France, Germany, Ghana, Mexico, the 

United States, the International Cryosphere 

Climate Initiative, International Council on 

Clean Transportation and the Stockholm 

Environment Institute. 

“Governments in collaboration 

with the UN and others are 

exploring a new indicator of 

wealth beyond GDP.” 

Mexico, for example, has recently launched an 

initiative with the CCAC to modernise 

traditional brick kilns in the developing world. 

The types and quantities of kilns and the fuels 

used vary within regions and even within 

countries. For instance, there are approximately 

100,000 large operating units in India, around 

20,000 artisanal brick kilns in Mexico, while 

most of the 6,000 units in Bangladesh are the 

circa 1900s large-scale kilns with fixed 

chimneys. Recent studies show that 

implementing more efficient technologies, 

mainly during the firing of bricks, can result in 

reductions in pollutant emissions of between 10 

and 50 per cent, depending on the process, 

scale and fuel used. 

“Waste generated worldwide 

is responsible for an estimated 

one-third of global methane 

emissions.” 

Waste generated worldwide is responsible for an 

estimated one-third of global methane emissions 

– a greenhouse gas over 20 times more potent than 

carbon dioxide and one linked to the generation of 

ground level ozone that is not only damaging to 

crops but human health. The CCAC is working 

with the Global Methane Initiative and the C40 

Cities Climate Leadership Group, which is 

12

FOREWORD 

partnered with the Clinton Climate Initiative, to 

assist urban areas to cut methane emission from 

across the waste chain including from landfills and 

pollution linked with organic waste like food. 

Some countries, including several Small 

Island Developing States and Least Developed 

Countries, have become concerned that focusing 

on SLCPs might defocus efforts under the UN 

Framework Convention on Climate Change 

(UNFCCC) and the urgency to agree on a new 

international treaty by 2015 to come into force 

by 2020. The CCAC is clear that its partnership 

must complement and support the aims under the 

legally-binding UN process which needs to move 

forward with real urgency in Qatar – no amount 

of cuts in black carbon for example can spare the 

planet and its people from dangerous levels of 

climate change over the 21st century unless big 

reductions are made in the primary greenhouse 

gas, carbon dioxide. 

But given the cost effective benefits of acting 

on SLCPs – many of the actions needed 

would eventually save money by for example 

harvesting methane as a fuel rather than 

venting it as a pollutant – the range of health, 

food and climate benefits and the fact that no 

new technologies are required, it would seem 

prudent to take this opportunity. 

Achim Steiner was elected as the Executive Director 

of UNEP in 2006 and was re-elected for another 

four-year term in 2010 on the proposal of the UN 

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Before joining 

UNEP, Mr Steiner served as Director General of 

the International Union for Conservation of Nature 

(IUCN) from 2001 to 2006, and prior to that as 

Secretary General of the World Commission on Dams. 

His professional career has included assignments with 

governmental, non-governmental and international 

organisations in different parts of the world including 

India, Pakistan, Germany, Zimbabwe, USA, Vietnam, 

South Africa, Switzerland and Kenya. 

The United Nations Environment Programme 

(UNEP) is the voice for the environment in the United 

Nations system. It is an advocate, educator, catalyst and 

facilitator, promoting the wise use of the planet’s natural 

assets for sustainable development. UNEP’s mission 

is “to provide leadership and encourage partnership in 

caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and 

enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of 

life without compromising that of future generations”. 


QATAR’S COMMITMENT TO 

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 

MEETING THE CHALLENGES OF 

CLIMATE CHANGE 

By the Qatar General Secretariat for Development Planning (GSDP) 

With potentially catastrophic consequences 

for humankind, biodiversity and marine 

ecosystems, climate change has been 

identified as the most pressing global 

environmental challenge. Qatar is committed 

to eliminating inefficiencies that raise carbon 

dioxide emissions and to working with other 

countries and international organisations to 

address global climate challenges. Qatar, like 

its Gulf neighbours, is highly vulnerable to 

the adverse effects of climate change. 

Qatar ratified the United Nations Framework 

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) 

on 18 April 1996 and the Kyoto protocol on 11 

January 2005. Although Qatar is not obligated 

under the UNFCCC to set emission control targets, 

it is making voluntary efforts and setting ambitious 

targets to contain greenhouse gas emissions. 

Qatar is hosting the eighteenth Conference of the 

Parties (COP 18) under the UNFCCC, to be held 

in Doha between 26 November to 7 December 

2012. The Framework Convention provides that 

parties should protect the climate system for 

the benefit of present and future generations in 

accordance with their common but differentiated 

responsibilities. That Qatar is hosting COP 18 is 

a clear indication of the national commitment 

“The State of Qatar seeks to preserve and 

protect its unique environment and nurture 

the abundance of nature granted by God. 

Accordingly, development will be carried 

out with responsibility and respect, balancing 

the needs of economic growth and social 

development with the conditions for 

environmental protection.” 

– Qatar National Vision 2030 

to sustainable development in general, and to a 

reduction in greenhouse gases in particular. 

QATAR NATIONAL VISION 2030 

At Rio+20, world leaders signed on to a 

document The Future We Want which in many 

ways reaffirmed at the global level what is foreseen 

in the Qatar National Vision 2030 (QNV), and 

what is now being implemented through the 

Qatar National Development Strategy 2011-2016 

(NDS). QNV/NDS embed the principles of 

sustainable development, and the country’s people 

are at the centre of efforts to advance sustainable 

development. 

QNV/NDS recognise that Qatar has been 

developing at an unprecedented speed. 

Exceptionally rapid economic growth, 

natural resource use, spatial development and 

exceptionally high population growth have 

resulted in environmental stresses. 

Qatar’s NDS explicitly aligns the growth of 

national prosperity to the realities of environmental 

constraints. Interventions being initiated are 

starting to put the country on an environmentally 

sustainable development path. Many of them entail 

new patterns in consumption and production, the 

application of environmentally sound technology 

and the development of effective supporting 

modern institutions. 

QATAR’S CLIMATE CHANGE 

VULNERABILITIES 

If average temperatures rise and without an 

increase in rainfall there would be moisture losses 

from Qatar’s water-stressed land. Two broad effects 

would arise - further desertification and increased 

water needs. Since the country is dependent on 

desalination, which is energy intensive, energy 

consumption would rise and correspondingly 

16

Al-Shaheen Oil Field. Qatar is committed to reducing CO 2 

emissions from gas flaring through investments in innovative, 

cleaner technologies and improvements in industrial processes. 

SPECIAL FEATURE 

© Qatar Petroleum/Maersk Oil, 2012 

BOX 1. AL-SHAHEEN – QATAR’S 

FIRST SUCCESSFUL UNFCCC 

CLEAN DEVELOPMENT 

MECHANISM PROJECT 

In 2007 Qatar introduced its first 

UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism 

(CDM), the Al-Shaheen Oil Field Gas 

Recovery and Utilization Project – a 

production oil and gas field off the north 

east coast of Qatar, the North Field. Al- 

Shaheen is the country’s largest offshore oil 

field and is the source of around one-third 

of Qatar’s daily oil production. 

Qatar Petroleum (QP) and Maersk Oil have 

successfully reduced gas flaring from the 

Al-Shaheen field to an absolute minimum. 

There was a 90 per cent reduction in flaring 

between 2007 and 2011, and greenhouse gas 

emissions were reduced by more than half 

over the same period. Capturing previously 

flared gas and turning it into clean 

electricity led to these achievements. Al- 

Shaheen’s gas gathering system is recognised 

as the world’s largest CDM project, and QP 

will work with UNFCCC to validate the 

CDM application. 

Facilities completed in 2012 at Al-Karkara, 

also in the North Field, are designed to 

achieve zero gas flaring by injecting excess 

sour gas back into the reservoir. 

Source: Adapted from QP (2012). 

CO 2 

emissions. Increased temperatures would 

also exacerbate air quality problems and adversely 

affect human health. 

Qatar is one of three countries in the Arabian Gulf 

(along with Kuwait and Bahrain) with extreme 

vulnerability to rising sea levels and flooding. 

Due to the shallow depths of Qatar’s marine 

waters, even small rises in temperature will have a 

profound influence. The Ministry of Environment’s 

marine sensitivity atlas classifies mangroves, coral 

reefs and seagrass beds as sensitive ecosystems 

which will be adversely impacted by climate 

change. Migratory patterns for some sea birds and 

other marine species could also change. 

PRIORITISING ADAPTATION AND 

MITIGATION MEASURES 

While investing in sources of future prosperity, the 

government is adopting and adapting the most 

effective policies and technologies for protecting 

environmental assets and reducing pollution. It 

recognises the imperative of cultivating a sense of 

environmental responsibility among the public in 

general and within industry in particular, while 

building a legal system, effective institutions and 

partnerships that support environmental protection. 

Reducing GHG emissions while expanding 

energy supply is one of the greatest challenges 

facing national industries. The country has taken 

major steps to reduce CO 2 

emissions—especially 

from gas flaring, which accounts for about 12% of 

total emissions. 

climateactionprogramme.org 

17

“As a nation committed to progress and 

innovation, we believe that great challenges 

require active and open participation by all 

parties. Under the leadership of His Highness 

the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah Al-Thani, 

the State of Qatar has a proud history of hosting 

credible negotiations on tough issues. We look 

forward to welcoming the world to Doha in 

November 2012 to continue the ongoing work 

on global climate change policy.” 

– H E Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, President 

of COP18/CMP8. 

Qatar’s leading energy companies are playing an 

active role in delivering a lower carbon future. 

For example, RasGas operates the region’s 

first acid injection (AGI) scheme that stores 

CO 2 

and hydrogen sulphide (H2S) from the 

gas production process, resulting in substantial 

reductions in CO 2 

emissions. 

Shipping is a critical link in the liquefied natural 

gas (LNG) value chain that extends from Qatar’s 

North Field to markets throughout the world. In 

2008, research undertaken by Qatar Petroleum in 

partnership with Exxon Mobil Corporation resulted 

in an industry breakthrough in LNG carrier design 

and size, enabling transport technology that can 

carry 80 per cent more liquefied natural gas than 

current carriers, thereby substantially reducing 

energy used per delivered unit. 

Qatar will continue to exploit its rich hydrocarbon 

endowment and further develop its energyintensive 

petrochemical and metallurgy sectors, 

consolidating its position as a major force in world 

energy markets. At the same time, however, the 

country will look for opportunities to diversify its 

productive base into new areas that add to resilience 

and provide sustainable avenues of wealth creation. 

TOWARDS ZERO EMISSIONS FROM 

GAS FLARING 

Qatar is developing a national policy to manage 

greenhouse gas emissions and the broader challenges 

of climate change. The National Flaring and Venting 

Reduction Project has introduced formal reporting 

and voluntary reduction targets for industries and 

standards for new facilities to minimize flaring. 

While Qatar’s CO 2 

emissions rose over the decade 

2000 to 2010, the rate of increase slowed markedly 

between 2007 and 2010. Almost two-thirds of CO 2 

emissions stem from the hydrocarbon industry. 

The slower increase in CO 2 

emissions stems from 

marked reductions in gas flaring and venting. 

Qatar’s flaring volume declined by half between 

2008 and 2010, meeting the NDS target set for 

2016, as the impact of new technologies to reduce 

emissions started to take effect (Figure 1). 

Flaring intensity 

0.025 

0.020 

0.015 

0.010 

0.005 

0.000 

0.023 

0.016 

0.011 

2008 2009 2010 

Figure 1. Gas flaring halved between 2008 and 2010 

Flaring intensity (bcm/million tonnes energy production) 

Source: NOAA (2011) and BP (2012) 

BOX 2. QATAR CHAMPIONING A GLOBAL DRY LAND ALLIANCE: PARTNERING 

FOR FOOD SECURITY 

National food security is of increasing concern in dry land countries that are characterised by 

tremendous pressures on their natural resources, such as water, soil and biodiversity. 

Qatar’s National Food Security Programme (NFSP) has launched a Global Dry Land Alliance (GDLA). 

The GDLA comprises some 15 selected dry land countries willing and able to contribute to an agreed 

agenda. Qatar is supporting the start-up cost of a temporary secretariat based in Doha. The GDLA will 

work closely with international and multilateral organisations as well as private sector networks. 

The GDLA is envisioned to be a collaborative undertaking to combat common threats, create new 

solutions to common food security challenges, and provide mutual assistance in times of extraordinary 

need. It will provide two types of support services: preventive initiatives to help avoid food security 

crises, and response initiatives to alleviate the consequences of such crises. 

Source: Adapted from GDLA (2012). 

18


Research programme 

Development and 

deployment of cost 

effective sustainable energy 

technologies (2012) 

Transport solutions for 

integrated mobility and 

extreme climates (2010) 

Solar energy technology 

(2010) 

Solar technology (2010) 

Research on LNG safety, 

sulphur and environmental 

management (2006) 

Objective 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

environmental conditions on urban mobility 

 

production of carbon black and hydrogen 

from methane with minimum CO 2 

 

production of hydrogen from methane 

2 

emissions 

 

2 

emissions 

Partners 

Green Gulf, Chevron 

Energy Solutions and 

Water Sustainability 

Centre (Conoco Phillips 

and General Electric) 

Siemens and Williams 

Technology Centre 

Chevron and Green 

Gulf Inc 

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft 

and TAMUQ 

Qatar Petroleum, Qatar 

Shell Research Centre 

and Exxon Mobil 

Table 1. Qatar’s Science and Technology Park technological research through partnerships 

FRONTIER TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH 

Qatar, in multiple partnerships, is at the forefront 

of developing environmentally sound, cleaner 

and energy-efficient technology at Qatar Science 

and Technology Park (Figure 2). Innovative 

research is under way on new carbon capture 

and sequestration technology from the oil and 

gas industries, including at the Imperial College 

London’s Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage, 

in partnership with the Qatar Science and 

Technology Park. 

LOOKING FORWARD 

Qatar’s long-term development outcomes 

articulated in the QNV emphasise the need to 

strike a careful balance between the interests 

“Qatar is committed to protecting and 

conserving its environment without harming 

its competitiveness. This path means that 

Qatar will invest more in frontier research and 

new technologies that promote sustainable 

development.” 

– H E Dr Ibrahim Ibrahim, Executive Member of 

the Supreme Committee for Development Planning 

of the current generation and the interests of 

future generations. The country’s substantial 

economic gains provide a solid foundation for 

this, and through the NDS, returns from the 

current use of non-renewable resources will 

be further channelled into both physical and 

human capital formation. 

Qatar is making a significant contribution to the 

global partnership for sustainable development 

through various forms of international cooperation. 

This spirit of partnership, and the 

national commitment to address climate 

change, provide the rationale for continuing to 

proactively engage with numerous regional and 

international agencies. 

Given the wisdom and foresight of Qatar’s leaders 

and people, and the many initiatives already 

underway, there will be increasing harmony 

between economic growth, social development 

and environmental management. 

Qatar General Secretariat for Development Planning 

Web: www.gsdp.gov.qa 


19

MOME 

FOR CH 

Inspiring action and passion for positive change. 

Building Momentum for Change. Change for Good. 

An initiative of the United Nations Climate Change 

secretariat, Momentum for Change provides a 

public platform to showcase broad-ranging climate 

change actions that are already achieving tangible 

results on the ground. By shining light on inspiring 

and transformational mitigation and adaptation 

activities, Momentum for Change aims to strengthen 

motivation, spur innovation and catalyse further 

change towards a low-carbon, high resilient future. 

 

at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 

in Durban last year, focuses on climate change 

mitigation and adaptation activities that are a result 

of collaborative efforts between the public and private 

 

countries This pillar is graciously funded by the Bill 

& Melinda Gates Foundation. At the United Nations 

Climate Change Conference in Doha, a special event 

on the 4 December will showcase nine Lighthouse 

Activities that have delivered social and environmental 

 

potential for long-term transformational change. The 

showcase event will be addressed by the UN Secretary- 

General Ban Ki-moon and other dignitaries. 

Two new pillars will also be launched in Doha. 

In collaboration with the Rockefeller Foundation, 

Momentum for Change: Women for Results, will be 

launched on 5 December 2012. This pillar will provide 

recognition to the important role played by women in 

mitigation and adaptation to climate change. 

In collaboration with the World Economic Forum, 

the United Nations Climate Change secretariat will 

launch Momentum for Change: Innovative Finance 

on 6 December 2012. This pillar will showcase 

 

support adaptation and mitigation activities in 

developing countries. 

 

 

 

and the 2012 Lighthouse Activities can be 

found at: unfccc.int. 

 

Change 2013 call for applications for each 

 

 

Get involved: 

unfccc.int 

facebook.com/unfcccmomentum 

 

 

119

Energy and Power 

4 – 6 December 2012 

Momentum for Change Special Events 

Urban Poor – Showcasing Event 

4 December 2012, 18:00 - 20:00 hrs 

Women for Results – Launch Event 


Innovative Finance – Launch Event 


Qatar National Convention Center 



THE PRE COP MINISTERIAL 

MEETING AND THE GREEN 

GROWTH CHALLENGE 

By YooYeon-Chul, Director-General, the International Cooperation Office, Ministry of 

Environment, Republic of Korea 

With the overriding aim of rebuilding trust between the parties, the hosts of the Pre-COP Ministerial 

Meeting offer a new paradigm for progress. 

At COP17 in Durban, a historic agreement was 

concluded setting out a post-2012 regime. The 

parties decided to launch a new climate regime 

from 2020, while maintaining the current one 

by the extension of the Kyoto Protocol. Another 

important achievement was the establishment of 

various instruments to implement the Cancun 

agreements and lay the groundwork for enhanced 

climate action. 

In 2012, the parties need to further build 

on these achievements, and strengthen their 

implementation. Progress on the new agreement 

is a matter of urgency. As everyone witnessed 

in the climate change discussions, however, 

negotiations have been stalled due to the deeprooted 

distrust between developed and developing 

countries. Many expect negotiations to be 

difficult during the next sessions. 

Hosts of the Pre-COP Ministerial Meeting 

against this backdrop, the Republic of Korea 

provided a boost to the climate talks. The 

overriding priority was to recover trust 

between the parties – with developed countries 

continuing to show leadership in climate actions, 

and developing countries increasing their 

contribution to the international climate efforts. 

In particular, to promote a greater participation 

and enhanced action from developed countries, 

it is essential to improve the current support 

mechanisms, including by strengthening the 

linkage between support and action, improving 

balance among areas to be supported, and 

making sure that support provided satisfies the 

actual needs of developing countries. Most 

importantly, we need to ensure that the provision 

of support is integrated into low-carbon 

development strategies of developing countries, 

so that it can become more than a one-off event, 

contributing to a transition towards the Green 

Economy in the long term as well as enhancing 

current actions. 

22


Korea represents a successful example of green 

growth strengthening climate response, while 

accomplishing economic growth through climate 

action. The country, which evolved from one of the 

least developed countries to an aid-provider as a 

member of the Development Assistance Committee 

of the Organization for Economic Co-operation 

and Development (OECD), has been eager to show 

a new development path through green growth and 

to put green growth into practice. 

GREEN GROWTH – AN ALTERNATIVE 

PARADIGM 

Despite a striking pace of development since the 

1960s, Korea realised that such rapid advances 

would not be sustainable with the existing 

economic structure. It is impossible for a country 

that imports more than 95 per cent of its energy 

to maintain an economy heavily skewed towards 

energy-intensive industries such as shipbuilding, 

automobiles and steel. In addition, as traditional 

impacts of economic development on the 

environment grew increasingly conspicuous, it 

became urgent to find a new path of economic 

growth. Green growth is the answer Korea has 

come up with to address these complex challenges. 

Green growth is a more highly structured Green 

Economy strategy that is designed to be a means 

for sustainable development, enabling countries 

to promote environmental integrity as well 

as economic growth. It is a proactive concept 

seeking to make environmental activities a new 

growth engine. 

The Republic of Korea announced ‘Low Carbon 

Green Growth’ as a new paradigm of national 

development in 2008, and has focused on the 

development of a necessary architecture including 

laws and instruments, as well as strengthening 

relevant education. Further, the country 

established a presidential green growth committee 

to take charge of establishing relevant institutions 

and introduced a five-year development plan 

and the Framework Act on Low Carbon, Green 

Growth. This year, its National Assembly passed 

a emissions trading bill. The Korean government 

has also decided to invest 2 per cent of its GDP 

every year in green growth so as to ensure its 

political will produces an actual outcome. 

MITIGATION AND ADAPTATION 

These structural efforts have generated a number 

of achievements in mitigation and adaptation. 

Improved water infrastructure allows the country 

to manage its water resources better and reduce 

damage from drought and floods. Automobiles 

running on fossil fuel are being steadily replaced 

by electric cars; the high-speed railway network 

has been expanded; and bicycles have been 

promoted by developing bicycle lanes. These 

initiatives have inspired local governments as well 

to actively pursue green growth, and some of 

them are carrying out partnership programmes 

with the United Nations Environment 

Programme (UNEP) to evolve their urban areas 

into advanced green cities. 

“Improved water infrastructure 

allows the country to manage 

its water resources better.” 

Further, Korea is making a significant investment 

in green technologies, which is an essential 

element for a transition towards Green Economy. 

Major beneficiaries are new and renewable energy 

installations, and energy saving technologies such 

as appliances using light-emitting diodes (LEDs). 

Investment in the research and development of 

green technologies has shown a steady growth 

from 2 trillion won (US$1.8 billion) in 2009, and 

is expected to reach 3.5 trillion won (over $3 

billion) in 2013. This political drive has also 

spilled over into the private sector: around 30 

companies have spent 15 trillion won ($13.5 

billion) on green industries up to date. 



OVERCOMING THE ECONOMIC CRISIS 

The initiatives illustrated in this article have 

created new markets with new requirements. 

In turn, as many as 950,000 jobs have been 

created; and the number is estimated to reach 

1.6 to 1.8 million by 2013. The government also 

seeks to balance economic growth and social 

integration by initially allocating those jobs to the 

economically vulnerable. 

Green growth promoted by Korea proved its 

real worth during the global economic crisis. 

The country pursued green growth ever more 

eagerly, rather than responding passively to the 

crisis; and this positive attitude allowed the 

country to overcome the challenge faster than 

most others. Korea has proved with its own 

experience that green growth is the best strategy 

ensuring economic growth, social integration and 

environmental integrity at the same time. 

Now Korea is offering help to inspire others to 

make a transition to the Green Economy, with 

a view to achieving sustainable development. 

In this regard, the government has established 

the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) 

and the Green Technology Center (GTC) to 

share information regarding green growth, to 

formulate relevant strategies and facilitate the 

diffusion of green technologies. 

A COLLECTIVE EFFORT 

The current challenges facing us are affecting 

not just one country but everyone. Therefore all 

possible ideas and collective efforts need to come 

from all of us – and, above all, collective action. 

We all need to inspire each other. After preparing 

the Pre-COP ministerial meeting, and building 

“Green growth promoted by Korea 

proved its real worth during the 

global economic crisis.” 

confidence upon its green growth achievements, 

Korea is hoping that this will be a small but 

important step on the way to constructive 

international co-operation. 

It is appropriate to conclude by quoting the 

proverb: “Alone, I am nothing. But together, 

we can achieve much.” I hope we can all work 

together towards saving the planet in general, and 

addressing climate change in particular. 

Yoo Yeon-Chul has been Director-General, the 

International Cooperation Office, Ministry of 

Environment, Republic of Korea, since 2011, having 

served in several ministerial and diplomatic posts since 

1987, mostly connected to the Ministry of Foreign 

Affairs and Trade (MOFAT). In particular, Mr. Yoo has 

been strongly associated with the Green Growth project 

since its inception in 2008. 

The Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Environment 

aims to protect the national territory from threats of 

environmental pollution, and improve the quality of 

life for the public. The Ministry also aims to contribute 

to global efforts to protect the environment, and takes 

a key role in climate change negotiations. In February 

2008, the Korea Meteorological Administration became 

a subsidiary of the Ministry to facilitate countermeasures 

against climate change. 

24


UNEP AND THE GREEN 

ECONOMY – FOUR DECADES 

IN DEVELOPMENT 

By Nick Nuttall, Spokesperson, UN Environment Programme (UNEP) 

From Stockholm in 1972 to Rio in 2012, UNEP’s first forty years as an advocate, educator, catalyst and 

facilitator have given it the authority and impetus to pursue the aims of the Green Economy. 

Forty years ago in the Swedish capital city of 

Stockholm, history was made at a UN conference 

on the future of humanity and the planet. Amid 

rising concern over pollution of the air, the 

land and the seas, the growing loss of species 

and the dying of forests as a result of acid rain, 

governments agreed that a UN body charged 

with co-ordinating a global response to such 

challenges should be established. 

Between June 1972 and the UN General 

Assembly that year, many countries, including 

Mexico, India, the United States and the 

UK, lobbied to become hosts of this new 

environmental body. But in the end the East 

African country of Kenya won the diplomatic 

debate and in doing so became the first 

developing country to host a UN headquarters of 

what has become known as UNEP. 

Two years later UNEP moved into its permanent 

premises in Nairobi on the site of an old coffee 

farm, where it remains to this day, employing 

around 1,130 local and international staff and 

acting as a hub for a strategic network of regional 

offices in Bangkok, Panama City, Washington DC, 

Geneva and Bahrain. 

AN EMPHASIS ON SCIENCE 

UNEP was originally set up with modest aims 

– to co-ordinate the rest of the UN system’s 

activities on environmental issues and to provide 

the science to member states on emerging trends 

in environmental change. The emphasis on science 

has perhaps been among UNEP’s most important 

contributions; this in turn has led to governments 

negotiating key global treaties to address emerging 

environmental crises. The Montreal Protocol on 

Substances that Deplete the Ozone layer – the 

protective shield that filters out dangerous levels of 

the sun’s ultraviolet rays – is a case in point. 

It became clear in the 1980s that certain chemicals 

used in products such as fridges and fire-fighting 

equipment were attacking the ozone layer. By 2010, 

this UNEP treaty had co-ordinated the phase-out 

of over 100 of these harmful gases. Without the 

Montreal Protocol, atmospheric levels of ozone- 



depleting substances could have increased tenfold 

by 2050 which in turn could have led to up to 20 

million more cases of skin cancer and 130 million 

more cases of eye cataracts, not to speak of damage 

to human immune systems, wildlife and agriculture. 

UNEP, along with the World Meteorological 

Organization, established the Intergovernmental 

Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The scientific 

work of this body has become the premier risk 

assessment and reference work for governments on 

the likely trends and impacts of global warming; and 

the Panel’s findings played a key role in the decision 

to establish the UN climate convention and its 

emission reduction treaty, the Kyoto Protocol. 

Currently UNEP is convening negotiations 

towards the establishment of a global treaty on 

mercury – a notorious heavy metal that damages 

the nervous system. The Mad Hatter in Alice in 

Wonderland was so called because hat-makers once 

used mercury to strengthen the brims of hats and 

breathed in the fumes. 

Following the famous Earth Summit of 1992, 

UNEP was given more opportunities to 

evolve its work as an implementing agency 

of a new multibillion-dollar fund, the Global 

Environment Facility. 

Since 2008, the organisation has been 

championing the Green Economy as a way 

of generating development and employment, 

but in a way that keeps humanity’s footprint 

within ecological boundaries. Part of the 

Green Economy work has been to assess and 

communicate to governments the multi-trillion 

dollar services that nature provides, but which 

until recently have been all but invisible in 

national accounts of profit and loss. 

CONFERENCES MAKE A DIFFERENCE 

Often large UN conferences can seem to 

outsiders like ‘talk-fests’, and certainly assisting 

over 190 nations and to co-operate can 

sometimes prove frustrating. But often the real 

benefits of conferences only emerge years or 

even decades later, especially in respect to agreed 

environmental action. 

At the World Summit on Sustainable Development 

in Johannesburg in 2002, UNEP was asked to 

spearhead a partnership in order to accelerate a 

global phase-out of leaded petrol: lead is especially 

damaging to the brain of infants and the young. 

Since then, around 80 developing countries, 

including Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, 

Vanuatu and several in the Caribbean, have 

removed lead from transport fuels – and only now 

are the enormous benefits emerging. 

Scientists calculate that improvements in IQ, 

reductions in cardiovascular diseases and a decline 

in criminality are among the annual US$2.4 

trillion benefits linked to ridding the world of 

leaded fuel. These economic benefits may prove 

to be even higher if other diseases and factors 

such as cancer and rising urbanisation, where the 

impacts of lead pollution are higher, were brought 

into the calculations. 

This is one example of how environmental 

measures and action also links directly to the social 

factors and issues of poverty, equity and livelihoods. 

IMPORTANT REFORMS 

The 40th anniversary celebrations of UNEP 

conclude in December 2012, shortly after 

the closure of the UN’s General Assembly in 

New York, which has been taking forward the 

outcomes of the Rio+20 summit which took 

place in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012. 

As a result of Rio+20, governments agreed to 

strengthen and upgrade UNEP, including via 

universal membership, and back an inclusive Green 

Economy as one important pathway towards 

realising sustainable development. Four Decades 

after Stockholm, this represents a major reform and 

one that can strengthen and empower environment 

ministers across the globe. In doing so, Heads of 

State and government in Rio have enabled a new 

force for a sustainable century and one able to 

better assist the world – pursuing pathways to the 

future we want and the future we need. 

Nick Nuttall is the Acting Director of the Division 

of Communications and Public Information as well 

as being the UNEP Spokesperson and Spokesperson 

to the Executive Director, Principal Speechwriter and 

Creative Writer to the Executive Director and UNEP's 

Head of Media. 


(UNEP) is the voice for the environment in the United 

Nations system. It is an advocate, educator, catalyst and 

facilitator, promoting the wise use of the planet’s natural 

assets for sustainable development. 

26


SUSTAINABLE USE OF EARTH’S 

NATURAL RESOURCES 

Outotec’s most significant impact on sustainability 

occurs indirectly through our customers’ 

operations. ‘Sustainable use of Earth’s natural 

resources’ is the mission we’ve worked toward 

achieving, in cooperation with our customers. 

At present, our customers are increasingly 

confronted with the dilemma that exists between 

the growing need for metals and the environmental 

impact of producing them. We believe that this 

dilemma can be addressed. In fact, its solution is 

a vital part of our strategy – we see it as our role 

in the industrial ecosystem. With eco-efficient 

solutions and lifecycle approach, it is possible to 

reduce the environmental impact of the industry, 

at the same time increasing welfare. Of the 

megatrends facing the mining and metals sector, 

we consider sustainability the most important, and 

we see evidence of this not only in mature markets 

but also in those in the developing stages. In the 

world of exhausting natural resources and a new 

energy paradigm where oil is expected to run out 

by 2050 and nuclear power is being abandoned by 

many countries, there is an increasing demand for 

more advanced, energy-efficient technologies and 

recycling solutions. 

We address these challenges by providing our 

customers with sustainable technologies to 

maximize the recovery of valuables and minerals 

whilst consuming less energy and fewer natural 

resources at reduced operational cost. Our 

technologies – whether relating to minerals and 

metals processing or water, energy, and biomass 

– reduce the environmental effects of a number 

of industrial operations worldwide, hence our 

strong commitment to making the most of 

our potentially global impact. In fact, as much 

as 87 percent of our order intake in 2011 was 

categorized as Environmental Goods and Services 

by OECD definition. Besides the best available 

technologies, Outotec provides lifecycle services 

to ensure correct and optimal use of processes, 

low production costs and safe working conditions. 

To support our commitment to the United 

Nations Global Compact initiative and the 

principles on human rights, the environment, labor, 

and anti-corruption, we started a dialogue with 

our employees and management about the values 

and business ethics. We will continue to lend our 

support to the United Nations Global Compact 

and other such causes, pushing for good use of the 

Earth’s resources for generations to come. 

OUTOTEC 

Outotec provides leading technologies and 

services for the sustainable use of Earth’s natural 

resources. As the global leader in minerals and 

metals processing technology, Outotec has 

developed over decades many breakthrough 

technologies. The company also provides 

innovative solutions for industrial water treatment, 

the utilization of alternative energy sources and 

the chemical industry. Outotec shares are listed on 

NASDAQ OMX Helsinki. 

www.outotec.com 


27


CORPORATE CLIMATE 

LEADERSHIP 

By Georg Kell, Executive Director, United Nations Global Compact 

While responsibility to drive climate change solutions that address the needs of the poorest and the most 

vulnerable rests primarily with governments, it has become increasingly clear that business will be an 

essential partner. 

Climate change is no longer a distant threat, 

but has emerged in our time as a massive global 

challenge. Companies must prepare for and respond 

to the impacts of a changing climate and go even 

further to help build a global Green Economy. 

Investing early in green growth can help buffer 

the impacts of climate change and assist emerging 

economies and vulnerable communities to adapt 

to these impacts more effectively. Private sector 

investments that help vulnerable people and 

communities adapt to climate change impacts – 

particularly those that facilitate the efficient use of 

increasingly scarce resources, or help to renew and 

restore them – are becoming important drivers of 

the Green Economy. 

There is growing recognition within the private 

sector that while climate change poses significant 

risks to operations and value chains, it also brings 

new opportunities to create business value while 

helping people adapt. Well-designed business 

responses to climate change can help build strong 

and healthy communities in which people and 

companies can thrive. Led by the UN Global 

Compact and the UN Environment Programme 

in co-operation with the UN Framework 

Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the 

Caring for Climate (C4C) initiative shows these 

signs of progress. Beyond recognising the risks and 

opportunities of climate change, signatories of the 

initiative commit to set goals, develop and expand 

strategies and practices, and publicly disclose 

emissions (www.caringforclimate.org). 

As the world’s largest corporate climate leadership 

platform, Caring for Climate provides an 

action framework for companies to advance 

practical low-carbon solutions and help shape 

key UN goals and policies. Officially launched 

by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 

July 2007 with an initial group of 30 endorsing 

companies, the initiative has grown to nearly 

400 companies from 65 countries today. A large 

28


THE FIVE COMMITMENTS OF 

THE CARING FOR CLIMATE 

STATEMENT 

All signatories of the C4C initiative must 

endorse the Caring for Climate Statement, 

which includes five commitments to action: 

1. Reduce emissions, set targets and report 

annual performance; 

2. Devise a business strategy to approach 

climate risks and opportunities; 

3. Engage with policy-makers to 

encourage scaled-up climate action; 

4. Work collaboratively with other 

enterprises to tackle climate change; 

5. Become a climate-friendly business 

champion with stakeholders. 

number of C4C signatories come from emerging 

economies, and participation by small and 

medium-sized enterprises comprises 27 per cent 

of total membership. Companies make five core 

commitments in support of the global Green 

Economy – ranging from reducing emissions 

and articulating climate strategies to working 

collaboratively with other enterprises (see box). 

MAKING PROGRESS 

According to the Caring for Climate progress 

report released in 2012, more than two-thirds 

of the initiative’s signatory base reduced their 

emissions intensity based on revenue. Twenty-five 

top performers were also identified for meeting 

all five commitment areas, thereby reducing more 

than 16 million tonnes of CO 2 

equivalents over 

the 2009 and 2010 reporting period. However, 

the Caring for Climate members who increased 

their revenues by 5.2 per cent between 2009 and 

2010 also reported that their carbon footprint 

grew by 3.8 per cent over the same period. 

“Well-designed business 

responses to climate change 

can help build strong and 

healthy communities.” 

While many Caring for Climate signatories have 

shown significant progress, for others the journey 

is just beginning. C4C signatories represent some 



of the most dedicated companies to addressing 

climate change and yet their recent environmental 

performance highlights the real challenges in 

decoupling carbon emissions from business 

growth. Although the data shows that many C4C 

signatories have made a concerted effort to 

address the climate challenge, there is clearly an 

opportunity to do more. 

BECOMING CLIMATE CHAMPIONS 

While most businesses engaged on the climate 

challenge have focused their efforts on reducing 

greenhouse gas emissions, many of the initiative’s 

top performers are establishing themselves as 

climate champions within their organisations 

and in their broader spheres of influence. Based 

on a review of publicly available information 

reported by companies in 2011 to the Carbon 

Disclosure Project and Communications on 

Progress – Climate, more than a quarter of the 

353 signatories have met all five commitments. 

Nearly two-thirds of total C4C signatories, most 

of which are large companies, have met three or 

more of the commitments agreed upon when 

joining the initiative. 

Climate champions recognise the risks that 

climate change poses, not only for their 

operations, but also for suppliers, employees, 

customers and people living in the communities 

in which they operate. Businesses are beginning to 

recognise opportunities to expand operations and 

increase their market share through developing 

climate-resilient products and services to help 

communities, industry peers and governments 

adapt. Corporate climate leaders that rigorously 

assess climate change risks and opportunities 

and implement creative solutions for longterm 

resilience will create business value while 

making important contributions to sustainable 

development and equitable green growth. 

USING TECHNOLOGY 

TO ACCELERATE CHANGE 

Substantial progress has been made by the private 

sector on climate change by implementing 

new technologies. Often a single technological 

innovation can significantly enhance the energy 

efficiency of business processes, reduce the cost 

of a renewable technology, improve access to 

energy sources or help improve resilience to 

climate change. Certain technologies reduce 

impacts within a particular industry, while other 

innovations can enable other societal actors to 

meet the energy and climate challenge. Caring 

“Nearly two-thirds of total C4C 

signatories have met three or 

more of the commitments.” 

for Climate signatories are often at the forefront 

of these efforts by developing solutions that help 

all stakeholder groups adapt to climate change, 

and investing in the rollout of modern energy 

infrastructure and services. 

On the renewable energy front, companies are 

creating organic photovoltaic solar panels that 

can be installed in unique locations such as the 

exterior walls of buildings and automobiles. They 

are developing more efficient wind turbines 

using reduced-weight, aerodynamic fibres, and 

are improving energy storage through the largescale 

deployment of wind and solar power. In 

terms of alternative energy sources, breakthroughs 

in the fields of chemistry and biotechnology 

have enabled companies to develop and improve 

next-generation biofuels with less impact on food 

supplies. And corporate efforts to develop enabling 

technologies, for example through mobile phone 

applications, are helping farmers to build resilience 

and NGOs to efficiently gather data, while 

improving the accuracy and timeliness of climaterelated 

information analysis and decision-making. 

“Often a single technological 

innovation can significantly 

enhance energy efficiency.” 

SCALING UP CORPORATE LEADERSHIP 

Business is uniquely positioned to address the 

environmental, social and development challenges 

related to energy and climate. Its contributions to 

climate change mitigation and adaptation support 

sustainable development and efforts to build the 

Green Economy while promoting a company’s 

viability, profitability and competitive edge. 

Caring for Climate signatories are not only at the 

forefront of climate innovation, technologies and 

solutions, but have shown significant commitment 

to help achieve a robust climate change policy 

30


UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres 

and these solutions can be more widely adopted 

with the right level of support. Governments, 

civil society groups and communities must view 

business as an indispensable ally in applying 

concrete solutions to address the myriad of 

challenges posed by climate change. 

framework. By engaging directly in the UNFCCC 

process at the Conference of Parties, C4C 

companies can share solutions and commitments, 

and spur concrete action plans and partnerships in 

pursuit of international co-operation on climate 

change. At COP17 in Durban in 2011, 20 leading 

companies met with UNFCCC Executive 

Secretary Christiana Figueres to disseminate best 

and emerging practices, and to discuss with policymakers 

the need to set clear policy frameworks 

and incentives that enable business to scale and 

intensify climate change efforts. 

At the Rio+20 Corporate Sustainability Forum 

held in June 2012, C4C signatories made concrete 

commitments to advance the sustainability 

agenda – including a joint statement on reporting 

endorsed by 25 companies as well as solutions and 

partnerships in support of the Rio+20 agenda. 

The initiative also released a case compendium 

highlighting 10 corporate climate champions 

that are strengthening their own competitive 

edge while contributing to adaptive capacity 

and resilience in communities that are highly 

vulnerable to climate change. 

While Caring for Climate represents a critical 

and growing mass of companies tackling climate 

change, the initiative has not yet penetrated the 

majority of the UN Global Compact’s 7,000 

business participants. Progress is visible in many 

areas, but the urgency and scope of climate 

challenges require broader and even more 

concerted efforts. 

Engagement by the private sector that is 

collaborative, serious and solutions-oriented is vital, 

and can help ensure that climate negotiations are a 

launching ground for widespread action in support 

of sustainability. There is enormous potential to 

produce results if greater scale is achieved. Leading 

technological and social innovations already exist, 

“There is enormous potential to 

produce results if greater scale 

is achieved.” 

Today, we can say with confidence that corporate 

sustainability and climate action are a global 

movement. For this to become a transformative 

force, however, we need to win over more 

companies to take action. Ultimately, this battle 

will be won only once climate champions 

become the majority, and once all chambers of 

commerce, employer federations and other 

mainstream business associations are willing to 

support these efforts. 

The private sector can be an instrumental part of 

the climate change solution, but addressing the 

impacts of climate change requires a purposeful 

departure from business as usual. Corporate 

climate leaders must intensify their own efforts 

and accelerate progress to advance the global 

climate change agenda. For those that take the 

challenge at hand seriously, building resilience and 

adapting to climate change will create true shared 

value for business and communities alike. 

Georg Kell is the Executive Director of the UN Global 

Compact. A key architect of the Global Compact, he has 

led the initiative since its founding in 2000, establishing 

the most widely recognised multi-stakeholder network and 

action platform to advance responsible business practices. 

The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy 

initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning 

their operations and strategies with universally 

accepted principles. It is the world’s largest voluntary 

corporate sustainability initiative with 7,000 corporate 

participants in 135 countries. 

To learn more about Caring for Climate, visit 

www.caringforclimate.org. 


POLICY, GOVERNANCE AND FINANCE 

THE CLIMATE JUSTICE 

DIALOGUE 

By Edward Cameron, Director, International Climate Initiative, World Resources Institute 

and Tara Shine, Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice. 

In the global climate debate, there is a window of opportunity for issues of equity to be discussed, 

analysed and reshaped in an open and constructive manner. 

It is now a full 20 years since the adoption of the 

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate 

Change (UNFCCC), which is designed to stabilise 

“greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at 

a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic 

interference with the climate system”. Despite 

important steps in the conferences in Cancun and 

Durban, and notwithstanding the considerable 

efforts undertaken by some countries domestically, 

governments acknowledge in the Durban Platform 

that there is a gap between their combined efforts 

in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and their 

collective goal to limit a global average temperature 

increase to 2ºC. In addition, it is clear that the means 

to catalyse the transition to low carbon, climate 

resilient development through technology, finance 

and adaptation policy are inadequate. Indeed, the 

UN Environment Programme’s Emissions Gap 

Report has found that there is a significant gap 

between where we are today and where we need 

to be by the end of this decisive decade to safeguard 

people, planet and prosperity. Closing that gap will 

require an urgent and effective ramp-up of ambition 

on mitigation, adaptation, technology and finance – 

the four building blocks that together comprise the 

climate regime. 

This enhanced ambition may remain beyond 

reach unless we succeed in rethinking and 

operationalising the principles of equity and 

‘common but differentiated responsibilities and 

respective capabilities’. 

The principle of common but differentiated 

responsibilities can be traced to similar concepts 

in Principle 23 of the Stockholm Declaration of 

1972 and Principle 7 of the 1992 Rio Declaration. 

The application in the UNFCCC is derived from 

Article 3, which states that “Parties should protect 

the climate system for the benefit of present and 

future generations of humankind, on the basis 

of equity and in accordance with their common 

but differentiated responsibilities and respective 

capabilities. Accordingly, the developed country 

32


Parties should take the lead in combating climate 

change and the adverse effects thereof.” Numerous 

grounds for differentiation have been suggested 

over the years including historical responsibility, 

different levels of economic development, and 

differing vulnerabilities and needs. However, this 

remains a central point of contest in the climate 

negotiations. Rather than promoting a race to the 

top and the type of bold collective action needed 

to safeguard development, the current approach to 

equity has become a tug-of-war between countries 

that are reluctant to do more without assurances 

that others will also act. 

Low ambition is not conditioned by the equity 

dispute alone. Too few of the leading emitters 

currently view the transition to low carbon 

development as being aligned with their national, 

political or economic interests. However, the 

inability to resolve the equity question exacerbates 

these problems and as a result we are now on a 

collision course with environmental integrity. 

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 

Change (IPCC) 4th Assessment Report and the UN 

Development Programme Human Development 

Report 2007/2008 explain, breaching the 2ºC 

temperature target risks undermining vital 

ecosystems, the services they provide, and the 

vulnerable communities who depend on them for 

food, water, jobs, and health. This is also understood 

by the United Nations Office of the High 

Commissioner of Human Rights as a justice issue 

because climate change undermines the realisation 

of a range of human rights, including the right to 

food, the right to minimum means of subsistence, 

the right to health, the right to adequate standard 

of living and even the right to life. In the new 

climate agreement equity cannot be about sharing 

failure. It must become a means to share both the 

opportunities and challenges of the transition to 

low carbon, climate resilient development. 

A NEW WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY 

In December 2011, more than 190 countries 

gathered in Durban, South Africa for the 17th 

Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC 

(COP17) and acknowledged that climate change 

represents an urgent and potentially irreversible 

threat to both human societies and the planet and 

thus requires urgent and sustained action by all. In 

the Durban Platform, governments agreed to launch 

a new round of negotiations that will culminate 

in 2015 with the adoption of a new agreement 

under the Convention and applicable to all. As a 

result of this document, there is renewed hope that 

countries can agree to act together to take positive 

action on climate change and embrace a new 

model of development that reduces greenhouse gas 

emissions, builds resilience to climate change and 

delivers sustainable development. To capitalise on 

this opportunity and to build an atmosphere of trust 

and reciprocity between countries, issues of equity 

will have to be discussed, analysed and reshaped in 

an open and constructive manner. 

BUILDING A POWERFUL NARRATIVE 

FOR ACTION 

Beyond the negotiations, there is a need to 

mobilise domestic constituencies in countries 

around the globe to demand greater ambition 

from political and business leaders. Compelling 

arguments built upon a solid evidence base will 

be needed to motivate domestic stakeholders, 

including citizens, consumers, corporations and 



governments at all levels to demand more urgent 

and ambitious action on climate change. We are 

proposing that a climate justice narrative can 

form a vital component of this wider vocabulary. 

By focusing on issues of fairness and justice this 

narrative could serve as an additional pressure point 

on the road to 2015 to complement the work of 

the IPCC 5th Assessment Report (on the science of 

climate change), the UNFCCC periodic review 

(on the emissions gap), and the evolving evidence 

base on green growth and competitiveness shown 

in the IPCC website. If governments can be 

persuaded to do more by the volume of demand 

domestically, they will be encouraged to push for a 

more effective, ambitious and equitable agreement 

through the UNFCCC. 

THE CLIMATE JUSTICE DIALOGUE 

The need for a new architecture at the 

international level to catalyse climate compatible 

development, coupled with the need to build 

domestic demand for this new international 

collective action approach, has prompted WRI 

and MRFCJ to launch the ‘Climate Justice 

Dialogue’ – an innovative new initiative that aims 

to mobilise political will and creative thinking to 

shape an equitable and ambitious international 

climate agreement in 2015. We intend to work 

with key partners around the globe to: 

 

 

 

Analyse existing approaches to enhancing 

ambition and applying the principle of equity 

within the climate regime and throughout 

the wider multilateral system; 

Propose ways to increase ambition and 

strengthen the application of equity across all 

the climate policy building blocks (mitigation, 

finance, adaptation and technology) with a 

view to shaping the 2015 agreement; and 

Create a narrative around climate justice to 

push for greater urgency, equity and ambition. 

In terms of outputs, we shall produce one major 

flagship report by December 2014, timed to 

coincide with the 5th Assessment Report of the 

IPCC. We shall also produce a series of shorter 

articles derived from the flagship report around 

specific influence opportunities (for instance, 

gatherings of the UNFCCC). 

Central to the approach is a series of regional 

workshops and scenario exercises organised and 

co-hosted with partners. These workshops will 

inform our research while also helping to build 

communities of practice to enlighten and amplify 

“Breaching the 2ºC 

temperature target risks 

undermining vital ecosystems, 

the services they provide, and 

the vulnerable communities 

who depend on them for food, 

water, jobs, and health.” 

the climate justice narrative. A broad range 

of stakeholders will be invited to test current 

thinking on equity and ambition, explore the 

implications of their assumptions for climate 

compatible development, and analyse new 

approaches for integrating a stronger framework 

for climate justice under the Convention. 

A second important innovation is to commission 

papers from influential thought leaders. The 

Commissioned Paper series offers a platform for 

influential figures to voice their opinions, and 

provides greater legitimacy to the work, but by 

drawing a clear distinction between these papers 

and the final report also ensures that the work 

remains impartial and independent. 

“The Climate Justice Dialogue 

aims to mobilise political will 

and creative thinking to shape 

an equitable and ambitious 

international climate agreement 

in 2015.” 

At the heart of the Climate Justice Dialogue is an 

Advisory Committee of approximately 20 thought 

leaders representing all regions of the world, 

including governments, private sector, civil society 

and academia. These leaders will give advice, 

strategic guidance and oversight, and will champion 

the principles, objectives and outcomes of the 

work, most notably by helping to make the voices 

of vulnerable populations heard by decision- 

34


makers. They will give visibility to the work by 

carrying and amplifying the messages resulting from 

our common efforts. They will also use the climate 

justice narrative in their communications relating to 

climate change. Finally, they will contribute their 

knowledge to the flagship report as appropriate, 

including in the preparation of opinion pieces. 

Together, WRI and MRFCJ bring a vision and 

analytical approach that are significant departures 

from previous attempts to rethink equity and 

ambition in the climate regime. 

 

 

 

First, the bulk of research output on equity 

concentrates almost exclusively on mitigation. 

We are proposing a more holistic approach. 

Second, we recognise that equity is an enabler 

for greater ambition, and that ambition is in 

turn a gateway for operationalising equity. By 

addressing both issues together rather than 

separately we are able to leverage both. 

Third, unlike other organisations we do 

not seek to find a formula for how to 

operationalise equity and ambition. Our 

approach recognises that resolving these issues 

requires ‘a whiteboard not a spreadsheet’. We 

aim to first identify common principles that 

can be applied across all four building blocks, 

and then to apply those principles to the 

practice of a new international agreement. 

TO DOHA AND BEYOND 

In Bangkok, governments outlined their respective 

visions for what form the new international 

climate agreement should take under the Durban 

Platform and what methods it should use to close 

the ambition gap and curb global greenhouse gas 

(GHG) emissions. Countries agreed that there 

is a need for significantly greater GHG emission 

reductions leading up to 2020 if we are to achieve 

the goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2ºC 

above pre-industrial levels. Greater reduction will 

require broadening the number of parties making 

GHG-reduction pledges, expanding the number 

of actions taken, and adding new commitments. 

Some parties have also suggested expanding the 

range of actors to include cities and the private 

sector. Developing countries remain reluctant 

to come forward with pledges unless developed 

countries move to the higher end of the spectrum 

on their existing pledges. 

On the emotive issue of equity, some will argue that 

those who are historically responsible for climate 

change – industrialised nations – must carry the 

bulk of the burden in reducing emissions to allow 

other countries to develop. The counterpoint is that 

all nations must act together to close the emissions 

gap. This difference of opinion will set the scene 

for vigorous debate. One thing is certain, though – 

equity cannot be about sharing failure. 

Climate change was predicted to arrive tomorrow 

but it is happening today. For this reason the 

moment for climate justice has arrived. 

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors, and do not 

necessarily reflect the views of WRI or MRFCJ 

Edward Cameron is the Director of the International 

Climate Initiative, World Resources Institute. In this 

capacity Edward is tasked with shaping and executing 

a strategy to inject urgency, ambition and innovation 

into the evolving global climate regime. In partnership 

with colleagues across the Climate and Energy Program, 

Edward works to catalyse low-carbon climate-resilient 

development through evidence-based approaches. 

Tara Shine is Senior Adviser at MRFCJ. She informs 

the direction of MRFCJ’s activities by providing policy 

and scientific advice to contribute to the effective delivery 

of the Foundation’s mission. Tara has worked on 

environment, development and climate change issues for 

over 15 years. Much of her work has been carried out in 

developing countries. 

The World Resources Institute (WRI) is a global 

environmental think-tank that goes beyond research to 

put ideas into action. WRI’s mission is to move human 

society in ways that protect the earth’s environment 

and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations 

of current and future generations. The Institute works 

with governments, companies, and civil society to build 

solutions to urgent environmental challenges, focusing 

on four key programmatic areas: climate and energy, 

institutions and governance, markets and enterprise, and 

people and ecosystems. Website: www.wri.org. 

The Mary Robinson Foundation – Climate Justice 

(MRFCJ) is a centre for thought leadership, education 

and advocacy on the struggle to secure global justice for 

those people vulnerable to the impacts of climate change 

who are usually forgotten – the poor, the disempowered 

and the marginalised across the world. MRFCJ provides 

a space for facilitating action on climate justice to 

empower the poorest people and countries in their efforts 

to achieve sustainable and people-centred development. 

Website: www.mrfcj.org. 



CONTROLLING SHORT-LIVED 


By Johan C I Kuylenstierna, Deputy Director for policy of the Stockholm Environment 

Institute 

Short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) pose a problem with tangible solutions that will provide – in 

many cases at a relatively modest cost – an opportunity to address near-term warming and reap health, 

environment and development benefits. 

In February 2012, officials from Sweden, Ghana, 

Bangladesh, Mexico, USA and Canada came 

together in Washington DC to launch an ambitious 

initiative: the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to 

Reduce Short Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC). 

They were drawn to action by a major 

assessment sponsored by the United Nations 

Environment Programme (UNEP) and the 

World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 

An Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and 

Tropospheric Ozone (2011), which showed that 

sharply reducing emissions by implementing 

measures focused on methane and black carbon 

could reduce global warming between now and 

2050 by 0.5ºC, and could help avoid 2.4 million 

premature deaths and the loss of tens of millions 

of tonnes of food crops each year after 2030. 

The report identified 16 specific measures, using 

existing technologies that, if fully implemented, 

would help to achieve those multiple benefits. 

Shortly before COP17, UNEP published an 

analysis of the costs and benefits of each measure, 

to help policy-makers develop strategies that 

would bring the greatest benefits to their own 

regions and countries: Near-term Climate and 

Clean Air Benefits: Actions for Controlling Short-Lived 

Climate Forcers (2011). 

The analysis also showed that the measures would 

often pay for themselves within a few years. And 

it reinforced the message that countries that tackle 

SLCPs would not only help slow down climate 

change in the near term, but could reap major 

health, crop yield and regional climate benefits. 

It was a compelling case, and the CCAC founders 

– the six countries plus UNEP – committed to 

closely collaborate and promote fast action to 

reduce SLCPs. Some partners also pledged to 

invest millions of dollars to jump-start global 

36


action. They also began to rally international 

support, so that by August 2012 a total of 27 

partners had joined the effort, including 18 

countries, the United Nations Development 

Programme (UNDP), the World Bank, as well 

as NGOs and research institutions. Coalition 

partners agree to some simple but important 

terms: they recognise the science, and they 

commit themselves to act to reduce SLCPs, 

collectively and individually. 

THE SCIENCE OF SHORT-LIVED 


The term ‘short-lived climate pollutants’ 

covers several substances: methane, black 

carbon (soot), tropospheric ozone and some 

hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). What they all 

have in common is that they remain in the 

atmosphere for a relatively short time compared 

with carbon dioxide – between a few days for 

black carbon and weeks for ozone in the lower 

atmosphere (troposphere), about 12 years for 

methane and on average 15 years for different 

short-lived HFCs. They also all have a climate 

impact. Methane, tropospheric ozone and HFCs 

are greenhouse gases that absorb the infra-red 

radiation reflected by the earth and warm the 

atmosphere; black carbon in the atmosphere or 

on snow is heated directly by sunlight. 

Black carbon and tropospheric ozone are also 

important air pollutants. As residents of polluted 

and smog-filled cities experience at first hand, 

black carbon particles and ground-level ozone are 

both major threats to human health, contributing 

to asthma, respiratory infections and other 

problems. Ground-level ozone also reduces crop 

yields, forest growth and net primary productivity 

of vegetation. 

The sources of these pollutants are well known. 

Black carbon is directly emitted by incomplete 

combustion of biomass, fossil fuels etc., while 

tropospheric ozone is formed in the atmosphere 

when the sun shines on specific gases. So-called 

‘ozone precursors’ include carbon monoxide, 

nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, 

and methane – which thus not only contributes 

to global warming, but indirectly harms human 

health and vegetation. 

SIXTEEN MEASURES TO 

REDUCE SLCPS 

The UNEP-WMO assessment, which was 

conducted by an international author team 

“Black carbon particles and 

ground-level ozone are both 

major threats to human health.” 

chaired by Drew Shindell of NASA-GISS, with 

scientific co-ordination by the Stockholm 

Environment Institute (SEI), identified 16 key 

measures to reduce black carbon and 

tropospheric ozone which would have both 

significant climate and air-pollution reduction 

benefits. They were classified into two broad 

categories: ‘black carbon measures’, to reduce 

products of incomplete combustion, and 

‘methane measures’, to reduce methane and, 

indirectly, tropospheric ozone formation. The 

black carbon measures would significantly 

reduce particulate-matter emissions as well as 

ozone precursors including carbon monoxide, 

methane and nitrogen oxides. 

“SLCP reductions must be 

viewed as a complement to, 

and in no way a replacement 

for CO 2 

reduction.” 

The assessment showed that if fully implemented 

by 2030, the 16 measures would reduce global 

warming between 2010 and 2050 by about 

0.5ºC (note that uncertainties remain, in 

particular in relation to the warming associated 

with black carbon and co-emitted substances). 

About half this benefit would come from 

reducing emissions resulting from incomplete 

combustion (black carbon measures), mainly in 

Asia and Africa, and the rest from implementing 

the methane measures, mainly in Asia, Europe 

and North America. 

It is important to realise that while SLCPs 

and long-lived greenhouse gases all warm the 

atmosphere, reducing SLCPs represents a strategy 

that can achieve reductions in warming in the near 

term – over the next 20-40 years – whereas only 

a modest contribution to long-term goals would 

be made. Attaining the long-term objectives will 



be largely determined by reductions in carbon 

dioxide (CO 2 

). Therefore, SLCP reductions must 

be viewed as a complement to, and in no way a 

replacement for CO 2 

reduction. The assessment 

showed that curbing SLCPs can improve the 

chances of keeping global temperature increases 

under 2ºC, but this is contingent on deep and 

immediate cuts in CO 2 

. 

Addressing SLCPs could help us avoid some 

projected near-term climate changes that are 

of deep concern, such as the thinning Arctic 

ice cover, melting of permafrost and of glaciers 

globally, and projected regional-level climate 

changes with implications for food production 

and disaster risk. SLCPs have disrupted the South 

Asian monsoon, for example; implementing these 

measures could help return weather patterns to a 

less disturbed state. 

The health benefits are also significant. A total 

of 2.4 million premature deaths (within a range 

of 0.7-4.6 million) could be avoided globally 

each year by 2030 from reductions in outdoor 

pollution through black carbon measures, with 

additional benefits from cleaner indoor air. The 

biggest health benefits would be felt in Asia, 

with 1.9 million premature deaths avoided each 

year. Africa, Asia and in Latin America and the 

Caribbean would see the greatest health gains 

from cleaner cooking stoves, and also benefit 

substantially from reduced transport emissions. 

The SLCP measures would also reduce 

tropospheric ozone concentrations, and this 

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS 

One of the best things about the 16 

measures identified in the assessment is 

that they are not ‘pie in the sky’ – they 

all involve existing technologies and 

practices that just need to be more widely 

applied. The greatest methane reductions, 

for example, would come from curbing 

emissions from coal mines, especially in 

North East Asia, South East Asia and the 

Pacific, from oil and gas production in all 

regions, and from gas leakage from pipelines 

in North America and Europe. The cropyield 

benefits from black carbon measures 

stem largely in all regions from measures 

implemented in the transport sector, 

especially the wider implementation of Euro 

6/VI standards. 

would avoid crop yield losses for wheat, rice, 

maize and soya beans alone by an estimated 32 

million tonnes per year (range of 21-57 million). 

Additional benefits could come from avoided 

regional climate change (such as reduced drought 

and heat stress). 

“Implementing these measures 

could help return weather 

patterns to a less disturbed 

state.” 

CONVERGING ENVIRONMENTAL AND 

DEVELOPMENT GOALS 

In this context, it is clear that addressing SLCPs 

is a development issue. Slowing climate change, 

avoiding the disruption of important rainfall 

patterns and improving air quality will all bring 

tangible, near-term gains. In fact, the 16 measures 

are already part of development agendas around 

the world, for different reasons. For example, 

clean cooking stoves are promoted for health and 

to reduce deforestation; reducing the burning 

of agricultural residues will also reduce health 

impacts and promote soil carbon sequestration; 

reducing methane from oil and gas industries, and 

hence ozone concentrations, will improve food 

production; tackling traffic congestion and the 

resulting air pollution is a priority for many cities. 

All 16 measures would provide development 

benefits, and half the emissions, the assessment 

found, could be reduced at zero net cost over the 

lifetime of the measure concerned. 

“The 16 measures are already 

part of development agendas 

around the world, for different 

reasons.” 

That is the appeal of tackling SLCPs: the challenge 

they pose can be met with tangible solutions that 

will yield multiple benefits in many cases at a 

relatively modest cost. To encourage prompt action, 

38


the Climate and Clean Air Coalition is focusing on 

a few priority areas: raising awareness of SLCPs; 

developing national action planning processes to 

address SLCPs; exploring how best to finance 

SLCP activities, and targeting key sectors and 

sources, such as diesel engines, the oil and gas 

industry, brick kilns and waste, and HFCs with 

high global warming potential and for which there 

are alternatives. 

The idea is not to reinvent the wheel, but to put 

a spotlight on these issues while encouraging 

governments to mainstream SLCP measures into 

ongoing development, air quality and climate 

strategies and programmes. The Coalition will 

help fill gaps and monitor progress, and it will 

support countries and continue to mobilise 

international action. It will also work to highlight 

and bolster existing efforts to address key SLCP 

sources. And all Coalition partners recognise that 

this work is complementary to the global efforts 

to reduce carbon dioxide, in particular under 

the United Nations Framework Convention on 

Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

Coalition partners are optimistic that a real 

difference can be made, but also recognise that 

implementing many of these measures will not be 

easy. People have been working on clean cooking 

stoves for decades, for example, yet at the global 

scale, about 3 billion people still rely on traditional 

biomass for cooking. Changing this situation will 

require sustained effort, and an understanding 

of what makes policy interventions succeed (or 

fail) on a large scale. There is a great deal of work 

involved – legislation, awareness-raising, capacitybuilding, 

financing and investment – and a need 

to engage a wide range of actors in both the 

public and private sectors. 

One important step in this regard is the 

development of national action planning 

processes for SLCPs. This will allow countries 

to identify the measures that best fit their needs 

and priorities – drawing from the list already 

highlighted in the UNEP reports, or exploring 

additional options that might yield similar 

benefits. The Coalition is also encouraging 

high-level regional discussions; for example, in 

September 2012, it hosted a three-day conference 

in Ghana that brought together policy-makers, 

environmental experts and industrial stakeholders 

from 15 African countries and around the world, 

to raise awareness of issues. 

“One important step is the 

development of national action 

planning processes for SLCPs.” 

The Coalition provides an opportunity to deal 

with important problems, and by working 

together, we can start to solve them. The 

Coalition welcomes new partners; to learn more, 

visit www.unep.org/ccac. 

Johan C I Kuylenstierna is Director for Policy 

of the Stockholm Environment Institute, an SEI 

representative in the Climate and Clean Air Coalition 

and a member of its Science Advisory Panel. He also 

served as scientific coordinator for the UNEP-WMO 

assessment on SLCPs. 

The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is an 

international nonprofit research organization that 

has been engaged in environment and development 

issues at the local, national, regional and global 

policy levels for more than 20 years. Its goal is to 

bring about change for sustainable development by 

bridging science and policy. SEI has seven centres 

worldwide, in Stockholm; Oxford and York, U.K.; 

the United States; Bangkok, Thailand; Dar es 

Salaam, Tanzania; a nd Tallinn, Estonia. 



LINKING CLIMATE ACTION 

TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY 

IN EUROPE 

By Johannes Meier, Chief Executive Officer, The European Climate Foundation (ECF) 

It is difficult for Europe to sustain the pace of climate action in times of economic and financial crisis. 

Three points of focus, however, can turn stagnation into progress. 

News of economic crisis, stagnation and disaster 

has become so commonplace in Europe that it 

now feels like a permanent state of affairs. Over 

the past few years, we have seen one crisis summit 

after another, bailouts in the hundreds of billions 

of euros and fingers pointed with increasing anger 

and vitriol at whichever country the markets and 

media are blaming in any given week. 

This focus on the economy has elbowed out of 

the spotlight all other problems – none more so 

than climate change. But lack of attention does 

not mean the climate problem has disappeared. 

Far from it, the threats presented by climate 

change, so hotly debated in the media before the 

economic crisis, are as real as ever and becoming 

increasingly acute. 

The European Union has long prided itself 

on being a progressive voice when it comes to 

climate action. And as long as the economic 

winds were favourable, the EU did manage to 

make significant progress – for example, setting 

long-term targets for reducing greenhouse 

gases, establishing an emissions trading scheme 

and fixing targets for increasing the share of 

renewables in the energy mix. But the challenge 

for Europe now is how to sustain the pace of 

climate action in times of economic and financial 

crisis. Three observations are relevant now 

regarding what is needed to avoid a log-jam. 

CONCERTED ACTION AT THE EU LEVEL 

First, it is clear that the governance challenges 

central to solving both problems – climate 

change and Europe’s economic malaise – are 

inherently similar. 

Climate action is a policy area where it makes 

obvious sense for the 27 EU member states to 

work together. While action by any single midsized 

European state would have little impact on 

global emissions, clubbing together as a block 

representing over 550 million people and many 

thousands of businesses and industries would 

make noticeable progress. This fundamental logic 

40


makes crafting climate and energy legislation in 

the EU and ensuring effective implementation 

across member states a strategic necessity. 

A recognition of this necessity led to the 2010 

publication of the European Climate Foundation’s 

landmark report, Roadmap 2050, A practical guide to 

a prosperous, low-carbon Europe. This extensive piece 

of work, which drew on the expertise of industry, 

NGOs, academics and consultants, demonstrated 

how the low-carbon transition is both 

economically affordable and technically feasible. 

A central conclusion was that clean electricity 

from a decarbonised power sector is a key driver 

to achieve the 80-95 per cent emissions reduction 

goal. Thanks to this project, the ECF and the 

organisations it supports were able to redouble 

our efforts in helping policy-makers across the 

EU understand the logic of decarbonisation and 

to incorporate this logic into legislation. 

The merits of decarbonising the power sector 

are now largely understood by European 

policy-makers. Energy ministers acknowledged 

the merits last June, when they accepted the 

European Commission’s Energy 2050 Roadmap. 

This document stressed that “decarbonisation 

is possible and can be less costly than current 

policies in the long term”. While there is 

broad understanding that European energy 

infrastructure needs to be renewed in the coming 

years, only by replacing high-carbon with lowcarbon 

infrastructure do we stand a chance of 

meeting our climate targets. This calls for a major 

shift in investments, which will materialise only if 

there are reliable signals for investors and robust 

market designs that can handle high shares of 

renewable energies. 

“As long as the economic 

winds were favourable, the EU 

did manage to make significant 

progress.” 

Another example is the European Emissions 

Trading Scheme (ETS), a central pillar of 

European climate policy, designed to costeffectively 

reduce carbon emissions over the long 

term. As the world’s first transnational carbon 

trading system, it has been an ambitious 



experiment so far – one which has provided 

useful lessons for other countries around the 

world. However, the ETS now needs reform as 

prices have dropped to all-time lows. From a high 

of over €30 in 2008, the price dipped to a trough 

of €6.14 at the end of March 2012 – so low that 

it no longer provides an effective price signal for 

bringing down carbon emissions. 

GOOD FOR THE CLIMATE – GOOD FOR 

THE ECONOMY 

The second observation is about the linkage 

between climate action on the one hand and 

costs savings and job creation on the other. 

With unemployment at such high rates in many 

European countries, policy-makers must look at 

the job creation and savings opportunities inherent 

in a decarbonisation of European economies. 

In 2011-12, discussions on the Energy Efficiency 

Directive (which focused on how energy 

efficiency ambitions could be raised by 2020) 

have pointed at the positive impact on jobs of 

a concerted retrofit of buildings across Europe. 

Not only would jobs be created from such a 

programme, but the changes would also save 

money thanks to lower heating and cooling 

bills. The outcome of the directive will result in 

considerable energy savings, equivalent to 100 

Mtoe each year by 2020. 

“Policy-makers must look at 

the job creation and savings 

opportunities.” 

Another bright spot are recent proposals from 

the European Commission on fuel efficiency for 

cars and vans. Again we see how climate action 

and economic stimulus can go hand in hand: 

more efficient cars will lead to considerable fuel 

cost savings for consumers. A shift from the 

current target of 130g of CO 2 

emissions per km 

in 2017 to a target of 95g per km in 2020 will 

result in annual savings of around €500 per year 

per car – savings that will offset any increase in 

42


the car’s sticker price within less than two years. 

In today’s highly competitive automobile market, 

car manufacturers scrambling for growth will 

need to keep pace with fuel economy trends, 

offering greater value to increasingly priceconscious 

consumers. 

SETTING THE RIGHT INCENTIVES 

The third observation is that further meaningful 

progress will be difficult without well-designed 

stimulus programmes, an explicit recognition 

of climate change risks in long-term budgets 

and policies that set more stringent targets and 

demand faster action. We are far from the pathway 

that scientists tell us is adequate to address the 

climate challenge, but if we are to convince the 

public to embrace the transition we must be able 

to point to economic successes that support our 

arguments. And that requires offering policymakers 

conclusive proof that taking action on 

climate change would invigorate the economy, 

not brake it further. 

Several countries have spotted the opportunities. 

Germany’s Energiewende (energy transition), 

announced in 2011, is a case in point, aiming for 

an 80 per cent renewables-based electricity sector 

by 2050. Similarly, Denmark has set a target of 

achieving 50 per cent of its energy from wind 

by 2020. The United Kingdom is also in the 

process of passing an energy law that looks set to 

introduce an energy performance standard so low 

that it will effectively achieve decarbonisation of 

the power sector sometime in the 2030s. 

In many respects, these shifts are steps into the 

unknown, but they are also policy choices that 

have a high likelihood of paying off. Denmark, 

Germany and the UK are at the forefront of an 

exciting change in the way our economies are 

run, and these countries stand to gain from the 

inherent first-mover advantages. 

These three also provide useful examples of success 

for countries less enthusiastic to embrace the 

transition. In the Central and Eastern European 

(CEE) countries in particular, the opportunities 

for growth must be underlined rather than the 

threats to sunset industries. Arguments of energy 

independence and economic resilience also have 

considerable resonance in CEE countries. By 

ensuring that European ideals of collective action 

and solidarity underpin the transition, we stand 

a good chance of convincing those who remain 

cautious about change. 

Tackling the climate challenge is not an 

unaffordable luxury to be addressed only at times of 

economic strength. Those who seek to undermine 

climate ambitions – often for reasons of pure selfinterest 

– regularly cite cost as a reason for inaction. 

But their arguments fail to address the reality that 

these investments will result in beneficial returns 

for the European economy, reducing the US$500 

billion a year in petro-dollars being transferred 

outside the EU to pay for oil imports. 

“Delaying action will only add to 

the ultimate cost.” 

Delaying action will only add to the ultimate cost 

of tackling the problem. As the IEA calculated in 

2011’s World Energy Outlook: “Delaying action on 

climate change is a false economy. For every $1 of 

investment in the energy sector avoided before 

2020, an additional $4.3 would need to be spent 

after 2020 to compensate for the higher emissions.” 

The immediacy of the financial crisis consuming 

Europe is a problem that is far easier for the 

human mind to focus on than the incremental 

challenges of climate change. But policy-makers 

should not lose sight of climate goals and must 

seek ways in which both challenges can be 

addressed in parallel. 

Johannes Meier was appointed CEO of the European 

Climate Foundation in 2011. Meier joined the ECF 

following six years as a member of the Management 

Board of the Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany, 

where he was responsible for programmes on Regulation, 

Integration, Lifelong Learning, Demographic Change and 

Communities and Regions, and two years running his own 

company developing software for collaboration platforms. 

The European Climate Foundation (ECF) was 

established in early 2008 as a major philanthropic 

initiative to promote climate and energy policies that 

greatly reduce Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions and 

to help Europe play an even stronger international 

leadership role to mitigate climate change. The ECF 

aims to significantly drive the transformation of Europe 

to a low carbon economy, which means reducing 

greenhouse gas emissions in Europe by 30 per cent in 

2020 and at least 80 per cent in 2050. 


ECUADOR’S LEADING 

ROLE IN CLIMATE 

CHANGE MITIGATION 

By Dr. IVONNE A. BAKI, Secretatry of State for Ecuador’s Yasuni-ITT Initiative 

© Fabricio Teran - Satre Comunicación Integral and mauroburzio@hotmail.com. 

Yasuni National Park, part of the Ecuadorian 

Amazon rainforest, is probably the most 

biodiverse place on the planet. Home to many 

unique and endemic species, the national park, 

almost 1 million hectares in size, was declared 

by UNESCO a “World Biosphere Reserve” 

in 1989. 

This biodiversity haven has been reported to 

contain 593 species of birds, 2,274 species 

of trees and bushes, 630 species of birds, 169 

species of mammals, 141 species of amphibians, 

and 121 species of reptiles. There are also more 

than 100,000 species of insects per hectare, and 

more species are constantly being discovered. 

Far from the interference and destruction of 

civilization, it is a living laboratory where 

life flourishes in a complex equilibrium with 

nature, a magic place where new species have 

evolved and are still evolving. 

Yasuni National Park is also home to Waorani, 

Kichwa and Shuar communities, as well as the 

Taromenane and Tagaeri, two native indigenous 

groups living in voluntary isolation to preserve 

their ancient culture and traditions. 

In 1972, Ecuador became an oil exporter, and 

since then, this resource has been the main source 

of income of its national economy. Recently, large 

deposits of heavy crude oil have been identified 

in the ITT (Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini) 

oil fields, located in Yasuni National Park. These 

reserves represent around 846 million barrels of 

heavy crude oil. Not surprisingly, the petroleum 

industry’s eyes are focused on that fragile piece 

of land, in the hope to start extracting what 

represents as much as 20 per cent of the proven 

national oil reserves. 

Most experts and scientists agree that if Ecuador 

decides to extract the oil from Yasuni National 

Park, the opening of roads, the deforestation, and the 

contamination associated with oil exploitation will 

lead to the extinction of many of its unique species. 

The Yasuni-ITT Initiative aims to preserve Yasuni 

National Park’s biodiversity by foregoing the 

exploitation of petroleum in the most pristine part 

of the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest. By leaving 

this petroleum underground, the government of 

Ecuador is taking a leading role in the international 

efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change by 

44


avoiding the emission of approximately 1.2 billion 

tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. 

In exchange, the Ecuadorian government seeks 

the financial contribution of the international 

community as a gesture of co-responsibility in 

the fight against climate change. In 2007, when 

the project was officially launched by President 

Correa of Ecuador during the United Nation’s 

General Assembly, it was estimated that the 

exploitation of petroleum could generate as much 

as USD 7.2 billion over a 13 year period. The 

Ecuadorian government is seeking half of that 

amount from the international community in 

order to preserve this delicate part of its Amazon, 

with the long term goal of shifting from an 

“extractivist” economy to an economy based on 

the development of renewable energies. 

The contributions coming from governments, 

private sector, and civil society to support the 

Yasuni-ITT Initiative are deposited in a trust 

fund administered by the United Nations 

Development Programme (UNDP). A significant 

portion of the fund will be invested in renewable 

energy projects, while the interest produced 

by the fund will be allocated to reforestation 

and conservation projects, social development 

projects in the Yasuni-ITT Initiative’s area 

of influence, research and development, and 

projects aimed at avoiding deforestation as well 

as those promoting energy efficiency. 

While I know that Yasuní may seem far off 

and distant - after all, it is in the far reaches of 

the Ecuadorian Amazon - the essence of this 

Initiative carries all the way to your backyard. We 

are interconnected in more ways than we can 

imagine, and we can and must use our resources 

to give back to the planet a small part of what it 

has given us. 

BE PART OF THE SOLUTION! 

Contributions from governments, nongovernmental 

organizations, private sector and 

individuals alike can be made online to the 

Yasuni-ITT Trust Fund: www.yasunisupport.org 

For more information, please visit the Yasuni-ITT 

Initiative website: www.yasuni-itt.gob.ec 

Email: yasuni.itt@presidencia.gob.ec 


45


THE BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE 

ON A NEW MARKET 

MECHANISM 

By Dirk Forrister, President and CEO, International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) 

A new carbon trading market mechanism is being negotiated, but has not yet found a definable shape. 

COP18 in Doha provides the opportunity to make progress on UNFCCC-led initiatives for meeting 

emissions reduction goals. 

Market-based carbon reduction mechanisms are 

progressing at different speeds in jurisdictions across 

the world, and deploying markets is an increasingly 

appealing approach for governments in order to 

reduce emissions cost-effectively. Emissions trading 

is on the march in Australia, China, South Korea, 

California and Quebec, and continues to create 

emissions reductions in the EU and New Zealand. 

A whole set of additional countries that are 

involved in special initiatives by the World Bank, 

UNFCCC and IETA are also exploring market 

mechanisms with the goal of putting in place 

a clear carbon price signal. While regional and 

domestic initiatives forge ahead to institutionalise 

emissions trading, international negotiations 

through the UNFCCC still provide a sizeable 

opportunity at COP18 in Doha to make progress 

on UNFCCC-led market-based mechanisms for 

meeting emissions reduction goals. 

The existing market mechanisms available for 

reducing emissions at the UN level include the 

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and 

Joint Implementation (JI). These mechanisms 

have been able to incentivise capital investment 

in developing countries to lower emissions 

substantially. The CDM, as of June 2012, has 

deployed a cumulative US$215.4 billion invested 

in registered or soon-to-be-registered projects. 

And these existing mechanisms will continue 

to play their part in achieving cost effective 

reductions. However, they must also coincide 

with a new market mechanism still undefined 

within the UNFCCC, able to achieve the scale 

of emissions reductions requested in the decisions 

taken at COP13 in Bali. 

BALANCING SUPPLY AND DEMAND 

The private sector welcomes a new market 

mechanism, one that covers broad segments of 

the economy beyond power, petrochemicals 

and other extractive industries; but with no new 

demand investment will not be forthcoming. The 

opportunity provided by the Durban Platform 

46


is to put in place a new agreement on emissions 

targets and provide a clear and stable signal of 

demand that public and private capital will 

respond to. An agreement on the global trajectory 

of emissions caps drives scarcity in the market, and 

therefore demand for investments in reductions 

through a new market mechanism. A global 

agreement must therefore put market-based 

approaches at the forefront of renewed efforts to 

reduce emissions, and a new market mechanism 

must give the private sector sufficient incentives 

to develop scaled-up emissions reduction projects 

in their consumer markets and beyond. 

Market mechanisms respond to demand, reflecting 

the emission reductions goals that Governments 

or companies commit to, and sustain over the 

long term by accounting for and recognising a 

price on carbon. Current frameworks and designs 

for market mechanisms include exploring sectors 

of the economy that are not currently covered by 

a market instrument such as transport, buildings 

or heating fuels. 

WHAT IS THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS 

LOOKING FOR? 

Long-term mitigation goals, however they are 

formulated, will need to be fulfilled in a costeffective 

way in order for carbon pricing to be 

sustained in the long run. The private sector is a 

necessary part of achieving this, as the success of 

private investment through the CDM has shown. 

The industry and capacity developed in the 

private sector under existing mechanisms can be 

deployed to create larger-scale reductions under 

a new market instrument. Any new mechanism 

must build and leverage the expertise and capacity 

that has been developed in the private sector 

during the lifespan of the CDM and JI – as there 

are many innovative approaches and enterprises 

committed to deploying capital for emission 

reduction activities. 

Market mechanisms provide positive outcomes 

for all participants, as is clear from studies such as 

the World Bank’s State and Trends of the Carbon 

Market 2012, or UNFCCC’s Benefits of the Clean 

Development Mechanism. Host governments are 

provided with a source of financing, investment, 

and technology transfer to achieve goals on both 

emissions and sustainable economic development. 

Developed countries can access low-cost 

mitigation options to fulfil their reduction targets 

through an internationally recognised mechanism. 

The private sector can fulfil obligations at a lower 

cost, and also develop innovative opportunities to 

reduce emissions through the mechanism. 

This mutual benefit has driven IETA to partner 

with the World Business Council for Sustainable 

Development (WBCSD) to put forward the 

private sector’s viewpoint on the framework of a 

new market mechanism. This framework would 

put trading at the heart of a mechanism, but aimed 

at achieving higher-scale reductions than the 

project-based mechanisms currently in operation. 

BOTTOM-UP OR TOP-DOWN – 

OR BOTH? 

Institutionally, discussions often centre on 

the bottom-up or top-down approaches to a 

framework that institutionalises a global carbon 

price. The private sector understands that, within 

the political context, a mixture of these approaches 

represents the best way forward. Therefore, some 

elements of top-down guidance need to be created 

on issues such as MRV (‘measurable, reportable, 

verifiable’), standard setting, and oversight to 

avoid issues such as double counting. IETA sees 

these functions as being situated either under 

the UNFCCC ‘umbrella’, or through a different 

institutional arrangement bilaterally between 

countries. They will serve a critical purpose 

in ensuring that a trading framework provides 

fungibility in carbon credits worldwide. Both 

producers and users of credits prefer to access the 

broadest market of reductions possible to enhance 

liquidity and options available for those transacting 

in the carbon market, as well as an enhanced flow 

of global trade in clean technology and energy 

efficiency solutions. 

Providing assurance that MRV standards are 

consistent and that “a tonne is a tonne” gives the 

private sector confidence that credits are equally 

valuable in their environmental benefit and 

maintain integrity in the markets. In addition, 

a global MRV regime will substantially lower 

transaction costs for the private sector – allowing 

for greater participation and the likelihood that 

ambitious climate targets could be met. Different 

approaches and rules on accounting for carbon 

will not provide a clear pathway to meeting 

global climate action goals. 

Alongside a level of governance from an 

international governance system, there needs to be 

appreciation for national circumstances; and use of 

a new market mechanism should be determined by 

countries on an opt-in basis. This approach allows 



Doha, Qatar 

Bangkok, Thailand 

countries to take advantage of a new mechanism, 

as well as the CDM, based on their own context 

and preferences. Furthermore, different countries 

may put in place different crediting schemes that 

they wish to be used within the framework of the 

new market mechanism. This might be an energy 

efficiency crediting programme, for example, or 

a renewables certificates initiative – schemes that 

generate credits measured under different metrics 

than emissions reduced. IETA has put forward 

the idea of a credit conversion mechanism at 

the international level to manage the process of 

transferring credits into a common ‘currency’ of 

reduced emissions. Using these innovative methods, 

the top-down assurance of a commonly held credit 

can be mixed alongside the room for governments 

to utilise their preferred policies, and still create an 

internationally accessible trading scheme. While 

it would be much easier to implement a market 

mechanism that puts a global price on carbon if 

there were one simple framework, the complexity 

and great diversity of the world’s economic systems 

and its existing carbon sinks simply do not provide 

a clear pathway for such a scenario. 

In the absence of a simplified global framework 

for emissions trading, a carbon tax may be viewed 

by some as a viable alternative. However, IETA 

maintains that the market place remains the 

correct actor to determine the price of emissions 

reductions, and government’s role is deciding 

upon target emission reductions. This produces 

the most efficient market signal to achieve an 

environmental goal, rather than imposing a rigid 

taxation system with no guarantee of achieving 

sufficient reductions. Furthermore, there is no 

reason to believe that a global framework based 

on carbon taxation would be any more realistic to 

achieve than alternatives. 

HOPES AT DOHA 

Parties have come to Doha eager to address 

the modalities and procedures of a new market 

© Bruno befreetv © Jarcje 

mechanism, to put meat on the bones. From the 

last negotiating session in Bangkok in September, 

there is work still to do. A clear vision on what 

a new market mechanism will look like has 

yet to emerge, and will be a critical part of the 

discussions under the Ad-Hoc Working Group on 

Long-Term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA). 

We see businesses engaged on creating an efficient 

market mechanism with sufficient scale to drive 

investment where it is needed to fulfil emissions 

goals. The capacity and expertise exists to make 

a new market mechanism a success, but without 

the impetus of a reliable price signal the necessary 

investments will not be made. The private sector 

is looking to a new market mechanism to help 

guide cost-effective emissions reductions on a 

wider scale than is currently possible. Doha has 

the opportunity to take a great stride forward in 

achieving just that. 

Dirk Forrister is President and CEO of the 

International Emissions Trading Association (IETA). 

Previously, he was Principal and Founder of Forrister 

Advisory, an independent consultancy specialising in 

climate change, clean air and clean energy policy and 

markets. Until late 2010, he was Managing Director 

at Natsource LLC, the manager of one of the world's 

largest carbon funds. Previously, Mr. Forrister served as 

Chairman of the White House Climate Change Task 

Force in the Clinton Administration. 

The International Emissions Trading Association 

(IETA) has been the leading voice of the business 

community on the subject of carbon markets since 2000. 

IETA’s 155 member companies include some of the 

world’s leading corporations, including global leaders in 

oil, electricity, cement, aluminium, chemical, paper and 

other industrial sectors; as well as leading firms in the 

data verification and certification, brokering and trading, 

legal, finance, and consulting industries. 

48


ADAPTATION AND THE 

INSURANCE INDUSTRY 

By Mike Kreidler, Washington State Insurance Commissioner 

Much of the world’s economy relies heavily on insurance to manage risk, and climate change poses 

formidable challenges to the risk modelling and prediction that underlie the insurance industry. At the 

same time, however, insurers are uniquely positioned to help address these issues. 

The worldwide insurance industry, for whom 

forecasting, modelling and managing risk are 

critical, faces an unprecedented challenge from 

climate change. Changes in the climate will affect 

the risks that insurers take on, the premiums they 

charge, where they offer coverage, and how they 

manage the investments that help pay claims. 

But climate change also brings new opportunities 

for insurers to offer innovative products that 

support mitigation of the effects of climate 

change. Moreover, insurers are also wellpositioned 

to encourage broader solutions, 

much as they helped push successfully for auto 

safety improvements. For example, I believe the 

industry needs to be a strong advocate for landuse 

practices, improved building codes and other 

property risk mitigation related to climate change. 

As the insurance regulator in the State of 

Washington, USA, I focus on the solvency of 

insurance companies, access to the coverage 

people need, and doing as much as I can to make 

insurance affordable. The insurance industry must 

step up and adapt to the challenges of climate 

change. I and like-minded regulators in other 

states are taking steps to encourage insurers to 

move in that direction. 

RISKS TO THE INSURER’S FINANCIAL 

STABILITY 

The financial stability of an insurer is also heavily 

dependent on its investment portfolio. Insurers 

invest in real estate either directly or through 

the purchase of mortgage-backed securities. A 

changing climate could increase the risk to those 

investments from weather-related perils such as 

hurricanes, flooding and fire. 

Insurers also face risk from investments in sectors 

of the economy that have heavy exposure to the 

effects of climate change. Insurer investments in 

bonds, preferred stocks and equities of businesses 

with substantial exposure to the impacts of 



climate change can take on an unexpected 

element of risk. These businesses face direct 

weather-related losses to property, as well as 

business interruption. In addition, product 

liability and environmental liability exposures 

might arise. Municipal bonds, a significant 

investment holding for many insurers, are a 

ACCURACY IN FORECASTING AND 

MODELLING 

Insurers rely on forecasting and modelling to 

rate risks, set prices, and decide what they are 

willing to insure. For many if not most types 

of insurance, climate change throws a new 

and powerful variable into those models. 

Failure to prepare and adapt now could 

make it difficult – if not impossible – for 

some individuals and businesses to find the 

coverage that our economy relies on to 

mitigate economic damage. As can be seen 

in some areas of the United States prone 

to hurricanes and floods, such situations 

often lead to government becoming the 

insurer of last resort. For insurers, failure to 

carefully prepare could leave them at risk 

of financial instability. Never have accurate 

modelling and a long-range view been 

more important. 

“Never have accurate 

modelling and a long-range 

view been more important.” 

potential source of risk as municipalities face 

increasing pressure, and perhaps costs, to adapt to 

the impacts of climate change. 

On the other hand, the movement to mitigate 

the effects of climate change will also provide 

new investment opportunities for insurers. As 

new economic sectors emerge to provide goods 

and services that reduce greenhouse gas emissions 

or that are carbon-neutral, there will probably 

be public pressure for insurers to invest in them. 

New energy sources will result from developing 

technologies. As these ventures will need capital 

and infrastructure, they may be an attractive 

investment opportunity for insurers in certain 

circumstances. Carbon trading could also offer 

new possibilities for investment. 

CHARTING A NEW DIRECTION 

As an industry, insurers are well positioned to 

capitalise on new marketing opportunities by 

offering insurance products with a carbonfriendly 

component. In Washington and other 

50


states, for example, we’ve seen recent interest in 

insurance offerings for car-sharing programmes 

and pay-by-the-mile insurance. Both programmes 

are intended to ease congestion and reduce 

greenhouse gas emissions. 

Homeowners’ and business policies can include a 

provision to rebuild to environmentally responsible 

standards after a loss. Similarly, provision of 

risk management services presents a further 

opportunity for property and casualty insurers. 

More broadly, insurers can lend their expertise 

and influence to efforts to curb the underlying 

causes of climate change. They have long 

performed a valuable public service by 

advocating for safer buildings and automobiles, 

with spectacular results. The fact that these 

measures often also reduced insurers’ losses 

does not detract from their value to all of us. I 

believe that insurers can play a similar role in 

climate change. 

THE ROLE OF INSURANCE 

REGULATORS 

US insurance regulators all belong to 

the National Association of Insurance 

Commissioners (NAIC) and use their association 

to accomplish things collectively in everyone’s 

best interest. Collectively, the 56 US state- and 

territory-based insurance markets represent 

roughly one-third of worldwide insurance 

premiums. I lead the NAIC’s work group on 

climate change. Rest assured, climate change is 

on our radar. It has been for years. 

The NAIC involvement in climate change 

began in February 2005, when, at the annual 

commissioners’ conference, climate scientists 

and reinsurance representatives presented 

information about climate change and global 

warming to the commissioners. 

Later that year, the NAIC Property and Casualty 

Insurance Committee hosted a public hearing. 

This was intended to serve as a fact-finding 

and education tool regarding the implications 

of climate change on insurers and insurance 

consumers. Insurance regulators became aware 

that climate change might have significant 

implications for insurers and that the viability of 

certain insurance markets or products might be 

questionable. Regulators wanted to know more 

about the risks and rewards associated with the 

changing environment. 

“Municipal bonds, a significant 

investment holding for many 

insurers, are a potential source 

of risk.” 

Recognising that climate change might have 

implications beyond the property and casualty 

world, the NAIC created the Climate Change 

and Global Warming Task Force. I helped initiate 

and co-chaired the committee, which met for the 

first time in 2006. 

The Task Force was charged with, among 

other duties, the responsibility of drafting 

a white paper documenting the potential 

insurance related impacts of climate change on 

insurance consumers, insurers and insurance 

regulators. In 2008, the Task Force issued its 

white paper – The Potential Impact of Climate 

Change on Insurance Regulation. The white paper 

documented challenges and opportunities for 

insurers and their customers. It concluded that 

more information was needed about the impact 

of climate change on insurers and the insurers’ 

responses to the change. 

“The movement to mitigate 

the effects of climate 

change will also provide new 

investment opportunities for 

insurers.” 

CLIMATE RISK DISCLOSURE BY 

INSURERS 

In March 2009, the NAIC adopted a voluntary 

climate risk disclosure survey for states to use if 

they wished. The Task Force hoped that all states 

would implement the disclosure survey and share 

the results. As it turned out, some states used 

the survey, while others opted not to. But the 

responses we did receive strongly suggested that 

insurers in the United States were not uniformly 

addressing climate change. 



Earlier in 2012, I and my counterparts in two 

other key states – California and New York – 

decided to issue another disclosure survey to 

major insurers in our states. This time, the survey 

would be mandatory. We’re now in the process of 

analysing the data that insurers provided. 

Based on what we’ve seen and heard from 

insurers over the past couple of years, there 

seems to be a growing awareness among insurers 

that climate change is an issue that will directly 

affect them. That said, there remains much work 

to be done. 

I’m also encouraged that the United States 

Securities and Exchange Commission now 

requires climate risk management disclosures for 

publicly traded insurers. That helps keep climate 

change in the forefront of insurers’ minds. 

I believe that an alliance of the insurance industry, 

the public sector, the scientific community and 

other corporate citizens can help develop policies 

to protect our people and economy from the 

harm posed when devastating forces of nature are 

unleashed. We are truly all in this together; we 

should share information, applying investment 

and business strategies to address the outcomes of 

a changing climate. 

“The United States Securities 

and Exchange Commission 

now requires climate risk 

management disclosures for 

publicly traded insurers.” 

Mike Kreidler, a former state legislator and member 

of Congress, is serving his third term as elected 

insurance commissioner for the State of Washington, 

USA. He chairs the National Association of Insurance 

Commissioners’ Climate Change and Global Warming 

Working Group. 

The Office of the Insurance Commissioner 

oversees Washington’s insurance industry to make 

sure that companies, agents and brokers follow the 

rules and protect consumers. The Office investigates 

problems from more than 100,000 consumers each 

year, conducts licensing, auditing and monitoring of 

Washington-based insurers and collects about US$1 

billion a biennium for the state’s general operating 

budget. 

52


VALE’S COMMITMENT TO 

ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION 

Vale has taken up the challenge of acting proactively 

in the context of climate change. The company 

is working in the area by evaluating operational 

risks, minimising vulnerabilities and maximising 

opportunities – such as technological innovation to 

reduce consumption of fossil fuels and investment 

in clean energy supplies – and developing strategies 

for adapting to physical impact risks. 

In 2011, Vale invested approximately US$10 million 

in energy efficiency and corporate projects in the 

field of climate change. In addition to that, in 2012 

the company updated its Global Climate Change 

Policy and included the commitment to establish 

a global target for reducing emissions, as well as 

to mobilising the supply chain to tackle climate 

change in an integrated way. The target, established 

in 2012, is for Vale to cut its 2020 projected 

emissions by 5 per cent. 

As part of the company’s commitment to 

reducing its impact on climate change and to 

creating long-term value, Vale has implemented 

the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Management 

in the Value Chain programme, which aims to 

involve suppliers. Under the programme, Vale 

is encouraging its suppliers to build their own 

capacity to establish an emissions inventory 

at their companies. During 2011 and 2012, a 

number of training workshops were carried out in 

the various continents where Vale is present. 

Although the company is already a significant user 

of renewable sources, it recognises its fundamental 

role in actively pursuing greater use of clean 

energy. Accordingly, Vale is working to replace 

diesel with biodiesel in its operations. In Brazil, 

the target is to raise the share of biodiesel used 

in biofuel blends from around 5 per cent now 

to 20 per cent in 2015. Vale has a 70 per cent 

stake in Biopalma, a company in Pará, Brazil, that 

processes palm oil used to produce biodiesel. This 

project will enable a reduction in greenhouse gas 

emissions while restoring impacted areas in the 

Amazon biome, since the palm trees are being 

planted in areas previously used for pasture before 

being abandoned. 

Vale has also been applying innovation and 

technology to mineral production in its new 

project in the Brazilian state of Pará, S11D, 

which will increase iron production at Carajás 

by up to 90 million tonnes a year. In addition 

to a completely dry process which will lead to 

a 93 per cent reduction in water consumption, 

86 per cent of the water will be reused. Mining 

operations will not feature trucks, but rather 

a system using in-pit crushing and conveying 

technology, saving diesel consumption and 

emissions, and reducing waste such as tyres, filters, 

lubricants and other items. This system will save 

emissions of about 118,000 tonnes of carbon 

dioxide equivalent per year. 

Vale 

Website: www.vale.com 


53


MINING AND SUSTAINABLE 

DEVELOPMENT 

By Dr Anthony Hodge, President, International Council for Mining and Metals 

Mining has a chequered reputation, associated equally with wealth and environmental challenges. 

A properly managed mining and minerals industry, however, is essential for a sustainable world. 

The extraction and processing of minerals to 

provide services important to human society has 

gone on for millennia. The resulting metals and 

minerals play a vast, essential and evolving role in 

today’s society, a role that will continue far into 

the future, inevitably expanding to include uses 

that are not currently understood. 

However, in some communities and regions, the 

environmental and social legacy of mining and 

metals manufacturing is far from positive. Problems 

linked to mineral extraction have led some to 

question whether in certain circumstances the 

presence of a mineral endowment was a kind of 

‘resource curse’. We now know that this does not 

need to be the case. If managed responsibly and 

effectively, mining and metals manufacturing can 

and will provide a foundation for achieving the 

kind of life that different cultures seek. 

RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT 

But what does ‘managed responsibly and effectively’ 

really mean? Minerals and metals are a critical 

part of developing a modern society – providing 

essential products, wealth, jobs and opportunity. 

But in some countries these resources have been 

misused and squandered, fuelling conflict and 

political unrest. There have been disputes over 

land use, property rights, environmental damage, 

transparency of revenues, and a growing debate 

about the distribution of the spoils. 

At the same time, demands are growing for a 

‘green’ or a ‘low carbon’ economy. Critically, 

the millennium development goal of reducing 

poverty must be met. In reality, for humankind to 

walk more lightly on the earth and to achieve the 

poverty reduction that is needed across the world, 

we need evolution that is marked by innovation, 

creativity and sensitivity. These necessary 

approaches are not possible without mined metals 

and minerals. 

A critical part of the green agenda relates 

to biodiversity and ecosystem services - the 

combination of a diversity of life forms and 

54


their interactions with each other and with the 

rest of the environment that has made Earth a 

uniquely habitable place for humans. Mining has 

the potential to affect biodiversity throughout the 

life cycle of a project, both directly and indirectly. 

Mining is carried out in remote and biodiversityrich 

ecosystems where the potential for significant 

impacts is greater. 

There is a great deal that companies can do 

to minimise or prevent such impacts in areas 

identified as appropriate for mining. Alongside 

this potential for negative impacts on biodiversity 

and ecosystem services, there are equally 

many opportunities for companies to enhance 

biodiversity conservation within their areas of 

operations with many operations aspiring to leave 

behind net positive impacts. Being proactive in 

the assessment and management of biodiversity is 

important, not only for new operations, but also 

for those that have been operating for many years, 

usually under regulatory requirements that were 

less focused on the protection and enhancement 

of biodiversity. Focus should be placed on 

developing a sufficient understanding of local 

biodiversity and exploring opportunities for 

biodiversity enhancement or creative conservation 

with appropriate partners. 

The International Council on Mining and Metals 

(ICMM) was formed in 2001 to catalyse change 

and enhance the contribution of mining, minerals 

and metals to sustainable development. Our 21 

member companies employ close to one million 

of the 2.5 million people working in the mining 

and metals sector worldwide. These companies 

have some 800 operations in 62 countries and 

produce many of the world’s commodities – 38% 

of the gold, 30% iron ore, 37% platinum and 34% 

nickel (World Mineral Production 2004-2008, 

British Geological Survey 2010). These operations 

place our members on the front line in dealing 

with the many complex environmental and social 

issues apparent today. 

Mine projects follow a life cycle that starts with 

exploration and proceeds through construction, 

operation, closure and post-closure. Something 

that is little understood is that across this 

full life cycle, a 20 to 30 year operating 

mine can involve five to seven generations 

of ‘relationship’ between industry and host 

community at a given location. The sevengeneration 

perspective of many indigenous 

peoples has thus a practical and direct 

“There are equally many 

opportunities for companies 

to enhance biodiversity 

conservation within their areas 

of operations.” 

application to mining and metals operations. 

In following a path that is responsible and 

effective, an approach is called for that is built on 

a full understanding and explicit recognition of all 

benefits, costs, risks and responsibilities that accrue 

to all parties that are affected. This is a tough 

challenge and inevitably entails collaboration to 

ensure that an equitable distribution of these is 

achieved. Each one of these – benefits, costs, risks 

and responsibilities – is complex when viewed 

from the perspectives of different interests. But all 

must be considered. 

For example, from a country-level 

macroeconomic perspective, the generation of 

foreign direct investment, foreign exchange, 

and government revenues are all important. At 

the local level, however, it is the direct benefits 

of jobs, infrastructure, and community services 

that become critical to consider. It is here that 

a community’s confidence can be enhanced in 

achieving the future that it wants for itself. 



When developing a mine, companies risk the 

capital of their investors to create the project 

and ultimately generate a return. However, 

communities too face risks in terms of the effect 

mining has on their way of life over the long term. 

Importantly, if we are to ensure that the needed 

balance of benefits, costs and risks is achieved, 

all parties – government, company, community 

– carry certain responsibilities that must be 

clearly assigned and resourced if we are to ensure 

that accountabilities are maintained and lessons 

learned that will lead to performance refinement 

and improvement over the long term. 

LONG-TERM COLLABORATION 

The industry has made significant progress in 

the last 20 years, but there is much yet to do. 

The long-term nature of mining provides an 

opportunity to be a partner with communities 

over multiple generations. If the activities 

are designed and implemented in a way that 

reflects the overlap in values of all the parties – 

government, company and community – there 

is a tremendous opportunity for a positive 

contribution over the long run. 

Importantly, within the mining and metals 

industry there is a key role for collaboration as 

well. Mines often occur in clusters, and when 

they do, collaboration between companies to 

address service and infrastructure needs of projects 

and communities alike is critical if the possible 

efficiencies are to be achieved – not only for 

the mine projects but also for the region, and 

not only for the time of operating mine but also 

for long after. Small players in the industry are 

nimble, agile and fast movers. Large companies 

have the resources and the technical skills. There 

is an opportunity to value and benefit from 

each other’s skills and strengths. Seen in this way, 

the mining and metals industry is a complex, 

interdependent web of players. 

A TRUSTED BRIDGE TO THE FUTURE 

Aristotle said it is not always the same thing to be 

a good man as to be a good citizen. We need to 

become better at communicating what the real 

contribution of the mining and metals industry 

is, how we can redefine this contribution, make it 

stronger and ensure it is better understood across the 

world. Open and transparent decision-making will 

enhance trust and respect. A full and open treatment 

of strengths and limitations is essential, as is listening 

and hearing others’ concerns as well as our own. 

“An approach is called for that 

is built on a full understanding 

and explicit recognition of 

all benefits, costs, risks and 

responsibilities .” 

If you ask engineers to design something so that 

the ecosystem after you have finished is just as 

nimble and just as capable of reproducing, they 

will accept that challenge and find a solution. If 

you do not ask them, they will not do it. It is our 

own creativity that makes this possible. 

It is important to consider the value of mining to 

a country, or to the world – can it be a bridge to 

a better future? The answer is yes, if the process is 

done responsibly and effectively. Learning our way 

forward to being more responsible and effective, 

strengthening our contribution to sustainable 

development is the task before ICMM, its 

members and the industry as a whole. 

Dr. Anthony Hodge became the President of the 

International Council of Mining and Metals in 2008 

following his appointment a year earlier as Kinross 

Professor of Mining and Sustainability, Queen's 

University at Kingston. For some 30 years prior 

to ICMM Dr Hodge was in private practice as a 

consulting engineer. His projects ranged across a rich 

variety of assignments related to mining, aboriginal 

relations, nuclear waste management, water resources, 

energy policy, and the distribution of benefits from 

resource developments. 

The International Council on Mining and Metals 

(ICMM) was formed in 2001 to catalyse change and 

enhance the contribution of mining, minerals and metals 

to sustainable development. Our 21 member companies 

employ close to one million of the 2.5 million people 

working in the mining and metals sector worldwide. These 

companies have some 800 operations in 62 countries 

and produce many of the world’s commodities – 38 per 

cent of the gold, 30 per cent of the iron ore, 37 per cent 

of the platinum and 34 per cent of the nickel (World 

Mineral Production 2004-2008, British Geological 

Survey 2010). These operations place ICMM members 

on the front line in dealing with the many complex 

environmental and social issues apparent today. 

56


THE ANGLO AMERICAN WAY 

By Cynthia Carroll, Chief Executive, Anglo American 

Mining is an industry 

that can do enormous 

good and will 

continue to be a major 

force through the 21st 

century, as demand 

for the metals and 

minerals we produce 

increases. With a 

significant presence 

in the developing 

world, we have the ability to use our scale and 

experience to deliver wider social and economic 

development to uplift communities and create 

sustainable benefits. 

At Anglo American our commitment to 

sustainability, partnership and open, honest 

engagement with our stakeholders is at the core 

of our values. It is central to how we think and it 

is at the heart of how we conduct our business. 

For us, sustainable development plays a crucial 

role in delivering value for our stakeholders. 

the production and use of the commodities we 

produce more sustainable. 

We have set a goal of achieving the maximum 

economically sustainable energy and carbon 

saving in our business and in the use of our 

products. Our climate change strategy has three 

focus areas: operational excellence, exploiting 

technologies and engagement and partnerships. 

Effective delivery of this ten-year strategy will 

deliver carbon and energy savings and will yield 

a clear assessment of risks and opportunities in 

the markets in which we operate. We have clear 

action plans in place to mitigate those risks and 

create value for all of our stakeholders. 

I have made safety and sustainable development 

a priority since joining Anglo American and 

creating a culture of care and respect is central 

to how I lead. I believe that building trust and 

demonstrating responsibility are vital to securing, 

and maintaining, our licence to operate. 

Creating financial value for our shareholders is 

a given, but we believe this is not incompatible 

with environmental protection, and delivering 

broader benefits to our host governments and 

communities. I believe that the way we manage 

this will have a profound influence on the 

future of our business, which is why we embed 

the principles of sustainable development in 

everything we do, starting at the top with our 

strategy and values, and going right through the 

organsiation, to the policies and processes that 

underpin our work. 

Anglo American is committed to enabling our 

operations and local communities to address 

and adapt to the causes and effects of Climate 

Change. The world will continue to demand the 

commodities we produce and the low carbon 

economy cannot exist without metals. Coal is an 

important part of the energy mix, for example, 

and it will continue to drive the economic and 

social progress of much of the developing world 

– and several parts of the developed world – for 

the foreseeable future. The challenge is to make 

Anglo American Platinum workers stand in front of one 

of the company’s platinum based fuel cell powered mine 

Locomotive prototypes at the launch in May 2012. 

www.AngloAmerican.com 


57


RENEWABLE ENERGY, 

POWERING OUR FUTURE 

By Adnan Z Amin, Director-General, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) 

Ensuring universal access to affordable, clean and secure energy is a defining issue of our time. Cooperation 

and relevant information on renewables are vital to ensure sustainable energy development. 

The world will be home to 8 billion people by 

2030 – 60 per cent of whom will live in cities 

– demanding higher standards of living and 

leading more energy-intensive lives. This leaves 

us facing some profound choices, with dramatic 

implications for the future of our planet. On 

the one hand, there is the potential for another 

generation to be fuelled by another generation 

of hydrocarbons, including shale gas and oil. On 

the other, we see a remarkable coming of age of 

sustainable renewable energy solutions – wind, 

solar, hydro, tidal, geothermal, and biomass – 

driven by improving technologies and declining 

costs. These options are not mutually exclusive, 

but they do represent options, and to make 

appropriate decisions we must be aware of the 

entire picture. 

For rational decisions to be made, decisionmakers 

must have access to relevant information; 

outlining the case for renewables with compelling 

facts and figures, practical examples of success, 

and suggestions for a path forward. This is why 

countries came together in 2011 to establish the 

first intergovernmental organisation in a decade, 

the International Renewable Energy Agency 

(IRENA), with the mission to present the case for 

renewables and assist countries to undertake the 

transition to a sustainable future. 

“We see a remarkable 

coming of age of sustainable 

renewable energy solutions.” 

IRENA’s work on Africa, on island states, on 

renewable energy costs, on job creation, on the 

readiness of countries to attract investment, is 

already building a compelling case that renewable 

energy is feasible for large parts of the world, 

while raising awareness of the advantages of 

renewables as an energy source. 



One area of the world that clearly demonstrates 

both the challenges and opportunities for energy, 

and which IRENA has been focusing on, is 

Africa. This vast continent accounts for 15 per 

cent of the world’s population, but consumes only 

5 per cent of the world’s energy. Blackouts, along 

with reliance on expensive fossil fuels for stopgap 

electricity generation, are estimated to cost 

African economies between 1 per cent and 5 per 

cent of GDP per year. Yet Africa has an incredible 

abundance of resources, including renewable 

energy sources, and is entering a transformation 

moment in their history – in the last decade six 

of the world’s ten fastest growing economies were 

in sub-Saharan Africa. An affordable and reliable 

source of energy is necessary to power this 

development and growth. 

The global issues of energy access, security and 

sustainability, are particularly pressing for small 

island developing states (SIDS). Due to their scale 

and isolation island energy systems are inherently 

vulnerable; energy infrastructure costs are higher, 

and fossil fuel volatility impacts are severe, leaving 

islanders as reluctant price-takers. For most SIDS, 

fuel accounts for about 20 per cent of imports, 

with most spending between 5 per cent and 

20 per cent of their GDP on fuel imports. For 

countries that possess the resources to pursue 

energy self-sufficiency, this does not make 

environmental or economic sense. 

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is 

facing its own set of challenges. The region’s 

energy demand is growing as a result of high 

economic and population growth, as well as 

the harsh climate and the energy-intensive 

processes involved in cooling, desalination and the 

hydrocarbon industry. Just to meet this demand 

the GCC will require 100 MW of additional 

power generating capacity over the next ten years. 

This rapid increase in electricity consumption is 

also having a substantial impact on the region’s 

oil and gas industries. It is boosting demand for 

hydrocarbons, which is in turn reducing the 

volumes exported and the revenues received. 

Tapping into the GCC’s abundant solar resources 

could reduce domestic hydrocarbon consumption 

and emissions, while increasing export revenues. 

A NEW DEVELOPMENT MODEL 

Viable solutions to the world’s demand for 

sustainable energy already exist, and are already 

making a difference. An atoll group in the 

Pacific called Tokelau was formerly dependent 

“Viable solutions to the world’s 

demand for sustainable energy 

already exist, and are already 

making a difference.” 

on imported oil, but now has enough solar 

photovoltaic capacity to meet its own average 

electricity needs. Across Africa, pioneering 

business models for supplying off-grid energy, 

such as pay-as-you-go solar systems, are being 

developed and eagerly taken up. Growing 

numbers of countries in the GCC are setting 

renewable energy targets, investing in projects 

and supporting innovative initiatives such as the 

Masdar Institute of Science and Technology in 

the United Arab Emirates. This is why IRENA is 

confident in proposing a new paradigm: a more 

accessible and affordable way for the world to 

power its social and economic development. The 

transition to this new paradigm has never been 

more achievable as renewable energy technologies 

have been experiencing constant improvements 

in efficiency and rapidly declining costs. For 

example, the price of solar photovoltaic panels 

dropped by nearly 50 per cent in 2011 alone, and 

electricity generated from wind turbines in the 

best sites in North America is competitive with, 

or cheaper than, gas-fired generation even in the 

so-called ‘golden age of gas’. 

“Countries around the 

world need to make critical 

decisions about their energy 

future right now.” 

As the case for renewables improves, more 

countries are implementing policy-assisted 

markets to hedge against future energy price 

uncertainties, and enhance their energy security. 

To date at least 118 countries have some type of 

national policy target or renewable support policy, 

an increase of 65 countries since 2005. This global 

expansion of enabling policies positively affects 

the geography of the renewable energy market, 

60


with markets increasingly emerging in more 

geographically and economically diverse areas. 

These emerging markets contributed to the 

record US$257 billion which was invested 

globally in 2011. This investment led to a record 

83.5 GW of new renewable energy capacity being 

installed, and to renewables contributing 18 per 

cent of global electricity supply. With these 

increasing numbers, renewable energy moves ever 

further from being a niche, environmentally 

driven option into an economically viable 

solution to the growing energy demand of a 

rapidly growing global population. 

So why with this positive and achievable story 

of a new paradigm are countries still following 

the unsustainable development model powered 

by fossil fuels? Part of this reason could be 

because fossil fuels are an entrenched source of 

power and development. With the challenges and 

opportunities we face, and the options available 

to us, that is not a sound basis for deciding a 

country’s energy future. Ultimately countries 

around the world need to make critical decisions 

about their energy future right now. For some this 

involves expanding their existing infrastructure, 

whereas for others it involves creating entirely 

new energy systems. Either way, the decisions 

that these nations make now will stay with them 

for decades, and will undoubtedly impact their 

future economic growth, social development, and 

environmental sustainability. 

INFORMATION FOR POLICY-MAKING 

To ensure that policy decisions are rational, 

decision-makers must be informed of the true 

costs and implications of the options for meeting 

their energy needs. This is where IRENA 

will play a vital role. IRENA actively engages 

with policy-makers and stakeholders in over 

160 countries across the globe to instigate and 

accelerate the transition to renewable energy. 

Renewable energy can only succeed if there is 

an enabling policy and investment framework, 

and a compelling business case. To this end, we 

support countries by ensuring the availability 

of relevant and up-to-date information and 

tools, and by pursuing specific areas which are 

of primary practical interest to them. Vital to 

our work is our ability to draw on the expertise 

and experience of our geographical and 

economically diverse membership. To further 

strengthen our network, we are establishing 

partnerships with stakeholders including the 

private sector, and international organisations. 

One partner, the International Energy Agency 

(IEA), tells us that renewable energy generation 

will be 40 per cent higher in 2017 than it was in 

2011. This outlook relies on continuing supportive 

policy and market frameworks, as well as renewable 

technologies becoming competitive in an 

increasing range of countries and circumstances. 

To accelerate this momentum of deployment 

and investment around the world, countries need 

effective and efficient policies tailored specifically 

to the market and technologies. 

“IRENA actively engages 

with policy-makers and 

stakeholders in over 160 

countries across the globe.” 

A MORE SECURE PATH TO 

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY 

Every country and continent faces its own 

combination of barriers to realising the benefits of 

renewable energy, including unsupportive policy 

frameworks, inadequate financial mechanisms, 

and unfavourable business conditions. To 

overcome these and enable the deployment of 

renewables requires identifying the particular 

barriers, and establishing country specific means 

for overcoming them. IRENA’s Renewables 

Readiness Assessment is enabling countries to 

undertake this analysis through a country-led and 

IRENA-assisted methodology. This methodology 

is helping countries from Senegal and 



Mozambique, to Granada and Peru, and Oman 

to Kiribati, to understand their situation and the 

action they need to take. 

As the uptake of renewables accelerates, so will 

the number of people employed globally in green 

jobs. Recent estimates from the Renewable 

Energy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) 

indicate that 5 million people worldwide are 

employed directly or indirectly in the renewable 

energy industry. In some countries the growth 

rate of employment is slowing due to financial 

constraints, policy changes and manufacturing 

trends. But overall the numbers are growing, 

and are set to continue growing, especially as we 

come to understand the potential in the off-grid 

electricity sector. In particular this sector offers 

considerable potential for employment along 

the value chain including in the distribution, 

installation, operation and service of off-grid 

systems. In a recent study, IRENA found that 

reaching the goal of universal access to sustainable 

energy by 2030 would create up to four million 

direct jobs in the off-grid electricity sector alone. 

Renewable energy’s capacity to supply decentralised 

energy means it is inherently suited to contribute 

to achieving the goal of universal access to modern 

energy services. This forms one of the three 

complementary and entirely achievable objectives 

established by the UN Secretary-General’s 

Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative. 

Creating secure access to clean energy through 

renewable energy will have a positive impact on 

the socio-economic status and environment of 

many. A second SE4All objective, doubling the 

share of renewable energy in the global energy 

mix by 2030, recognises the impact that renewable 

energy can have globally. To ensure that we achieve 

this IRENA has begun developing REMap 2030, 

a road map for the global community. In this 

we will identify and lay down viable pathways 

for renewable energy technologies to achieve 

this goal, and we will highlight opportunities for 

international co-operation in renewable energy 

technology development, deployment, and in 

end-use sectors. We envisage that this road map 

will enable countries to plot their paths towards a 

more secure and sustainable future by up-scaling the 

contribution of renewable energy. 

Globally, we have high expectations of renewable 

energy to move us onto a more secure, reliable 

and sustainable energy path. The combined efforts 

of policy-makers, the courage of investors, and 

the innovation of scientists, have already acted as 

positive catalysts to begin this transition. Global 

growth in renewable energy policy, investment, and 

capacity figures attest to this. But the realisation 

of global potential will not be constrained by the 

availability of energy sources, or by a lack of human 

ingenuity, but by our ability to co-operate and 

create practical solutions to our energy challenges. 

For this we need innovative partnerships, the 

commitment of governments, and the support and 

participation of all industry. This is where IRENA 

will play its role and make its contribution. 

Decisions concerning our energy future are made 

for the future of generations to come. This is the 

time to make those decisions count. 

“The off-grid electricity sector 

offers considerable potential 

for employment.” 

Adnan Z Amin was elected as the first Director- 

General of the International Renewable Energy Agency 

(IRENA) in April 2011. In this capacity, he is 

responsible for leading the Agency in the implementation 

of its mandate to promote the adoption and use of 

renewable energy worldwide. Mr Amin, of Kenya, is 

a development economist specialising in sustainable 

development. He has over 25 years’ experience in 

international environment and sustainable development 

policy, as well as in the political, management, and 

interagency co-ordination functions of the UN, where 

he has held senior positions. He is currently a member 

of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Group on 

Sustainable Energy for All. 

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) 

is an intergovernmental organisation with the objective 

to “promote the widespread and increased adoption and 

the sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy.” As 

of September 2012, IRENA’s participants include 158 

states and the European Union (EU), out of which 

100 states and the EU have ratified the Statute and 

are IRENA members. Governments, public and private 

organisations, academics and the media can draw on 

IRENA’s extensive knowledge base and wide-reaching 

expertise for a one-stop service that facilitates increased 

interest in, and adoption of, renewable energy technology 

and policies. 

62


NUCLEAR POWER AND 

SPENT FUEL FINAL DISPOSAL 

Climate change mitigation requires a significant 

increase in low carbon electricity production 

technologies. Nuclear energy and renewable 

energy sources both play key roles. VTT Technical 

Research Centre of Finland is Northern Europe’s 

most significant multitechnological applied 

research organisation. VTT’s comprehensive 

nuclear energy expertise and research activities 

cover the technology and safety of nuclear power 

plants and nuclear waste management. 

VTT is the leading provider of technical support 

to the Finnish nuclear industry. We are also an 

active member of the European Technical Safety 

Organisations Network (ETSON), an institute 

that provides expertise to nuclear safety authorities 

outside Europe. One of our key aims is to support 

nuclear safety authorities in countries that are 

constructing their first nuclear power plants. 

Consequently, VTT performs extensive research for 

foreign utilities, industries and regulatory bodies. 

RESEARCH CONTENT 

VTT supports safe and efficient use of nuclear 

fission power including nuclear waste management 

by developing, validating and applying experimental 

and theoretical methods and tools. The reactor 

safety topics cover fuel and reactor physics, thermal 

hydraulics, severe accidents, structural analysis 

and construction safety, probabilistic risk analysis, 

automation and control room design, as well as 

organisational and human issues. Nuclear waste 

management research concentrates on performance 

of technical and natural barriers of spent fuel 

repositories and on technology of the encapsulation 

facilities. VTT also significantly contributes to 

nuclear fusion research in plasma physics, fusion 

materials and remote handling. 

APPLICATIONS 

The methods and expertise are applied in the 

analysis of safety and efficient operation of current 

and future nuclear power plants in Finland and 

abroad. Safety authorities are the key customers, 

but VTT also serves nuclear utilities and vendors 

in many ways. The waste management research 

concentrates on methods of the direct disposal 

of spent fuel to bed rock, which is the concept 

chosen in Finland and Sweden. Fusion research 

mainly aims at ITER applications. 

VTT has had an important role in the safety 

assessment of the current Finnish nuclear 

power plants, both during the initial licensing 

phase and later on in the license extensions 

including modernisations and power uprating. 

Currently VTT supports safety assessments for 

the new Olkiluoto 3 unit, and similar studies for 

international customers. 

RESOURCES 

Some 200 specialists concentrate full or part 

time on various fields of nuclear energy research 

presenting many technology sectors studied at 

VTT. The research facilities comprise large 

selection of computer codes, experimental 

facilities in the fields of material and structural 

studies, severe accidents, fire studies, as well 

as radiochemistry and specific aspects of final 

disposal of radioactive waste. 

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland 

Ilona Lindholm 

Key Account Manager - Nuclear power 

Tel: +358 40 593 8679 

Email: ilona.lindholm@vtt.fi 

Web: www.vtt.fi 

© TVO/Hannu Huovila 

Olkiluoto 3 


63


THE FUTURE OF 

CONCENTRATING 

SOLAR POWER 

By Carol Werner, Executive Director and Blaise Sheridan, Policy Associate, 

Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) 

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is a set of technologies that have enormous potential to generate 

clean, carbon-free electricity in areas of high solar intensity. Thanks to innovative system configurations, 

including thermal storage, CSP is set to play an important role providing reliable, dispatchable power as 

nations move towards low-carbon electricity generation. 

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP), often referred 

to as solar thermal power, is a collection of 

renewable energy technologies that use mirrors 

or lenses to focus the sun’s energy onto a small 

area, creating intense heat that can be used to 

generate electricity. The downstream CSP system 

resembles a traditional steam-powered generating 

facility, the primary worldwide power generation 

method. In effect, a CSP facility replaces the 

heat released by burning coal or natural gas 

with the thermal energy of the sun. Several 

methods of concentrating solar radiation exist, 

including parabolic troughs, linear mirrors, towers 

and dishes. Currently, there are more than two 

gigawatts (GW) of installed CSP capacity across 

10 countries worldwide. 

Globally, CSP’s potential is significant, estimated at 

3,000,000 terawatt-hours per year, over 165 times 

current world electricity demand. The regions 

with the largest direct-solar resources are Africa, 

Australia and the Middle East, followed by China, 

Central and South America, and the United 

States. In 2010 the International Energy Agency 

(IEA) concluded that with proper financial 

support, global CSP capacity could reach 147 

GW by 2020. In the long term, IEA estimates that 

under favourable conditions CSP could grow to 

1,089 GW by 2050 and supply 11.3 per cent of 

the world’s electricity demand. 

CSP technologies are well established and 

commercially proven. There are currently over 2 

GW of commercial-scale or pilot CSP projects 

operating across Algeria, Australia, Egypt, France, 

Iran, Italy, Morocco, Spain, Thailand and USA. 

Spain and USA combined represent 90 per cent 

of the installed CSP capacity. Globally, there are 

more than 20 GW of new capacity in various states 

of development. CSP plants are planned or under 


A broad view of parabolic trough solar collectors at Kramer Junction in the Mojave desert in California 


© Public Domain via Desertec-UK 

Suitability for solar thermal power plants 

Source Solar Millennium (Note: Solar Millennium AG filed for 

insolvency on 14 December 2011) via Schott (www.schottsolar.com) 

construction in China, India, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, 

South Africa and the United Arab Emirates. 

CSP TECHNOLOGIES 

Parabolic troughs 

In trough CSP generating facilities, parabolic 

mirrors are aligned in north-south rows facing 

the sun. The parabolic mirrors are set on frames 

fitted with solar trackers to follow the sun 

east to west during the day. Thermal receivers, 

insulated by a vacuum in a glass tube, run along 

the mirrors’ focal point. Transfer fluid – normally 

synthetic oil or molten salt – flows through the 

thermal receivers and is heated to 390ºC by the 

concentrated sunlight. The transfer fluid runs 

into a heat exchanger where it heats water into 

superheated steam. The cooled transfer fluid 

then returns to the parabolic mirrors to begin 

the process anew. The steam flows into a steam 

turbine connected to a generator which produces 

electricity. The steam is then run through an air or 

water cooling tower where it evaporates. Typical 

trough systems are about 11 to 16 per cent 

efficient at converting sunlight to electricity. 

The first parabolic trough CSP facility was 

installed in the California desert in sections from 

1984-90, and this 354-megawatt (MW) Solar 

Energy Generating Systems facility is still in 

operation today – a testament to the technology’s 

reliability. There is now about 1.8 GW of 

parabolic trough capacity across Spain, USA, Italy, 

Egypt, Morocco and Algeria, constituting about 

94 per cent of total installed CSP capacity. 

66


© AREVA Solar 

© Torresol Energy Investments, S.A. © Sandia National Laboratories. Photo by Randy Montoya 

Linear Fresnel Reflectors 

The linear Fresnel reflector (LFR) system is 

similar to the parabolic troughs, but instead of 

sun-tracking troughs, LFR systems employ fixed 

or single-axis flat mirrors focused on a linear 

thermal receiver. Using flat mirrors results in 

lower capital costs, but the system’s efficiency is 

slightly lower at 13 per cent. Otherwise, LFR 

systems resemble parabolic trough systems. There 

are about 35 MW of LFR capacity installed in 

Spain and Australia. 

Solar power towers 

In the solar power tower method, dual-axis, suntracking 

mirrors called heliostats are configured 

around a central tower. The heliostats focus light 

at receivers located at the top of the tower. The 

transfer fluid in the receiver – in this case either 

water or molten salt – is heated to above 500ºC 

and produces steam to generate electricity, as 

in a traditional coal, natural gas, or nuclear 

plant. Early examples were about 10 per cent 

efficient at converting sunlight to electricity, 

although newer tower system designs can reach 

efficiencies of up to 20 per cent. The first 

solar power tower, the 10 MW Solar One, was 

installed in California, USA, in 1981 and then 

retrofitted as Solar Two in 1995. Commercial 

generating facilities totalling 70 MW have since 

been installed in Spain and USA. 

The Stirling engine dish system 

Stirling engine systems are markedly different 

from the aforementioned CSP technologies in 

that the Stirling engine serves as both the receiver 

and the electricity generation device. The Stirling 

engine is located at the focal point of a suntracking, 

concave dish mirror. Light is reflected 

onto the collector which is heated to above 

750ºC, causing rapid expansion of air that through 

a mechanical process turns a turbine to generate 

electricity. Stirling engine systems have the highest 

sunlight-to-electricity efficiency among CSP 

technologies – up to 25 per cent – but the lowest 

market penetration due to their high cost. 

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES 

Capital cost 

The major barrier to widespread CSP adoption 

remains its cost, both in comparison to traditional 

coal and natural gas thermal power plants, as well 

as to solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation. 



Table 1. Concentrating solar power technology overview 

Source: adapted from Fichtner, 2010, and IRENA, 2012. 

Parabolic trough Solar power tower Linear Fresnel Stirling engine dish 

Typical capacity 

(MW) 

10-300 10-200 10-200 0.01-0.025 

Maturity of 

technology 

Commercially 

proven 

Pilot commercial 

projects 

Pilot projects 

Demonstration 

projects 

Operating 

temperature (ºC) 

Solar-to-electricity 

efficiency (%, 

annualised) 

350-550 250-565 390 550-750 

11-16 7-20 13 12-25 

Storage 

Indirect two-tank 

molten salt at 

380ºC or direct 

two-tank molten 

salt at 550ºC 

Direct two-tank 

molten salt at 

550ºC 

Short-term 

pressurised steam 

storage 

Under 

development 

Water requirement 

(cu metres/MWh) 

3 (wet cooling); 0.3 

(dry cooling) 

2-3 (wet cooling); 

0.25 (dry cooling) 

3 (wet cooling); 0.2 

(dry cooling) 

0.05-0.1 (mirror 

washing) 

Traditional generation technologies benefit 

from lower upfront costs, but are then subject to 

ongoing fuel costs and fuel price variability. Given 

historic price volatility for natural gas and the 

possibility of carbon reduction policies, this could 

be a substantial and costly risk. Over their 30-40 

year lifespans, CSP facilities are a good hedge 

against that risk. 

Compared to traditional fossil fuel power plants, 

CSP facilities require high upfront costs. The power 

generation portion of a CSP facility amounts to 

a small fraction of the total cost; the majority of 

the initial investment is for the solar collectors 

which harness the sun’s energy. In a solar power 

tower project, the heliostats alone account for 30 

to 50 per cent of the project’s capital costs. After 

the initial capital investment, the fuel for CSP is 

free and, crucially, does not emit greenhouse gases 

or other harmful emissions. In fact, the carbon 

embodied in the manufacturing and installation is 

paid back after about a year of operation. 

CSP versus solar PV 

While solar PV and CSP do not directly compete 

for resources – CSP requires direct sunlight, while 

solar PV can generate electricity under diffuse 

light, albeit less efficiently – their ideal locations 

do substantially overlap. More importantly, 

energy planners tend to see solar PV and CSP 

as interchangeable. Both renewable technologies 

harness the sun’s energy to produce electricity and 

neither emits greenhouse gases nor has any fuel 

costs, and thus they often end up competing on 

a price basis. With the recent precipitous drop of 

PV panel prices, the capital costs of solar PV are 

lower than those of CSP. However, this discounts 

one of the most attractive elements of CSP: the 

potential for straightforward integration of costeffective 

thermal storage. 

CSP’s thermal energy can be stored in molten salt 

tanks either through the addition of a separate 

thermal loop or by using molten salt directly as 

the transfer fluid – as evidenced by the Spanish 

Andasol and Gemasolar generating facilities, 

respectively. Seven parabolic trough and solar 

power tower generating facilities (currently 

operating or under construction) have 6-7.5 

hours of thermal storage, and some have up to 15 

hours. The addition of thermal storage to CSP 

removes any concern about variable generation 

– which is an issue for wind and solar PV – and 

facilitates the predictable generation of electricity 

that can be dispatched on demand. Because of 

the predictable nature of CSP with thermal 

storage, generating facilities can be relied upon 

as baseload power at night or during periods of 

low solar radiation. The dispatchable nature of 

thermal storage capacity also allows CSP facilities 

68


to have access to additional revenue streams by 

ensuring electric grid reliability and power quality, 

and by reducing grid integration costs. While 

the addition of such storage increases costs, the 

benefits outweigh the costs. 

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES 

OF LARGE SCALE INSTALLATIONS 

CSP is most economically viable in large 

installations. This can be viewed as both a positive 

and a negative. As a negative, the potential for 

distributed CSP is less than for distributed solar 

PV, which can be installed easily on businesses 

and residences. Moreover, the best CSP locations 

are often in remote areas away from transmission 

and with low water availability. Unfortunately, 

unlike wind and solar PV power, CSP requires 

water for cooling in the electricity generation 

process, although ‘dry cool’ methods to reduce 

water usage are available. Parabolic troughs and 

solar power towers require substantial amounts of 

land, generally with flat topography. The 280 MW 

Solana generating facility in Arizona is situated on 

7.75 square kilometres of desert, less than a wind 

project of similar capacity, but far larger than an 

equivalent fossil fuel power plant. It is important 

to note that this calculation would change 

substantially if the land requirement for fossil fuel 

extraction were included. 

On the positive side, large CSP installations 

allow for economies of scale in production and 

installation, leading to price reductions. In addition, 

electricity system operators are accustomed to 

dealing with large installations, which can help 

lead to widespread acceptance. For a power plant 

operator, the downstream CSP system resembles a 

traditional steam-powered generating facility, which 

is the primary worldwide generation technology. 

This allows for configurations such as Integrated 

Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC) generating facilities 

where concentrating solar facilities produce a 

portion of the power, with natural gas providing 

the remainder, as is the case in projects in Morocco 

and Algeria. 

CSP’s major components are made of readily 

available, plentiful materials such as glass, steel, 

iron, copper, concrete, aluminium, synthetic oil 

and plastic; no rare earth metals are required. 

The CSP supply chain is well adapted to 

locally-sourced manufacturing, and many 

CSP components could be manufactured in 

developing countries as local markets arise. A 

Deloitte study of the Spanish CSP market found 

that from 2008 to 2010 the project investment 

that stayed within the country increased from 58 

per cent to over 70 per cent. 

EFFECTIVE PUBLIC POLICIES 

The CSP industry has recently undergone 

some restructuring, and it is possible that in 

the long-run certain CSP technologies will be 

more successful than others. However, given the 

right policy incentives, CSP is poised to supply 

reliable, renewable electricity to both developed 

and developing countries for years to come. In 

the major CSP markets of Spain and the USA, 

two different financing mechanisms have been 

used to incentivise market penetration. In Spain, 

long-term, fixed-rate feed-in tariffs provide a 

low-risk guarantee. The USA, meanwhile, uses tax 

incentives and low-interest federal loans coupled 

with state renewable portfolio standards to support 

market penetration. As developing countries 

consider policies to encourage CSP deployment, 

the World Bank recommends feed-in tariffs as 

a straightforward mechanism, which provides a 

predictable, guaranteed return for investors and has 

proven successful at spurring growth. 

Carol Werner has served as the executive director of 

the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) 

since 1998. With more than 30 years of public policy 

experience on energy and environmental issues, Ms 

Werner has been responsible for 20-30 Congressional 

briefings annually on science, technology and policy 

issues, and has been a frequent speaker at conferences 

and workshops on energy and environmental issues. 

Blaise Sheridan is EESI’s Policy Associate in the 

Energy and Climate programme, where his work focuses 

on renewable energy and climate change. Previously, 

Blaise was an Energy Policy Fellow for US Senator 

Chris Coons (D-DE). 

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute 

(EESI) is a non-profit organisation advancing innovative 

policy solutions to set us on a cleaner, more secure and 

sustainable energy path. Our three-pronged approach 

for effecting change is based on policy-maker education, 

coalition building, and policy development. EESI 

was founded by a bipartisan Congressional caucus in 

1984, and its strong relationships with Congress helps 

EESI serve as a trusted source of credible, non-partisan 

information on energy and environmental solutions. EESI 

is an independent not-for-profit organisation, supported 

through contributions and grants. 



ENERGY EFFICIENCY: 

A VALUABLE RESOURCE 

By Kateri Callahan and Rodney Sobin, President and Senior Policy Manager at the 

Alliance to Save Energy 

Energy efficiency is the world’s most abundant, reliable, clean, and least expensive energy resource. Its 

supply is ubiquitous. It avoids rather than produces pollution. While it is not free, it is usually cheaper 

than fuels and power generation. Also it cannot be embargoed, manipulated by cartels, nor disrupted by 

distant (or not-so-distant) unrest. 

Many studies show that energy efficiency is 

the lowest cost energy resource. In the US 

electricity sector, the American Council for 

an Energy-Efficient Economy and others have 

calculated that energy efficiency measures often 

cost US$0.03 per kilowatt hour (kWh) saved 

as compared to US$0.07 to over US$0.13 

per kWh for electricity supply. A Regulatory 

Assistance Project study of international utilitybased 

energy efficiency best practices found, 

for example, that the cost of saving one kWh 

averaged €0.027 in Belgium’s Flanders region 

and €0.056 in Denmark, both much lower than 

the cost of buying electricity. 

Energy efficiency’s cost-effectiveness is not 

limited to electricity. It applies to direct fuel 

use in buildings, industry and transport as well. 

For instance, the Rocky Mountain Institute 

identified various heavy-truck efficiency measures 

– improvements in aerodynamics, wheels and 

tyres, engines, transmissions, auxiliary power, and 

weight – that could save US freight operations 

1.7 million barrels of diesel fuel daily by 2050 at 

costs of under US$2.30 per US gallon (US$0.61 

per litre), significantly less than current and 

anticipated diesel fuel prices. 

“Many studies show that 

energy efficiency is the lowest 

cost energy resource.” 

Efficiency enhances competitiveness 

The box illustrates a few examples of how 

energy efficiency enhances the productivity and 

competitiveness of industry by saving money. 

While the examples, of which there are many 

more, are taken from manufacturing, cases 

abound from the housing, commercial buildings, 



municipal and public service (water, waste 

water, street lighting), transport and logistics, and 

agricultural sectors. 

EFFICIENCY CUTS EMISSIONS COST- 

EFFECTIVELY 

So what is the global scope for energy efficiency, 

and what can it contribute towards reining in 

greenhouse gas emissions? In 2007, McKinsey 

& Co analysed opportunities for energy 

productivity improvements to mitigate global 

energy demand growth and greenhouse gas 

emissions. The base case in Curbing Global 

Energy Demand Growth: The Energy 

Productivity Opportunity projected 

that anticipated 1 per cent annual energy 

productivity increases through 2020 would 

be overwhelmed, leading to 2.2 per cent and 

2.4 per cent annual increases in world energy 

demand and CO 2 

emissions, respectively. 

However, the study also found major costeffective 

opportunities to expand energy 

productivity across all economic sectors – 

industrial, residential, commercial, power, and 

transport. Looking only at options that provide 

at least a 10 per cent internal rate of return 

(IRR) and rely on existing technologies, the 

McKinsey team found that investing US$170 

billion per year (about 0.4 per cent of global 

GDP) through 2020 would more than halve the 

rate of world energy demand increase to less 

than 1 per cent per year without diminishing 

economic growth. By 2020 the resulting annual 

energy savings would amount to 135 quadrillion 

Btu (about 1.3 times current US consumption), 

or the equivalent of 64 million barrels of oil 

per day. Annual cost savings would be US$900 

billion, yielding an average 17 per cent IRR. 

“There are major cost-effective 

opportunities to expand 

energy productivity across all 

economic sectors.” 

The study also estimated that the greenhouse gas 

emissions avoided from energy productivity 

improvements would provide as much as half the 

emissions abatement needed to stabilise CO 2 

concentrations in the range of 450 to 550 parts 

per million, the level believed necessary by many 

climatologists to cap global mean temperature 

increases to 2°C. 

ENERGY EFFICIENCY CAN SAVE MONEY AND IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY 

Since 1990, the Dow Chemical Co has reduced production energy intensity per kg of product 

by 40 per cent, saving a cumulative US$24 billion and 5.2 quadrillion Btu (about 5 per cent of 

US annual energy use, or more than the annual energy use of the Netherlands). It also avoided 

the release of over 270 million tons of CO 2 

equivalent. 

Good piping design practices reduce by 69 per cent pumping energy required by a 

biotechnology plant in Singapore, while also reducing capital costs. 

India’s Sun Flag Iron & Steel improved its energy efficiency over 26 per cent by installing waste 

heat recovery units to cogenerate electric power. It achieved considerable financial returns by 

reducing purchased electricity by almost half and, at times, exporting power to the electric grid. 

3M, with operations in 65 countries, improved its energy productivity 22 per cent during 2005- 

09, saving US$100 million. 

The machining department of Delta Faucet Company’s plant in Tennessee (USA) reduced its 

natural gas consumption by over 95 per cent and saves US$2,000 each month on chemicals by 

altering its cleaning processes. 

A Chinese petroleum refinery reduced electricity used in refining oil by 28 per cent by installing 

34 variable-speed drives. The investment paid itself back in six months. 

Toyota South Africa Motors has implemented an energy management system across its South 

African plants, yielding annual savings of 1.37 million rand, including about 400,000 rand from 

optimisation of compressed air systems that required almost no capital cost. 

United Technologies reduced the energy intensity of its operations during 2003-07 by 45 per cent 

and greenhouse gas emissions 62 per cent during 2006-10, respectively, while sales rose 13 per cent. 

72


“Emissions avoided from energy 

productivity improvements 

would provide as much as 

half the emissions abatement 

needed to stabilise CO 2 

.” 

McKinsey analysts found opportunities across the 

globe, with China (21 per cent) and the United 

States (18 per cent) having the greatest potential, 

and about two-thirds of the opportunities in 

developing economies. 

This analysis and many others that show energy 

efficiency’s economic benefits lead to the question 

of why so many seemingly attractive opportunities 

remain unrealised. 

THE HURDLES CAN BE SURMOUNTED 

Even if the failure of energy prices to reflect the 

externalities of environmental and social costs is 

disregarded, various market imperfections stand 

in the way of achieving cost-effective energy 

efficiency. Among these impediments are: 

Lack of information. Consumers and 

managers may not know enough about 

energy efficiency opportunities and their 

benefits. They may avoid new products and 

processes with which they are less familiar. 

First cost, payback, and rate-of-return 

criteria. High first cost of some measures 

can dissuade investment. Consumers and 

companies may demand quick payback 

and high rates of return that leave behind 

profitable efficiency opportunities. 

Energy subsidies. In some places energy 

subsidies and unmetered energy leads to 

undervaluation and overconsumption. 

Split incentives. The landlord-tenant 

 

example – landlord owns the building but 

the tenant pays the energy bill – is the best 

known of various cases where differing 

interests of different parties can lead to suboptimal 

or just plain wasteful energy use. 

Utility incentives not aligned with 

customer efficiency. In many places 

electric and natural gas utilities have 

financial incentives to sell more energy 

rather than to help customers use energy 

effectively and efficiently. 

“Various market imperfections 

stand in the way of achieving 

cost-effective energy 

efficiency.” 

Well-crafted policies, including information 

requirements such as vehicle and appliance energy 

labels and building energy use disclosure, can help 

surmount these impediments. Technical assistance, 

demonstrations and other approaches can also 

address the information gap. Fuel economy and 

appliance standards and building energy codes help 

ensure that at least a minimum level of efficiency is 

met. Financial incentives, including tax concessions, 

can encourage early adopters of efficient 

technologies and practices. Such approaches as 

‘fee-bates’ – for instance charging a fee for buying 

the least efficient cars while offering a rebate to 

buyers of the most efficient – can provide 

continuous incentives to increase efficiency. 

The phase-out of energy subsidies, perhaps with 

support for efficiency measures to reduce cost 

impacts, can provide rational price signals for 

energy use. 



UTILITIES AS EFFICIENCY PARTNERS 

In the United States, Canada and elsewhere, 

various states and provinces have energy savings 

incentives or requirements for electric and 

natural gas utilities. Various US states have 

energy efficiency resource standards that impose 

requisite savings goals on utilities. Some allow 

utilities to earn returns on customer efficiency 

programmes or offer financial bonuses. Public 

benefit charges in some states, and carbon 

auction funds in parts of the Northeastern 

USA, fund energy efficiency programmes. The 

Consortium for Energy Efficiency estimated that 

in 2010, programmes funded by customers of US 

and Canadian utilities saved 124,000 gigawatthours 

of electricity and 1.3 billion therms of 

natural gas, while avoiding 92 million tonnes of 

CO 2 

emissions. 

Non-regulatory innovations also offer 

opportunity. Energy service companies (ESCOs) 

offer energy service performance contracts that 

provide savings guarantees and upfront capital in 

return for compensation from a portion of the 

client’s energy savings. This saves money while 

allowing the client to implement efficiency 

upgrades without tapping into its own capital. 

Another innovation in New York City is the 

development of energy-aligned lease language to 

help address split incentives in leased buildings. 

Many other energy-efficiency policies and 

practices offer opportunities, including policies 

to encourage research and development of new 

efficient technologies. 

A WIN-WIN SOLUTION 

Energy efficiency simultaneously enhances 

productivity, moderates costs, improves energy 

reliability and security, and avoids pollution and 

waste. Its potential is vast. To reiterate McKinsey's 

analysis, a modest annual investment, 0.4 per cent 

of global GDP or US$170 billion, can yield 17 

per cent returns, saving US$900 billion a year 

by 2020 – and achieve up to half of needed 

greenhouse gas emissions reductions. 

Energy efficiency is the win-win solution for 

achieving economically and environmentally 

sustainable growth in the 21st century. 

Kateri Callahan, President of the Alliance to Save 

Energy, has more than 25 years’ experience in 

policy advocacy, fundraising, coalition building, and 

organisational management. The Alliance’s principal 

spokesperson before Congress, the media and conferences 

worldwide, Callahan was among the 23 inaugural 

inductees to the Energy Efficiency Hall of Fame in 

2009. 

Rodney Sobin is Senior Policy Manager at the Alliance 

to Save Energy. He has over 20 years’ experience 

in energy and environmental policy, innovation and 

commercialisation of technologies, and various energy 

efficiency-related topics. He holds two master’s degrees 

from Washington University in St Louis, and a 

bachelor’s degree from Cornell University. 

The Alliance to Save Energy was founded in 1977 as 

a bipartisan non-profit organisation by two US senators, 

Republican Charles Percy and Democrat Hubert 

Humphrey. The Alliance is a coalition of prominent 

business, government, environmental, and consumer 

leaders who promote the efficient and clean use of energy 

worldwide to benefit consumers, the environment, the 

economy, and national security. The Alliance conducts 

policy, communications, research, education, and market 

transformation initiatives in the USA and more than a 

dozen other countries. 

74


TURNING IDEAS INTO CONCRETE ACTIONS: 

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT THE HEART 

OF CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION 

By Martine Provost, Executive Director, 

Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership 

With a firm belief that access to electricity can 

help reconcile development, poverty eradication 

and climate change mitigation and adaptation, 

the Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership 

(GSEP), an international non-profit organization 

formerly known as e8 composed of the world’s 

leading utilities, is taking concrete actions towards 

increasing access to clean and reliable electricity 

across the world. 

As a unique pool of expertise in the electricity 

sector, we develop and implement small, 

concrete renewable energy projects and 

solutions on the ground that improve the 

standards of living of thousands of people 

without pursuing any commercial goal, which 

sets us apart from other organizations in the 

sector. To date, we have implemented several 

clean energy projects worldwide that saved 

almost 10,000 tons of CO 2 

emissions. 

Sharing our know-how, we have additionally led 

and delivered both technical and institutional 

capacity-building workshops that have reached 

more than 60 countries. Building on our twenty 

years of experience, we are currently developing 

bold initiatives in partnership with other 

international organizations, with an aim to test 

and create new business models for the scale-up 

of renewable energy projects and the development 

of capacity in public-private partnerships. 

More than ever, our actions are relevant in a 

context of a growing world population, where 

huge efforts are required across the globe to 

fight energy poverty while coping with climate 

change. This is why this year, we responded to the 

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call for 

action and pledged a series of concrete initiatives 

as our immediate contribution to the longterm 

objective of achieving universal access to 

sustainable energy for all by 2030. 

These pledges include the provision of 50,000 

solar lanterns that will increase access to 

electricity of off-grid households in partnership 

with the Global BrightLight Foundation; the 

expansion of our current capacity-building 

program in transferring business expertise and 

know-how in electrification projects to help 

develop local capacities in developing countries; 

and the funding of the development of an 

electrification roadmap for southern Africa which 

aims at providing access to electricity for 500 

million people by 2025. Moreover, heads of our 

corporate member organisations are playing a 

leadership role as of the UN High-Level Group 

for Sustainable Energy for All. 

We applaud the UN’s first-of-a-kind invitation to 

the private sector to join forces with governments 

and civil society to urgently work on sustainable 

and clean energy solutions for the underserved 

populations of the world. We invite others to 

join us in this call for more tangible projects 

that demonstrate the viability of a bottom-up 

approach to sustainable energy development 

and climate change mitigation and adaptation in 

developing and emerging countries. 

Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership 

Email: info@globalelectricity.org 

Web: www.globalelectricity.org 


75


TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE 

IN THE OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY 

By Brian Sullivan, Executive Director, IPIECA 

The challenges of climate change need to be addressed now, and the oil and gas industry is ready to play 

its role, while also supplying essential energy that the world needs for economic and social development. 

The energy industries will continue to minimise 

greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and are constantly 

seeking to use energy more efficiently throughout 

their operations, as well as working with end users 

to improve efficiency in the use of energy products. 

Finding ways to use energy more efficiently can 

make a major contribution to moving the world 

onto a more sustainable energy path. 

ENERGY OUTLOOK 

The world’s prosperity depends on reliable, 

available and affordable energy. A key challenge is 

how to meet the world’s growing energy needs 

in economically, environmentally and socially 

responsible ways. 

Global energy policies are promoting low-carbon 

energy technologies, and the use of modern 

renewables will almost triple by 2035 to about 

14 per cent of total supply. However, renewables 

cannot satisfy global demand growth, so 

consumption of both oil and gas is set to continue 

to grow for the foreseeable future. This is one of 

the projections in the most recent World Energy 

Outlook produced by the International Energy 

Agency (IEA) see Figure 1. 

The IEA predicts that world primary energy 

demand will grow by anywhere between 20 

per cent and 40 per cent between 2009 and 

2035, driven principally by growing income 

and population in emerging economies. These 

projections are based on the IEA’s ‘450 Scenario’ – 

where policies aim to hold the world temperature 

rise to 2°C (resulting in greater energy efficiency), 

and its ‘New Policies Scenario’ (which includes 

planned but not implemented national policies), 

estimated to hold the temperature rise to 3.5°C. 

In both scenarios, oil and gas are predicted to 

meet around half of the world’s energy needs in 

2035 – down slightly from current levels – with oil 

remaining the largest contributor to the energy mix. 

ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE 

Oil and gas companies work hard to meet the 

world’s growing energy needs while reducing 

their environmental and social impacts. Actions 

differ from company to company, frequently 

76


incorporating steps such as: 

Accurate monitoring and reporting of GHG 

emissions along the value chain; 

Reduction in GHG emissions intensity in 

operations through more efficient use of 

energy (see box), reduced flaring, advances 

in drilling and production techniques, 

investment in co-generation facilities and the 

use of natural gas for electricity generation; 

Research, development and deployment of 

carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, 

typically alongside enhanced oil recovery 

(EOR). EOR improves the economics 

of CCS and can facilitate the commercial 

deployment of CCS; 

Development of conventional fossil fuel 

reserves and other sources such as gas from 

shale and crude oil from oil sands using 

increasing knowledge to extract these 

resources efficiently; 

Investment in renewable energy and other 

low emission technologies including 

hydrogen, biofuels and fuel cells, and 

cleaner fuels such as liquefied natural gas 

(LNG). Technological innovation will play 

a central role in the energy industry’s ability 

to increase supply, improve efficiency and 

reduce emissions; 

Consumer education to use energy more 

efficiently. An example is EUROPIA’s ‘Save 

more than fuel’ campaign that provides 

drivers with tips to improve their fuel 

efficiency, saving them money while cutting 

GHG emissions. 

COMPANY FOCUS ON ENERGY 

SAVINGS 

Finding ways to use energy more efficiently can 

make a major contribution to moving the world 

onto a more sustainable energy path. Oil and gas 

companies have a strong financial incentive to 

save energy, because of the large share of energy 

in the overall cost of operating their facilities. 

Efficient energy use reduces costs along the 

whole supply chain and makes energy more 

affordable to consumers (see box). In fact, the 

industry manages to keep energy consumption 

from the production and supply of a standard 

gasoline or diesel product to less than 18 per cent 

of that delivered throughout their life. Efficiency 

per unit of output, a broader term that includes all 

petrochemicals produced, is greater still. 

Investments in energy efficiency are not always 

reflected fully in the wider trends for energy 

3% 

16% 

11% 

Coal 

Oil 

Gas 

Nuclear 

8% 

21% 

16% 

25% 

Hydro 

Biomass 

Other 

renewables 

Figure 1. World primary energy demand in 2035 

under a 450 parts per million CO 2 

-equivalent scenario 

(IEA World Energy Outlook 2011) 

Source: World Energy Outlook, IEA, 2011 

PRODUCTION EFFICIENCY: 

SAVING ENERGY ALONG THE 

SUPPLY CHAIN 

Industry efforts to improve the efficiency of 

oil and gas supply processes, combat waste 

and reduce emissions include: 

Energy systems management, involving 

the use of information technology 

to analyse and control energy 

consumption in production and 

refining processes; 

More efficient exploration, through 

improved drilling success rates thanks 

to advances in seismic surveying and 

analysis, and drilling techniques; 

Co-generation of heat and power 

and the recovery of waste heat from 

production units using heat exchangers; 

Reduced flaring and venting of 

associated gas, through investment in 

gas processing and distribution; 

Improved process operations and 

equipment, such as more efficient 

pumps and compressor turbines; and 

High pressure pipelines, which require 

less energy input per unit of oil or gas 

transported per kilometre. 



intensity in the oil and gas industry. In spite of 

actions to reduce energy intensity across the 

supply chain, there are a number of factors 

increasing energy use. 

Oil and gas production and oil refining became 

progressively more energy intensive through the 

1990s. This is because it has been increasingly 

necessary to drill deeper to find and produce oil 

and gas, to use secondary and enhanced oil and 

gas recovery techniques, and to exploit heavier oil 

deposits and older reservoirs. In refining there is a 

demand to process greater volumes of crude, while 

also converting most of that crude into end products, 

and reducing environmental impacts through energy 

intensive processes such as greater desulphurisation. 

These enhancements consume more energy. 

Even with these challenges, energy intensity in 

both the upstream industry and in refining has 

fallen significantly since 2007 and is now back 

to below the level of the late 1990s, thanks to 

significant investments by the industry in energysaving 

technologies. 

CONSUMER EFFICIENCY 

The industry is also promoting energy-efficient 

use of its products by end users. Significant savings 

can be made as, typically, around 18 per cent of 

energy is consumed in the production of fuels, and 

the remaining 82 per cent is expended by end use. 

For example, a 10 per cent improvement in the 

efficiency of oil use in transport and other end uses 

would save the equivalent of half of the energy 

used by the oil and gas industry worldwide. 

As well as improving efficiencies in their supply 

chains, oil and gas companies are continually 

seeking to reduce energy needs through 

improvements in the quality of their products. 

Examples include advanced road fuels, motor oils 

and lubricants that improve vehicle performance. 

Several companies have developed proprietary 

additives for gasoline and diesel that help to 

enhance fuel economy. Some companies also 

offer specialised energy services such as audits and 

consulting advice on how to reduce energy use 

to business and public sector customers, such as 

schools and hospitals. 

WELL-TO-WHEELS 

In the transport sector, the Well-to-Wheels 

initiative has helped quantify the impact of different 

fuels and vehicle engines. Developed jointly by 

the oil industry research body CONCAWE, the 

European Council for Automotive Research and 

Development and the European Commission’s 

Joint Research Centre, Well-to-Wheels calculates 

the energy use and greenhouse gas emissions 

associated with different fuels and powertrains, and 

the associated costs and benefits. 

“Energy intensity in both 

the upstream industry 

and in refining has fallen 

significantly.” 

Industry partnerships facilitate the sharing of ideas 

and promote the awareness of energy efficiency 

and emissions reduction methods and best 

practices both within the industry and externally. 

The industry is also collaborating with 

governments and other bodies on research and 

development of more efficient vehicles, as well as 

developing in-house process technologies for use 

under licence. For example, many oil companies 

are helping to develop advanced vehicle 

technologies and components, such as lightweight 

plastics and resins, often in partnership with 

automobile manufacturers. 

“Many oil companies are 

helping to develop advanced 

vehicle technologies and 

components.” 

STAKEHOLDER CO-OPERATION 

Climate change can only be addressed if 

governments, industry and society work together. 

The oil and gas industry is working to develop 

collaborative and innovative solutions to the 

challenges of supplying energy in a cost effective 

and environmentally sustainable manner: 

The Global Gas Flaring Reduction 

Partnership involves major oil companies and 

governments working together to reduce gas 

flaring and venting. 

78


 

 

The CO 2 

Capture Project (CCP) is a 

partnership of six major energy companies 

working to advance CCS. The CCP 

has undertaken more than 150 projects 

to increase the science, economics and 

engineering applications of CCS, in 

association with government organisations 

and global research institutes. 

The US Environmental Protection Agency's 

Natural Gas STAR, Natural Gas STAR 

International and Global Methane Initiative 

are examples of programmes focused on the 

venting and leakage of natural gas throughout 

the oil and gas value chain. These programmes 

bring together countries and companies with 

the goal of promoting oil and gas industry 

methane emission reductions through the 

implementation of proven cost effective 

technologies and practices. 

IPIECA INITIATIVES 

Oil and gas companies have been working 

together on climate change issues through 

IPIECA since 1988. Activities include: 

Developing industry tools to help reduce 

flaring and venting and improve energy 

efficiency; 

Developing GHG management good 

practices; 

Publishing guidelines for monitoring, 

measuring and reporting GHG emissions and 

emission reduction projects; 

 

 

 

 

Proposing sustainable biofuels standards; 

Sharing knowledge on carbon capture and 

storage, including through partnerships such 

as with the Global Carbon Capture and 

Storage Institute (GCCSI); 

Engaging with the international policy 

process under the UN Framework 

Convention on Climate Change; and 

Supporting climate science, including 

engaging with the Intergovernmental Panel 

on Climate Change (IPCC). 

WHAT NEXT? 

The oil and gas industry’s efforts to minimise GHG 

emissions will continue, while its energy supply 

portfolio expands to meet the world’s growing 

energy needs. The dual challenge of energy supply 

and climate change calls for the development of 

cost-effective and environmentally viable solutions, 

through both short and long-term measures. 

The industry’s investment in technology to access 

new energy sources, including gas from shale, will 

provide further sources of lower-carbon fuel. Oil 

and gas companies will continue to work with 

governments and civil society to address sustainable 

energy supply and climate change challenges. 

Brian Sullivan joined IPIECA as the Executive 

Director in 2011 from the biofuels industry and 

following a 23-year career in BP. This included 

assignments in London, Copenhagen, Budapest, Athens 

and Johannesburg, and business experience in over 60 

countries. During his time with BP he has had varied 

responsibilities in technical, commercial, financial and 

leadership roles across the downstream value chain, 

including crude and products trading, marine fuels, 

lubricants and alternative energy. 

IPIECA is the global oil and gas industry association 

for environmental and social issues. It develops, shares 

and promotes good practices and knowledge to help 

the industry improve its environmental and social 

performance; and is the industry’s principal channel of 

communication with the United Nations. Through its 

member-led working groups and executive leadership, 

IPIECA brings together the collective expertise of oil 

and gas companies and associations. Its unique position 

within the industry enables its members to respond 

effectively to key environmental and social issues. 

www.ipieca.org 



FOSSIL FUEL 

SUBSIDY REFORM 

By Mark Halle, Executive Director, International Institute for Sustainable Development 

(IISD), Europe 

The scale of fossil fuel subsidies is immense. However, demands for urgent reform are not yet finding a 

positive response from legislators and policy-makers. 

Since late 2009, fossil fuel subsidy reform has leapt 

onto the international energy, climate change and 

finance agendas. Both the G20 and the Asia- 

Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) 

have pledged to phase out inefficient fossil fuel 

subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption. 

Unfortunately, however, these commitments have 

not yet been translated into substantial action at 

the national level. 

MORE THAN $600 BILLION A YEAR 

Governments provide subsidies to fossil fuels 

throughout the value chain. Generally, a 

distinction is drawn between subsidies supporting 

consumption and those supporting production. 

Consumption subsidies occur when fossil fuels are 

supplied to consumers at prices below a reference 

(or world) price. Production subsidies include 

a wide range of fiscal policy instruments that 

support oil and gas producers, such as tax breaks, 

low interest rate loans, cheap access to public land, 

resources or infrastructure. 

The International Energy Agency (IEA) 

estimated that consumption subsidies amounted 

to US$409 billion in 2010 and potentially as 

much as $630 billion in 2012. The estimates 

fluctuate due, in large part, to changes in crude 

“Taking an average figure of 

half a trillion dollars per year, 

we are subsidising fossil fuels 

at a rate of eight times what 

it would cost annually to fully 

implement the Millennium 

Development Goals …” 

– Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the 

United Nations Environment Programme, Berlin, 

November 2011 



oil prices. In addition, the International Institute 

for Sustainable Development’s Global Subsidies 

Initiative has estimated that, globally, producer 

subsidies are at least $100 billion per year. In total, 

different sources estimate government support 

to fossil fuels at $600 billion annually at the least. 

This is roughly equivalent to around 1 per cent 

of the world’s annual GDP: the level of funding 

that Sir Nicholas Stern found that governments 

would need to spend to stabilise greenhouse gas 

emissions at 450 parts per million. It is also six 

times the amount of funding promised by wealthy 

countries for climate finance in Durban. 

REFORM IS FUNDAMENTAL FOR 

SUSTAINABILITY 

Inefficient fossil fuel subsidies undermine 

all three pillars of sustainable development. 

Consumer subsidies are used in some developing 

countries with the aim of alleviating energy 

poverty. However, the International Energy 

Agency (IEA) finds that only 8 per cent of 

consumer subsidies in developing countries go 

to the poorest 20 per cent of the population. 

Subsidies for transport fuels – gasoline and diesel 

– tend to be more regressive than subsidies for 

kerosene, a fuel used by low-income households 

for lighting. Even so, only around 15 per cent 

of those kerosene subsidies benefit the lowest 

income groups. 

Removing these subsidies could unlock the 

capital required to improve energy technologies, 

infrastructure and services to meet the UN’s goal 

of Sustainable Energy for All. It would also free 

up public funds to reallocate to more efficient 

economic development, social welfare and 

poverty eradication policies. 

“As nations look for policy 

responses to the worst 

economic crisis of our 

lifetimes, phasing out 

subsidies is an obvious way 

to help governments meet 

their economic, environmental 

and social goals.” 

– Angel Gurría, OECD Secretary-General, Paris, 

October 2011 

Figure 1. Share of fossil fuel subsidies received by the lowest 20 per 

cent income group in 2010 

Source: IEA World Energy Outlook, 2011 

Inefficient subsidies directly contribute to the 

over-consumption of fossil fuels and higher 

emissions of local and global pollutants. According 

to IEA estimates, a complete phase-out of fossil 

fuel consumption subsidies by 2020 would result 

in a decrease in global primary energy demand 

by 4.1 per cent, accompanied by a reduction in 

carbon emissions of 4.7 per cent, compared with 

a business-as-usual scenario. 

“Inefficient fossil fuel subsidies 

undermine all three pillars of 

sustainable development.” 

In short, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies is an 

essential enabling condition for the transition to a 

Green Economy. Removing more than US$600 

billion in preferential treatment to the fossil fuel 

subsidy industry would help level the playing field 

for renewable energy technologies. 

PROTECTING THE POOR 

How can governments reform subsidies while 

protecting the poor and reducing social unrest? 

Subsidies are a blunt instrument for achieving 

public policy objectives; however, reforming 

consumer subsidies usually results in higher 

energy prices that can disproportionately affect 

the poor. Subsidy reforms need to be well 

planned to overcome these barriers. 

Reforms often need to be complemented 

with support measures to protect low-income 

households and vulnerable sectors from the direct 

and indirect effects of rising energy prices. This 

can include a range of measures such as direct 

82


Gt 

36 

Current Policies Scenario 

34 

Subsidy removal 

1.5 Gt 

3.5 Gt 

32 

450 Scenario 

30 

28 

2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 

Figure 2. Impact of subsidy phase-out on global energy-related CO2 emissions 

Source: IEA World Energy Outlook, 2010 

Note: the IEA’s 450 Scenario refers to measures to hold the CO2 component of the world’s atmosphere to 450 parts per million. 

cash payments, improved public services, or social 

welfare schemes such as pensions and health 

insurance. Compensation for specific sectors, 

such as transport operators, fishermen or farmers, 

can also help to reduce strong opposition to 

the reforms. In order to identify what the best 

support mechanisms are for a particular reform 

plan, governments should consult with affected 

stakeholders to understand their needs. 

Timing is equally important. An incremental 

phase-out over a clear time frame can reduce the 

economic impacts and give consumers time to 

adjust to rising energy prices. Reform efforts can 

go faster at periods of lower inflation or falling oil 

prices. It is therefore necessary that governments 

are flexible and do not treat reform as a single 

intervention. Rather, it is as a longer- 

It is completely incoherent 

for the world to be tentatively 

co-ordinating actions to put 

a price on carbon, while 

simultaneously massively 

subsidising consumption of 

carbon.” 

– Tim Groser, New Zealand Minister 

Responsible for International Climate Change 

Negotiations, Cancun, December 2009 

“Governments should consult 

with affected stakeholders to 

understand their needs.” 

term policy commitment during which they need 

to develop new pricing mechanisms and energy 

taxations systems. Subsidy reform plans should be 

developed to meet longer-term structural reform 

and social welfare objectives. 

Good governance is also fundamental to energy 

subsidy reform. While in some countries the 

level of corruption is high and the road to 

improving governance long, there are a number 

of immediate short-term steps that can increase 

the credibility of governments. Consulting with 

stakeholders and the wider public appears to be 

a key element in each effective reform. Ex-ante 

information campaigns are also necessary to 

increase public understanding and acceptance of 

changing fuel prices. 

ADVANCING SUBSIDY REFORM WITHIN 

THE UNFCCC 

Since the G20 and APEC members announced 

commitments to reform fossil fuel subsidies in 

2009, there has been increasing international 

attention given to the issue. In 2010, a group 

of countries called the ‘Friends of Fossil-Fuel 

Subsidy Reform’ formed with the objective of 



the UNFCCC could make toward reform is 

to encourage and require reporting of subsidies 

within national communications. This reporting 

mechanism has good oversight and review 

functions that would increase transparency of 

fossil fuel subsidies, particularly producer subsidies 

for which there is little information. 

championing the reform agenda in international 

forums. Although there is now wide recognition 

of the benefits of removing fossil fuel subsidies, 

reform remains politically challenging. 

At Rio+20, we saw a loud call for action on 

subsidy reform from a wide range of civil society 

groups and the general public (e.g. through online 

petitions, global ‘twitter storms’). Fossil fuel subsidy 

reform was the most voted-for recommendation 

by civil society groups to put forth to leaders at the 

summit, receiving double the amount of votes of 

any other recommendation. 

However, negotiators did not respond to the 

demand from civil society. The final outcome 

document merely reaffirmed the existing 

commitments of the G20 and APEC without 

taking any further steps, for example, by adopting 

specific reporting requirements or timelines for 

reform, agreeing to provide technical and financial 

support to developing countries, or establishing an 

independent co-ordinating body. 

But we can’t afford let the issue languish. We 

need to continue to build upon this momentum 

to ensure that international discussions translate 

into national reforms and there are a number of 

forums that can progress subsidy reform, including 

the UNFCCC. 

There is a growing consensus on the need to 

address fossil fuel subsidy reform within the 

UNFCCC. An increasing number of countries 

(111 in May 2012) have mentioned fossil fuel 

subsidy phase-out as a method to increase climate 

change mitigation ambition in their submissions. 

Perhaps one of the most substantive contributions 

It may also be possible to provide technical 

and financial assistance to developing countries 

by developing subsidy reform as a Nationally 

Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA). While 

the actual subsidy reforms may not qualify for 

assistance, financial and technical support may be 

needed to develop the flanking measures required 

to minimise the negative impacts of subsidy 

reform on poor and vulnerable groups (e.g. 

setting up a cash transfer system or developing 

better public transport infrastructure and services). 

Not only would greenhouse gas reductions be 

efficiently achieved, developing countries would 

also open up significant new financial resources 

for poverty alleviation programmes over the 

medium term. 

“One of the most substantive 

contributions the UNFCCC 

could make toward reform 

is to encourage and require 

reporting of subsidies .” 

Mark Halle is the Executive Director at the 

International Institute for Sustainable Development 

(IISD) Europe. He spent five years at the United 

Nations Environment Programme where he worked 

on the global State of the Environment report and has 

worked with WWF and IUCN where he helped to 

establish the Conservation for Development Centre. 

He also runs the trade activities of the IIED – Ring of 

Sustainable Development Organisations. 

The International Institute for Sustainable 

Development (IISD) is a Canada-based, international 

public policy research institute for sustainable 

development. It translates research insight into practical, 

realistic and cost-effective policy options that can be 

taken up by policy-makers at all levels. 

84


QATAR’S ENERGY AND 

ENVIRONMENTAL OUTLOOK 

By Dr Rabi Mohtar, Executive Director, Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute 

(QEERI), Qatar Foundation 

The Qatar Foundation, through QEERI, is working on a wide range of projects to address the problems 

of a challenging environment and rapidly growing population, as well as to reduce the impact of carbonbased 

energy for electricity generation. 

Energy from carbon is the lifeline of Qatar. It 

not only generates the country’s income, but also 

the electricity and fresh water for such a rapidly 

developing country. Good energy management 

requires a clear understanding of the processes 

of electricity generation, and accurate data about 

the amount of electricity and water consumed 

per sector. Qatar is working on this to make 

reliable predictions and establish suitable policies 

that are not only sustainable but also match the 

needs of society. 

Moreover, Qatar is endowed not only with 

extensive amounts of natural gas (NG), but also 

with excellent access to solar energy throughout 

the year which may be used also to generate 

electricity, desalinate water and cool buildings. 

Exploiting this and other options will reduce 

Qatar’s energy footprint and CO 2 

emissions 

significantly, making achievable Qatar’s goal to 

become a role model for sustainability. 

Recently Qatar Foundation launched Qatar 

National Research Strategy (QNRS) which is the 

first effort to identify national research strategies, 

achieve new priorities and identify national players 

to conduct and coordinate new research activities. 

ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES 

IN QATAR 

Qatar faces many challenges as a result of its 

location and conditions. First, the environment is 

hot and dry and suffers from lack of fresh water 

resources. The groundwater is very salty, and 

cannot be used directly in agriculture or industry. 

Therefore, the country depends on desalinating 

seawater – a very costly process with many negative 

impacts on the fragile environment. Precipitation 

is rare and the water table is shallow, allowing more 

salinity through salt water intrusion. Moreover, 

climate change is expected to affect the sea level 

rise and adaptation strategies are urgently needed. 

Although solar energy is available, national projects 



to develop it were only recently started in 2011 by 

QEERI and QSTP (Qatar Science and Technology 

Park). Additionally, frequent dust storms create 

many challenges in the desert environment. 

Qatar is one of the top gas producing countries, 

but scientific studies on the impacts of this sector 

on the environment are limited. The marine 

environment is very sensitive, since the region 

experiences some of the world’s busiest maritime 

traffic as exports of oil and gas pass through the 

Gulf. It is also vulnerable to disturbance and other 

risks connected with desalination. 

Environmental challenges in Qatar also stem from 

modernisation and urbanisation, since these affect 

land availability and shape the land use. 

Qatar’s population has grown from 120,000 in 

1970 to 1.65 million in 2010. This growth demands 

widespread exploitation of the limited natural 

resources, as well as vastly increased production of 

both solid and liquid wastes. Scientific strategies to 

deal with solid waste and waste water management 

are being laid down. The absence of local food 

production results in a reliance on imports of basic 

food. Ongoing joint efforts between QEERI and 

Qatar National Food Security Programme to 

reduce Qatar’s dependence on imported food are 

concentrating on soil improvement and the links 

between water, energy and food resources. 

The adoption of oil-powered desalination plants 

has created further environmental problems such 

as emissions of CO 2 

and energy sinks. The country 

depends on air conditioning most of the year, and 

this exerts an extra load on the electricity grid. 

The national environmental strategies, action 

plans and legislation need co-ordination between 

the relevant sectors. Scientific research on the 

environment is relatively new and limited, meaning 

that the literature and information base is modest. 

ENERGY FOR AIR CONDITIONING AND 

DESALINATION 

Qatar is experiencing very rapid economic 

growth since the discovery and production of the 

oil and gas resources in line with the population 

and the rising standard of living. 

Water scarcity and high hot summer temperatures 

are two predominant problems facing most areas of 

the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries, 

including Qatar. Qatar has very limited natural 

“The demand for fresh 

water and electric power is 

increasing sharply.” 

water resources and a prevailing temperature of 

more than 40 degrees C during most summer 

days. Water scarcity is resolved by desalinating 

seawater, which provides 99 per cent of the potable 

water in the country. High temperatures are 

handled mainly by air conditioning (AC) in most 

buildings. Extensive amounts of natural gas (NG) 

are consumed to secure the energy needs for both. 

Of the summer peak load on the electric system, 

at least two-thirds goes to air conditioning. The 

summer peak electricity consumption can be more 

than three times the winter minimum. 

DESALTING SEAWATER IN QATAR 

Qatar’s first desalination plant was commissioned 

in 1953. Today, the largest desalination facility 

is located in Ras Abu Fontas, and meets most 

of the civil sector demand. Other desalination 

plants are mainly used to supply water to the 

industrial sector in Dukhan, Ras Laffan, Messaied 

and Umm Bab. Large capacity desalting plants 

can be combined with power plants to form 

cogeneration power desalting plants. 

Furthermore, the drinkable water demand is 

expected to double by 2030. In turn, this implies 

doubling the energy consumption dedicated to 

the water desalination plants. 

Desalting seawater is energy-intensive, costly, 

and badly affects the environment. Burning 

fossil fuels to generate the power needed for 

desalination emits high quantities of CO 2 

, as well 

as oxides of nitrogen and sulphur from fossil fuel 

consumption. In 2010, desalting 373 million cubic 

metres of water caused the consumption of 1.78 

million tonnes of natural gas and the emission of 

4.9 million tonnes of CO 2 

. 

Besides polluting the air and emitting CO 2 

, 

the desalting process has negative effects on the 

marine environment by: 

 

 

 

Seawater intake; 

Brine discharge of high salinity, including 

chemicals used for pre-treating the feed 

water; and 

High temperature of discharge. 

86


Current issues in Qatar 

Qatar Foundation research portfolio 

Pilot plant for cogeneration (solar energy 

Desalination and air conditioning: major natural gas 

and desalination) 

consumption; 

Reverse osmosis desalination 

Desalination: major CO2 emissions. 

Qatar Energy Footprint project 

Process of developing a local desalination 

Desalination brine; 

free of discharge 

Environment and marine pollution; 

Research on environmental impact of 

Increase of sea salinity and temperature; 

desalination brine 

Lack of research and data on these issues. 

Research of marine ecology 

Lack of fertile soil. Synthesis of artificial fertile soil 

Qatar Energy and Carbon Network 

Oil and gas production: CO2 emissions. 

Qatar Energy Footprint project 

Air quality: sufficient reliable data not available . Monitoring of air quality 

Research not available on the impact of air quality on 

Research on impact on human health 

human health. 

Solid and water waste management; 

Water waste management and health 

No studies on impact of water quality on human health. studies 

Table 1. Highlights of QEERI’s research portfolio 

The temperature and salinity of the discharge are 

about 50 per cent higher than that of the sea. The 

high flow rate of seawater intake in multistage 

desalination intensifies the negative effect on marine 

species; and the discharge does overall damage by 

including chlorine added to seawater at the intake. 

Because of the need for immediate and serious 

action, Qatar Foundation in 2008 made plans for 

a research institute that would deal scientifically 

and efficiently with all these issues, and the Qatar 

Energy and Environment Research Institute 

(QEERI) was established in 2011. 

QEERI’S RESEARCH PORTFOLIO 

QEERI was conceived to deploy renewable 

energy solutions in Qatar, aiming to make 

significant reductions in the emission of carbon 

dioxide and other greenhouse gases, paving 

the way towards true sustainability. Short-term 

research and development (R&D) activities 

on concentrated solar thermal power will help 

demonstrate availability and suitability of solar 

radiation as a valuable primary energy source, to 

be used as a carbon free fuel in existing and new 

generation facilities. QEERI’s long-term R&D 

programmes on solar energy will help create the 

necessary capacity and boost industrial expansion 

to establish a new renewable solar era in Qatar. 

SELECTED ONGOING RESEARCH 

PROJECTS 

The Qatar Energy Footprint. The Qatar 

Energy Footprint (QEFP) is a detailed study on 

the energy production and consumption nodes 

in the country. This detailed analysis will help 

to predict the trends of supply and demand in 

the near future (target a five-year forecast). By 

employing a smart city energy grid, Qatar will 

be able to generate the needed energy in realtime 

prediction. The QEFP will be continuously 

updated to meet Qatar’s conditions and growth. 

It will also allow the estimation of CO 2 

emissions 

per entity based on the energy consumed. 

QEERI will be working with the appropriate 

national stakeholders to carry out the study. This 

project is coordinated with Qatar Petroleum. 

Solar energy and desalination. Solar energy 

has great potential to help mitigate the effects of 

global climate change and, in Qatar's case, could 

free oil and natural gas for more profitable uses. 

Harnessing of solar radiation can be done through 

two different technologies, photovoltaics (PV) 

or concentrated solar power (CSP) and QEERI 

is working on both. CSP is the most productive 

in the desert areas of Qatar as a major supplier 

of energy; this is combined with wind (mainly 

offshore) and PV. 

A pilot project based on concentrated solar power 

plus desalination (CSP+D) is being promoted by 

QEERI in close co-operation with Kharamaa 

(Qatar General Electricity and Water Company) 

and CIEMAT, the Spanish R&D institute for 

energy and environment. This innovative concept, 

starting in 2012, involves the use of a CSP plant 

to generate electricity and, additionally, recover its 

waste heat to feed a multi-stage water distillation 

plant located downstream. The choice of reverse 



Copper Mountain 48 MWe PV plant at Boulder, Nevada, USA 

Andasol-I 50 MWe CSP plant near Granada, Spain 

osmosis to desalt seawater in place of the multistage 

flash system can save 75 per cent of the 

fuel used, and reduce the CO 2 

emissions by the 

same ratio. An important area of research is the 

protection of solar collectors from dust. 

Waste water. QEERI is studying the waste 

water situation (management, coverage, treatment 

and disposal) in both domestic and industrial 

situations. The performance of waste water 

treatment plants and waste water quality and 

potential re-use are being studied. Small projects 

have been established for waste water re-use on 

industrial and edible crops. In addition, treatment 

technologies, transport and the build-up and 

dynamics of pollutant elements such as heavy 

metals are subjects of research. 

The Marine Sciences Project. The goal of the 

project is to develop Qatari scientific capabilities 

and management criteria for increasing the 

health and robustness of the marine environment 

through habitat assessment and protection; 

applying environmental preventive approaches; 

modelling coastal dynamics; integrated coastal 

zone management (ICZM); governance of socioecological 

systems and institutional capacity building. 

Air quality. QEERI is currently developing 

an Air Quality Management System (AQMS) 

for metropolitan Doha, with plans to expand 

monitoring to the whole of Qatar in the 

near future. Outcomes of the AQMS will be 

communicated to key decision-makers in order to 

develop strategies to mitigate air pollution. 

Soil. QEERI is studying the natural and 

anthropogenic impacts on soil quality; the 

impacts of traffic and the transport network on 

soil quality; soil/water interaction and leaching 

processes in the arid environment; and the 

potential use of storm water and run-off water 

using sand filters. 

Dr Rabi Mohtar is the Executive and Founding 

Director of QEERI. Before joining the Qatar 

Foundation, Dr Mohtar’s professional activities 

addressed sustainable development and improving 

environmental quality. Dr Mohtar has held numerous 

senior positions including Full Professor at Purdue 

University in the US, and Inaugural Director, Global 

Engineering Programs in the US. He has received 

numerous international research awards and honours. 

As a member of the World Economic Forum Global 

Agenda Council on water security since 2009, he 

authored a policy paper on the Water-Energy-Food 

nexus that is published in Water and Growth: The 

Ultimate Nexus. Professor Mohtar has published over 

200 referred publications. 

The Qatar Energy and Environment Research 

Institute (QEERI) was launched in 2011, and is a 

member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science 

and Community Development, conducting research 

that addresses energy and the environment. QEERI 

strives to align research focus areas with Qatar’s 

national priorities; to engage stakeholders in the 

planning, implementation and evaluation of research 

outcomes; to be a centre of excellence that conducts 

cutting edge research and attracts the best and most 

qualified scientists; to build the capacity of young 

Qatari graduates and prepare them to become the future 

scientists of Qatar; and to bridge the gap in human 

resources for energy and environmental research. 

88


WALKING THE WALK ON QATAR’S GREEN JOURNEY 

Headquartered in Qatar, Innovations Unlimited 

ME is a team of highly specialized professionals 

committed to delivering cutting-edge services 

across the Middle East. Through its Green Division, 

the company offers turnkey renewable energy 

solutions that align closely with the region’s vision 

of a more sustainable future. Bringing together 

global best-in-class players in the sustainability 

industry, Innovations Unlimited ME complements 

its offerings with in-house resources of expertise to 

provide timely and reliable extended services. 

A LEARNING OPPORTUNITY IN GREEN 

INNOVATION 

Msheireb Properties aims to bring together traditional 

and modern concepts using innovative eco-friendly 

technologies to generate energy for its $5.5bn “Doha 

Land” project located in the heart of Doha. 

With sustainability at the core of this development, 

Innovations Unlimited ME will be implementing 

the photovoltaic system for phase 1A of this project 

to help Doha Land achieve its energy conservation 

and CO2 emissions targets. 

Upon completion of all phases, the development 

will likely represent the biggest concentration of 

LEED certified buildings in the world. 

MIXING DESIGN WITH SUSTAINABILITY 

Qatar’s general electricity and water corporation 

(Kahramaa) will be opening its awareness park in 

2013. This innovative project has been designed as a 

model center for disseminating information on ways 

to conserve water and electricity, and will serve as an 

original source of knowledge for young visitors. 

This project combines three product offerings from 

Innovations Unlimited ME that help make it a 

truly unique sustainable structure. 

The park will include a photovoltaic system 

to generate electricity, a solar thermal solution 

generating hot water supply and will host three 

wind turbines. Having achieved the Qatar 

Sustainability Assessment System (QSAS) Award, 

upon completion, the park stands to be one of 

Qatar’s green benchmarks. 

HARNESSING THE SUN IN THE HEART OF DOHA 

As the Middle East’s skyline continues to witness 

a massive rise in luxury constructions, the industry 

is increasingly concerned with the sustainability of 

these buildings and their environmental footprint. 

Combining aesthetics with efficient power 

generation, building integrated photovoltaic 

systems offered by Innovations Unlimited ME 

can complement environmental aspirations by 

producing clean electricity while providing thermal 

insulation and artistic shading that filter out harmful 

radiation. Pioneering projects that are adopting this 

innovative technology in the region are underway, 

promising to redefine architectural innovations 

TRUE TO OUR CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP 

In line with the nature of our work, we recognize 

our responsibility as a corporate citizen to preserve 

the environment for future generations. We therefore 

strive to contribute to the creation of a green culture 

by championing environmental initiatives that are true 

to the cause. One such initiative this coming year 

will take on a broad national scope in Qatar, and will 

feature an exceptional sustainability festival with yearlong 

activities that aim to draw the general public and 

especially youth, to consider human impact on the 

planet and join the movement towards sustainability. 

The festivities will include a captivating blend of 

entertainment and educational attractions, ranging 

from concerts and symposia to live displays. 


www.iu-me.com 

89

The Built Environment 

A NEW PARADIGM 

FOR URBAN PLANNING 

By Dr Joan Clos, Executive Director, UN-Habitat 

The demographic and economic shifts of the last two decades have transformed cities and urban centres into 

the dominant human habitats. Cities have a disproportionately large effect on climate change, contributing 

as much as 70 per cent to global greenhouse gas emissions, while occupying as little as 2 per cent of the land, 

according to UN-Habitat’s latest Global Report on Human Settlements, Cities and Climate Change. 

The way our cities develop has a critical 

bearing on the success or failure of sustainable 

development. The cities of the world’s emerging 

economies are becoming the drivers of the global 

economy while the planet’s resources are rapidly 

being depleted. Without effective urban planning 

this can result in urban sprawl, the degradation 

of the environment and the proliferation of 

slums. We must urgently find a way to achieve 

economically and socially equitable growth 

without further cost to the environment or 

increase in urban inequality. 

Over the course of the United Nations Rio+20 

Summit, we heard a great deal of discussion about 

the way forward on sustainable development. It 

is more critical than ever that United Nations 

member states and agencies put sustainable 

urbanisation at the heart of discussions. When 

managed poorly, urbanisation can be detrimental 

to sustainable development. However, when 

“Many cities now find 

themselves locked into an 

unsustainable model of 

urbanisation.” 

urban planning is efficiently implemented, cities 

can contribute positively to reducing per capita 

greenhouse gas emissions and improving the 

standard of living for all citizens. 

‘GREEN’ CITIES? 

The current design of many cities is based 

primarily on a 20th-century model with a focus 

on zoning areas for specific and exclusive land use. 

However, this model results in sprawl, segregation 

and congestion, with many cities actually 


experiencing negative economies of aggregation, 

suffering from the problems without realising any 

of the benefits. 

The disadvantage of the traditional model is 

that it creates a heavy demand on workforce 

mobility, with large numbers of people needing 

to travel great distances each day. In the absence 

of adequate public transport provision, this need 

is naturally addressed by an increase in private 

automobile use. This was not a problem for 

developed countries in the boom time of cheap 

oil prices; it is more of a challenge now that oil 

prices are consistently higher than US$100 per 

barrel and assumed to be increasing over time. As 

a result, many cities now find themselves locked 

into an unsustainable model of urbanisation 

characterised by motor car dependence, 

segmented urban form, segregated land use and 

predominantly private interests. 

Cities developed in this mode can appear to have 

a great deal of trees and vegetation, and properties 

with large grounds. However, more greenery 

does not in itself make a city green, especially if 

the provision of such green space means that the 

residents have to consume more fossil fuels to 

travel around their sprawling city. 

In addition, with this kind of urban planning, as 

prices in more desirable residential areas grow, 

fewer options become available for affordable 

housing; and lower-income workers are forced 

to move out of the city. According to UN- 

Habitat, in some cities, transport can cost the 

poor as much as 30 per cent of their wages. This 

is when slums start to appear to fulfil the need 

for affordable and accessible housing on land that 

is close to employment opportunities. However, 

these areas are characterised by poor provision of 

basic services, inadequate construction standards, 

crowded conditions and a lack of security of 

tenure for the residents. 

GOOD DENSITY VERSUS BAD DENSITY 

Slums and informal settlements are assumed to 

be very high in density, with no planning of 

buildings and not much area allocated to public 

spaces or streets. In the Kibera slum in Nairobi, 

as little as 3 per cent of the land is taken up by 

streets, compared with Manhattan, New York, 

where streets account for around 36 per cent of 

92

The Built Environment 

the land. On the other hand, Kibera’s density is 

roughly 16,000 people per acre compared with 

56,000 in Manhattan. Manhattan’s density is more 

than three and a half times as great as Kibera’s, yet 

its standard of living is much higher. 

We often think of density as something to be 

avoided, and yet the majority of greenhouse gas 

emissions in a city are produced by transport, 

energy production and construction, all of which 

are more expensive, harder to deliver and more 

environmentally damaging in less compact cities. 

Overcrowding needs to be avoided, but with 

proper planning and service provision, density can 

work to the advantage of a city and its residents. 

For too long cities have been seen in a negative 

light as centres of high crime and poverty, with 

many countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, 

even adopting specific policies aimed at halting or 

reversing rural to urban migration in past decades. 

Not only is this unrealistic but it is undesirable. 

Cities present unique opportunities for poverty 

eradication and achievement of the Millennium 

Development Goals if planned appropriately. 

Cities account for as much as 80 per cent of a 

“In some cities, transport can 

cost the poor as much as 30 per 

cent of their wages.” 

country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), offering 

employment and opportunities for economic 

growth. To date, no country has achieved high 

standards of living without urbanisation. 

PLANNING FOR THE URBAN FUTURE 

The key to harnessing the beneficial opportunities 

of cities lies in planning. The role of city planners 

and authorities is to provide the infrastructure that 

enables and facilitates business. 

Urban planning should be done in a realistic 

manner, based on the projected number of people 

that will need housing and services in coming 

years. Planning can be done in phases, with 

emphasis initially on reassigning rural land for 

urban use and allocating between 20 and 30 per 

cent of land to streets. 


THE THREE PILLARS IN PLANNED 

URBANISATION 

When it takes place in a planned and 

sustainable manner, urbanisation can 

provide one of the key unifying forces to 

integrate the three pillars of sustainable 

development – economic, environmental 

and social. Efforts to reduce our 

environmental footprint should not be seen 

in contradiction to policies for job creation 

or improvement in standards of living 

but, on the contrary, are more achievable 

when addressed in tandem. Prioritising 

sustainable urbanisation can also help to 

streamline policies on service provision, 

further lowering the cost of implementation 

and encouraging public-private sector 

partnerships. It is vital that this emerging 

opportunity be recognised and endorsed. 

Most importantly, planners need to re-embrace 

the mixed-use city. Cities and their component 

neighbourhoods need to be compact, integrated 

and connected. Compact cities minimise transport 

and service costs, reducing the cost of production 

and encouraging private investment. Sustainable 

urban development requires a shift away from the 

mono-functional city of low density and long 

distances, which is poorly connected, socially 

divided and economically inefficient. 

In addition, compact cities are better able to 

provide affordable housing for lower income 

workers, helping to avoid the emergence and 

proliferation of slums. Good urban planning 

and design should establish minimum densities, 

optimised street connectivity and social mix with 

a variety of housing prices within an area. 

In order to do this successfully, spatial planning 

should be done at national, regional and local 

levels to ensure a comprehensive approach that 

takes into account each city’s needs but at the 

same time looks at the overall country’s assets 

and progress. Greater emphasis should be placed 

on local authorities and planners to enable them 

to implement city plans that are relevant to their 

citizens while also feeding into the country’s 

socioeconomic growth. National Urban Policies 

are important instruments to achieve balanced 

territorial development and to take advantage 

of the benefits of urbanisation while avoiding 

negative externalities. 

URBAN OPPORTUNITIES 

The good news is that in many developing 

countries where urbanisation is greatest there is 

a distinct opportunity to harness the growth of 

cities for positive socio-economic development. 

Compact cities, with well designed services and 

infrastructure, reduce the transaction costs of 

production and take advantage of the economies 

of agglomeration. Housing and transport are more 

affordable and the impact on the environment, in 

terms of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions 

per capita, is reduced. A smart efficient city is 

more likely to attract private investment, further 

reducing the burden on state resources. 

“Good urban planning and 

design should establish minimum 

densities, optimised street 

connectivity and social mix.” 

UN-Habitat stands prepared to support member 

states and local government organisations to 

develop targets, indicators, policies, plans and 

strategies related to sustainable cities, in 

collaboration with other UN agencies. The 

proposed Sustainable Development Goals and the 

Habitat III Conference scheduled for 2016 would 

provide concrete mechanisms to strengthen 

co-operation, partnership arrangements and other 

implementation tools which will help implement 

the sustainable urbanisation agenda. 

Dr Joan Clos is Executive Director of UN-Habitat. 

Before taking office in 2010 he served two terms 

as Mayor of Barcelona, during which time he was 

widely credited with inspiring far-reaching investment 

programmes, such as Barcelona@22. He has also served 

as President of Metropolis, the international network 

of cities, President of the World Association of Cities 

and Local Authorities (WACLAC), and Chairman 

of the United Nations Advisory Committee of Local 

Authorities (UNACLA). 

UN-Habitat is the United Nations Programme 

for Human Settlements tasked with promoting the 

sustainable development of cities and towns through 

comprehensive urban planning. 

94


VTT’S ECOCITY CONCEPT 

AIMS FOR SUSTAINABLE NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT 

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is 

the biggest multi-technological applied research 

organisation in Northern Europe. VTT provides 

high-end technology solutions and innovation 

services for companies and public sector 

globally. In addition to 100 experts specialised in 

sustainable buildings and districts, VTT is actively 

engaged for example in the research of waste 

management, transport, and energy. The focus 

of our solutions is increasingly stretched towards 

sustainable neighbourhoods and communities. 

EOCITIES SUPPORT SUSTAINABLE 

URBANISATION AND CLIMATE ADAPTATION 

VTT’s EcoCity concept aims for a modern lowcarbon 

city. The City will produce its own energy 

via renewable sources. In construction, only 

sustainable methods and materials are utilized. 

Energy use in the homes and facilities is energy 

efficient with zero or low energy buildings. 

The broad city plan comprises safe walking and 

cycling, green areas and parks for relaxation and 

recreation, and all around Internet access. Digital 

technologies integrate the city with its services. 

The EcoCity concept looks for the best possible 

solution for the local context, culture and economic 

realities. VTT and local partners bring the 

technologies and integrates them to form a locally 

suitable, tailored solution. The know-how can be 

applied locally, and the EcoCity can be built locally. 

SUSTAINABLE AND MODERN URBAN 

LIVING IN CHINA 

VTT has recently produced a concept of an 

EcoCity to be built in Miaofeng, a town in the 

Mentougou District of Beijing City. The scenic 

mountain area covers 17 villages of varying sizes and 

it has been declared an ecological area. This restricts 

the use of natural environments to a minimum. 

The feasibility study suggests that new villages 

are to be developed to improve the economic 

structure of the area, and that new technological 

and functional ways and means are implemented 

to reduce the environmental impacts of the whole 

settlement. The Mentougou EcoCity concept 

includes innovative and ecological town planning, 

© Kimmo Lylykangas 

energy-efficient housing and low-waste living, a 

safe water system, integrated telecommunications, 

low-emission passenger traffic, efficient waste 

management and recycling, and emission-free 

local power production based on solar, wind and 

bio-energy. In 20 years, the life cycle costs of 

the EcoCity are more beneficial to typical town 

construction. In addition, a carbon footprint 

analysis proves that an EcoCity can reduce carbon 

emissions by more than 90 per cent compared to 

Mentougou’s present emissions. 

The economic structure of the Mentougou 

EcoCity area lays on new services, education, 

enhanced local culture, agriculture, and tourism. 

The architecture and positions of buildings will 

conform to the site’s natural topography and 

characteristics, and will be situated around small 

bodies of water. Modular homes will climb the 

mountain sides, blending into the landscape. The 

city will be energy and cost efficient and, above 

all, enjoyable to live and work in. 

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland 

Jyri Nieminen 

Key Account Manager 

Tel: +358 50 517 4610 

Email: jyri.nieminen@vtt.fi 

Web: www.vtt.fi 


95


SUSTAINABILITY 

ASSESSMENT IN A 

GLOBAL MARKET 

By Ali Malkawi, Professor of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania and Director, T.C. 

Chan Center, and Godfried Augenbroe, Professor of Architecture, Georgia Institute of 

Technology. 

Building environmental assessment systems, founded on life-cycle assessment, are becoming more 

internationally accepted; but many changes are needed to make the systems fit local environments. 

In the 1980s, the Brundtland commission defined 

sustainability as “development that meets the 

needs of the present without compromising the 

ability of future generations to meet their own 

needs”. This definition became part of a global 

movement towards environmental stewardship, 

and it did not take long for the building 

industry to develop a green agenda for the built 

environment. During the 1990s, so-called green 

building was quantified according to normalised 

measures using a rating method that produced a 

numerical score. Different countries developed 

different rating methods, producing an uncoordinated 

diversity of home-grown rating systems. 

THE SURGE IN SYSTEM 

DEVELOPMENT 

The last 10 years have witnessed a strong surge in 

the development of building environmental 

assessment (BEA) systems. The foundation of all 

BEA methods is life-cycle assessment (LCA), 

“BEA systems do not use 

a true LCA because of the 

complexity of the calculations 

and lack of appropriate data.” 

although most BEA systems introduce a broader 

range of criteria than are strictly part of a pure 

LCA, which is limited to ecological impact 

assessment. Many of these criteria act as surrogates 

in lieu of a full LCA. LCA has a foundation in the 

environmental sciences and is regulated through 

standards, in particular the ISO 14000 series. A 

true LCA would incorporate a cradle-to-grave 

assessment of all of the environmental and social 

effects produced by a building. In practice these 

effects are limited to the environmental impact of 

96


production technologies and products over their 

full life cycle. A thorough LCA would measure all 

the impacts, including raw material harvesting, 

production, manufacturing, distribution, use, and 

disposal, including the transport required or 

caused by the product’s existence and use. 

However, current BEA systems do not use a true 

LCA because of the complexity of the 

calculations and lack of appropriate data. For this 

reason, BEA systems rely on weighted ratings of a 

broad set of criteria, typically grouped by 

category, as typified by such well-known scoring 

methods as LEED (see box). 

The secondary aim of any BEA system is to 

encourage the design of green buildings and 

stimulate the market for sustainable construction 

components and materials. A properly managed 

set of guidelines, supported by an adequate 

BEA system, is the best instrument for local 

governments to regulate industries and to improve 

the sustainability of the built environment. 

THE DEVELOPMENT OF RATING 

SYSTEMS 

Worldwide, many assessment programmes 

have been developed to rate the 

environmental impact and energy 

consumption of buildings. The first rating 

system was created in 1990 in the United 

Kingdom by the Building Research 

Establishment. The Environmental 

Assessment Method, or BREEAM, sparked 

the development of similar rating systems 

in Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong. 

In 1998 the Leadership in Energy and 

Environmental Design introduced a Green 

Building Rating System in the United 

States, largely based on the BREEAM 

system and now called LEED. Another 

variant, GBTool, was developed in Canada 

by the Green Building Challenge. Over 

the years many of the rating systems 

have diversified into specialised ratings 

that govern new construction, residential 

housing, healthcare facilities and other types 

of buildings. 

THE PUSH FOR REGIONAL SYSTEMS 

The goal of all developed and developing 

countries – to manage the impact of the built 

environment – has been translated into numerous 

home-grown rating systems that reflect local 

needs and circumstances. With the heightened 

awareness of sustainability around the world 

and the need of rapidly developing regions to 

respond quickly, countries without a BEA system 

are confronted by a difficult choice. They can 

adopt one of the well-known methods such as 

LEED or BREEAM, develop a custom system of 

their own based on other methods, or start from 

scratch with an up-front commitment to the local 

customs and values (QSAS, see below). 

“The secondary aim of any 

BEA system is to encourage 

the design of green buildings.” 

Some countries are choosing to endorse one of 

the best-known systems, such as LEED and 

BREEAM. It is unclear whether they realise that 

such systems are not specific to local 

circumstances and cannot easily be modified. It is 

true that LEED and BREEAM have started to 

offer regionalised versions. But although the 

modifications do address some local issues, many 

more changes will be necessary to make the 

system fit the local environment. In addition, it is 

uncertain how much local development is needed 

to do this effectively. This is partly because these 

major systems want to maintain their original 

framework and philosophy and therefore are less 

agile in their response to regional conditions. 

“The certification of the use 

of BEA systems, requires that 

they are transparent and easy 

to use.” 

In the view of the authors, starting from scratch 

while borrowing the best-of-breed criteria and 

measurements from existing systems is therefore a 

competitive and ultimately more effective approach. 

This way, countries have complete local control. 

They adapt as local data shows the need and build a 

lightweight and locally governed regulatory process 

around the implementation of the BEA system. 



BEA methods need to be adapted to local 

circumstances in order to provide an effective 

local regulatory or incentive-based instrument. 

Stakeholder input and buy-in from local 

organisations are vital. An appropriate BEA system 

should include design guidelines that the market 

can absorb and execute. Local market conditions 

and dynamics require a careful adaptation in every 

region so that guidelines do not interfere with the 

demand and supply side of the building process. One 

such system is the Global Sustainability Assessment 

System (GSAS), formally known as the as the Qatar 

Sustainability Assessment System (QSAS), developed 

by the T.C. Chan Center in collaboration with and 

on behalf of the Gulf Organisation for Research and 

Development in Qatar. 

Acceleration of the translation of BEA results into 

design guidelines and programmatic instruments 

and ultimately into legislation is necessary to 

meet the needs of the local market, especially in 

a rapidly developing country. The certification 

of the use of BEA systems, such as the use of 

standardised normative assessment procedures, 

requires that they are transparent and easy to 

use. A strong similarity between locally adopted 

performance standards and related criteria of BEA 

systems will enhance transparency for the users. 

NEXT STEPS 

Over the past fifteen years, the construction 

industry has mobilised a response to the global 

sustainability challenge. This has led to many 

diverse efforts across the globe to develop 

building environmental assessment systems. Until 

now, their use is mostly voluntary, which means 

that it is left up to a building owner to require 

that a building earns a certain desired score, 

usually denoted as a desired level of certification. 

Some local building regulations are already 

making a certain certification level mandatory. For 

this purpose, current BEA systems will have to be 

elevated to mature standards. 

In spite of all the attention, it is still hard to 

convince building owners to require a BEA 

certification. As better tools become available and 

BEA systems become simpler and better tuned 

to local methods and expertise, process costs will 

decrease. More training methods, transparent 

certification and better support tools will provide 

the expertise that is needed. More research and 

case studies are meanwhile needed to identify 

the extra investment that is required to achieve a 

desired certification level. 

“It is still hard to convince 

building owners to require a 

BEA certification.” 

BEA systems have pushed the building industry 

towards more responsible practices. The biggest 

impact is the ongoing transition in the market 

attitude toward the issue of sustainability by 

providing verifiable measures to gauge its 

practices. BEA systems that are cost effective, 

agile in their adaptation to changing local needs, 

and supported by adequate tools and expert 

networks will have the upper hand in this 

transition phase. 

This article is adapted from ‘Sustainability Assessment in a Global 

Market’ by Ali Malkawi and Fried Augenbroe, Wharton Review 

13(2): 2009. 

Ali Malkawi is the Founder and Director of the 

T.C. Chan Center for Building Simulation and 

Energy Studies. He is a Professor of Architecture at 

the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Dr Malkawi 

teaches architectural technology and computation 

and conducts research in the areas of computational 

simulation, building performance evaluation, and 

advanced visualisation. He is the Principal Developer of 

the Qatar Sustainability Assessment System (QSAS), 

the first performance-based sustainability rating system 

in the Middle East. Dr Malkawi is co-editor of two 

definitive books on the subject of computationally-driven 

design and simulation: Advanced Building Simulation 

and Performative Architecture – Beyond Instrumentality. 

Godfried Augenbroe is a Professor of Architecture 

at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. He 

has a 35-year track record of research and teaching 

in computational building behaviour, performance 

assessment, uncertainty analysis and risk, and 

management of building processes and project teams. He 

has chaired several international conferences, is associate 

editor of two scientific journals, and has published 

several books and more than 150 refereed papers. 

The T.C. Chan Center at the University of 

Pennsylvania is a global organisation that seeks to 

create healthier, productive, energy efficient strategies 

that will lead to high performance buildings and 

sustainable environments. 

98


FOSTERING CLIMATE CHANGE 

PRACTICES IN LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES 

POCH is a leading Chilean engineering and 

environmental consultancy firm with over 23 

years of experience in the Latin American market. 

Currently operating in Chile, Brazil, Peru, and 

Colombia, the group also has two commercial 

offices in Chicago and Australia. 

Our vision is to help our clients managing the 

transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future. In 

every new project and challenge we undertake 

we start with a detailed analysis of the needs 

and the possible paths forward, we devise or 

apply the best technologies, as well as the most 

suitable organisational and strategic practices 

and innovations, with a clear focus on long term 

environmental sustainability. 

POCH Ambiental, the group’s environmental 

consultancy branch, has been fostering Climate 

Change policy and mitigation actions through 

long lasting relationships with both industrial 

and corporate actors from the private sector and 

institutional policy makers at the national and 

multilateral scale. Our multi-disciplinary team 

provides services in climate change mitigation, 

carbon markets, environmental management, policy 

analysis and strategic design, prospective studies 

and scenario development, sustainable urban and 

energy infrastructure and other related fields. 

Some of the key services in the climate change 

and sustainability area are: 

GHG EMISSION ABATEMENT, CDM AND 

CARBON MARKETS 

We provide services from GHG emission 

inventories and projection studies, to the full 

cycle of carbon abatement projects (both CDM 

and voluntary markets) from identification to 

emission reductions issuance, carbon foot-printing 

and carbon management strategies in the waste, 

energy and agro-forestry sectors. 

CLIMATE CHANGE MRV AND NEW OFFSET 

MECHANISMS 

We are leading the development of new tools, 

methodologies and offset options for the future 

of the climate change regime. We have designed 

a Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) 

system to be implemented by the Chilean 

Renewable Energy Centre to keep track of 

emission reductions and co-benefits in the form 

of financing, capacity building and technological 

change, from all renewable energy projects in the 

country. We have also developed NAMAs proposals 

and analysed new bilateral offset mechanisms with 

MRV systems for Latin American countries. 

SUSTAINABLE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 

We are members of the U.S. Green Building 

Council and as such we provide expert advice 

and consultancy services in green building and 

LEED certification. Our comprehensive energy 

management delivers consultancy to our clients 

in order to achieve the optimal economic and 

environmental energy performance through energy 

audits, energy modeling, and commissioning. 

LEED and energy efficiency projects support 

the design, construction and operation criteria 

for architecture, mechanical, electrical, plumbing 

systems, and specialised design of renewable energy 

and wastewater treatment systems. We have also 

contributed to the design and implementation of 

energy efficiency policies and programs. 

With our experience, we are prepared to partner 

with industrial and corporate players and with 

governments throughout the Latin American 

continent to strategically design and bring about a 

more sustainable world. 

POCH Ambiental Latin America 

Luis Costa 

Director of Sustainability Services 

Tel: +562 2074154 

Email: luis.costa@poch.cl 

Web: www.pochcorp.com 


99

An extremely strong 

element forms the core of 

all our buildings. 

Our belief in sustainability. 

At the heart of every CDL building is a 

belief that cares for the one home we all 

share – planet earth. 

Globally, the building sector is 

responsible for a third of the world’s 

greenhouse gas emissions. Here in 

Singapore, it accounts for more than 16% 

of our nation’s emissions. 

So even though climate change is an 

issue all businesses have to address 

eventually, it’s an especially pressing one 

for the building sector. 

Here at CDL, we’ve long since started to 

make amends with mother earth. 

Over a decade ago, we put our belief that 

sustainability makes a better, and more 

resilient, business model into action. 

From design to construction, from 

procurement to maintenance, each stage 

of our development process now aligns 

closely with this commitment. 

Further to this, we’ve also initiated 

capacity building and other green 

innovations to help the industry become 

more sustainable. 

In 2011, we reduced carbon emissions 

of our corporate office operations and 

data centre to net zero. On top of this, 

we achieved a 7% carbon intensity 

emissions reduction from baseline year 

2007 levels. For 2020, our target is a 

reduction of 22% from baseline year 

2007 levels. And by 2030, we’re targeting 

a 25% reduction. 

These efforts have made us the only 

Singapore corporation listed in all 

three of the world’s top sustainability 

benchmarks – The Dow Jones 

Sustainability Indexes, the FTSE4Good 

Index Series and The Global 100 Most 

Sustainable Corporations in the World. 

Today, when you walk into any of our 

properties you’ll find not just years 

of comfort and pleasure, but also our 

dream for a future that’s cleaner, 

greener and brighter. 

And as long as our buildings continue 

to be rooted in our values, it’s a dream 

we’re hopeful will last for generations 

to come. 

That’s our belief. 

www.cdl.com.sg


GREEN RETROFITS 

FOR BUILDINGS 

By Jane Henley, Chief Executive Officer, World Green Building Council 

The Empire State Building is one of the most visible examples of a trend that is occurring around the 

world – retrofitting buildings to make them more resource-efficient and climate-friendly. 

In 1931, when the Empire State Building 

opened its doors for the first time, it towered 

102 storeys over New York City. Then the 

world’s tallest building, it represented the best 

in architecture and technology, and epitomised 

the vast possibilities for a modern age. Today, 

while the Empire State Building’s ‘tallest’ claim 

has been surpassed, it has become a symbol for a 

new, green age. A recent US$32 million retrofit, 

the largest of its kind in the United States, has 

encompassed everything from cleaning and 

re-insulating 6,000 windows to resealing the 

building’s façade. 

The result? A 40 per cent reduction in energy 

usage, translating into energy savings of US$4.4 

million a year, savings of 105,000 metric 

tonnes of carbon over a 15-year period and a 

payback period of just over three years. The 

environmental upgrade has earned the building a 

LEED Gold for Existing Buildings certification 

from the US Green Building Council. 

“Global greenhouse gas 

emissions could be slashed 

by a third simply through 

better design and operation of 

our buildings.” 

CARBON SAVING WITH RETROFITS 


(UNEP), the International Energy Agency 

and others estimate that buildings consume 

between 30 and 40 per cent of global energy, 

and are responsible for around a third of global 

greenhouse gas emissions. In some developed 

nations, these numbers are even higher. In 

addition, the building sector consumes nearly 

half of global resources. Yet hidden beneath these 



alarming statistics exists a real opportunity for 

dramatic change. The Intergovernmental Panel 

on Climate Change (IPCC) argues that global 

greenhouse gas emissions could be slashed by a 

third simply through better design and operation 

of our commercial and residential buildings. 

The largest savings for new buildings come from 

designing and operating buildings as complete 

systems; but the IPPC has found that retrofitting 

existing stock and replacing energy-using 

equipment would realise the largest portion of 

carbon savings by 2030. 

UNEP argues that up to 90 per cent of a 

building’s lifetime energy use is consumed 

during its operation – for heating, cooling, 

ventilation, lighting, appliances and so on. This 

means significant energy savings can be achieved 

through relatively inexpensive actions, such as 

upgrading insulation and replacing inefficient 

102


RETRO JOBS 

Retrofit programmes have the potential 

to support massive job growth. UNEP 

has found that investments in energy 

efficiency measures in buildings could 

generate 3.5 million green jobs in Europe 

and the United States alone. The Natural 

Resources Defence Council has calculated 

that five direct jobs and five indirect jobs 

could be created for every US$1 million 

invested in energy efficiency retrofits in 

the US, and similar job numbers support 

large-scale retrofit efforts in Australia and 

the UK. 

40 of the world’s largest cities, is focused on 

retrofitting existing buildings to reduce energy 

usage and greenhouse gas emissions. New York 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is chair of the 

C40 initiative, has said that the effort to reduce 

greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate 

change will be won or lost in cities. 

While cities play an increasingly important 

role in the transition to a sustainable built 

environment, there is also a general recognition 

that green building retrofit programmes can 

deliver on a range of other local priorities, such 

as job creation and human health. 

“Green building retrofit 

programmes can deliver on a 

range of other local priorities, 

such as job creation and 

human health.” 

light bulbs, and switching to low energy 

appliances. More significant upgrades include 

highly efficient ventilation and cooling systems, 

solar hot water systems and multiple glazing. 

GREEN LEADERSHIP AT THE GRASS- 

ROOTS LEVEL 

In many countries, the retrofitting trend is being 

driven at the local government level. The C40 

Cities Climate Leadership Group, which represents 

In London, Mayor Boris Johnson’s RE:FIT 

programme aims to retrofit 400 of the city’s 

public buildings. Forty-two pilot projects have 

already been upgraded, including buildings 

owned by Transport for London, the 

Metropolitan Police, and the London Fire and 

Emergency Planning Authority. The total spend 

of £7 million (US$11 million) has reduced 

energy consumption by 28 per cent – and the 

cost will be offset after a payback period of 


Left: 500 Collins Street, the first office building in Australia 

to achieve a Green Star rating 


Below: Council House 2, a six Green Star certified office 

building for ecologically sustainable design in Melbourne 

seven years. “Retrofitting London is a winwin,” 

Johnson has said. “Not only does it make 

perfect economic and common sense by cutting 

energy costs, but it also reduces carbon 

emissions and stimulates the capital’s 

burgeoning low carbon economy, creating jobs 

and boosting skills.” 

In the US, the Environmental Protection 

Agency is running a ‘Battle of the Buildings’ in 

which 245 facilities compete to save the most 

on their utility bills through energy efficiency 

improvements. Over the border in Canada, the 

Better Buildings Partnership in Toronto has 

brought together building owners, managers 

and tenants to work on 1,896 energy efficiency 

projects. The combined energy saving is 

estimated at C$55 million annually. Impressively, 

the City of Toronto estimates the programme has 

created more than 80,000 jobs. 

The World Business Council for Sustainable 

Development (WBCSD), a consortium of some 

“WBCSD has laid out a 

roadmap for a transformation 

of the sector to reduce 

energy use.” 

of the world’s leading companies, has laid out 

a roadmap for a transformation of the sector to 

reduce energy use in buildings by 80 per cent 

by 2050. The WorldGBC is partnering with 

the WBCSD on the next phase of this Energy 

Efficiency in Buildings initiative, which will 

harness the knowledge of the private sector 

to create a replicable process for widespread 

implementation of energy efficiency. 

A GREEN GOLD RUSH 

In Australia, two-thirds of Melbourne’s 

commercial buildings are receiving sustainable 

104


makeovers, with the ‘1200 Buildings’ programme 

aiming to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more 

than 380,000 tonnes a year. Melbourne Lord 

Mayor Robert Doyle has said the programme 

would bring a “green gold rush” by generating 

around A$1.3 billion in economic activity and 

around 800 ‘green collar’ jobs. 

The 16 corporations who are signatories to the 

programme manage 30 buildings between them, 

and have committed to reduce their greenhouse 

gas emissions by 38 per cent. They plan to 

introduce a range of energy-saving technologies, 

from easy options such as lighting and natural 

ventilation, through to energy cogeneration 

systems, cooling towers and computerised 

building monitoring systems. 

One of the signatories of the 1200 Buildings 

programme, Kador Group, has achieved an 

impressive result with its green retrofit of 500 

Collins Street in Melbourne. Built in 1970, 500 

Collins Street was the first refurbishment of a 

central business district commercial building to 

achieve a Green Star certification. The Kador 

Group commenced the progressive green 

renovation in 2006, achieving a 5 Star Green 

Star – Office v1 rating from the Green Building 

Council of Australia. 

A range of environmental features were 

integrated into the renovation, including chilled 

beam air conditioning, energy efficient T5 

light fittings and solar panels. As a result, the 

retrofit has delivered a 30 per cent saving in 

air-conditioning energy, a 50 per cent saving in 

energy from lighting and a further 15 per cent 

saving in energy from hot water. 

A pre- and post-occupancy study found that 

the refurbished office delivered a 39 per cent 

reduction in average sick leave and a 44 per 

cent reduction in the monthly average cost of 

sick leave. Even more surprising, the new green 

office boosted typing speeds of secretaries by 

nine per cent and lawyers’ billing ratios by seven 

per cent, despite a 12 per cent decline in the 

average monthly hours worked. 

The evidence clearly suggests that, alongside 

the direct utility savings and job creation, green 

buildings can improve the health and well-being 

of occupants, enhance productivity, reduce staff 

turnover, reduce patient hospitalisation time, 

and even enhance student achievement in green 

schools. Both the direct and indirect cost savings 

“Alongside the direct utility 

savings and job creation, 

green buildings can improve 

the health and well-being of 

occupants.” 

of integrated green building strategies are real 

and significant. 

So, what can local governments do to capitalise 

on the green retrofit movement? While not 

every city can be part of the C40 initiative, 

governments at the city level can take a 

leadership position by implementing green 

retrofitting programmes for their own buildings, 

and achieving green ratings for every project. 

Communicating successes and challenges, and 

providing case studies, can help the business and 

broader community to understand why investing 

in their own buildings can deliver the triple 

bottom line of people, planet, and profit. 

“The direct and indirect cost 

savings of integrated green 

building strategies are real and 

significant.” 

Jane Henley is the Chief Executive Officer of the 

World Green Building Council, a role she assumed in 

February 2010. Jane is committed to driving market 

transformation that is underpinned by sound economic 

practices that simultaneously deliver financial, social 

and environmental benefits. 

The World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) 

is a coalition of more than 90 national green 

building councils, making it the largest international 

organisation influencing the green building marketplace. 

The WorldGBC’s mission is to facilitate the global 

transformation of the building industry towards 

sustainability through market driven mechanisms. 


CREATING SUSTAINABLE 

VALUE WITH LIGHT 

RESPONDING TO GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY 

CHALLENGES WITH EFFICIENT LIGHTING SOLUTIONS 

By Dr. Constantin Birnstiel, Chief Sustainability Officer, OSRAM 

Global challenges such as climate change, resource 

scarcity, demographic change and urbanisation 

make sustainable development ever more 

important. This is why Osram is dedicated to 

products and processes that contribute to solving 

global sustainability challenges, address economic 

needs and protect the environment. 

In order to ensure sustainable development on a 

social, ecological and economical level, we align 

our business operations to the triple bottom line, 

integrating sustainability holistically. Consequently, 

we are using natural resources ever more 

responsibly, invest in future-oriented technologies 

that support profitable growth and influence our 

suppliers to improve working conditions around 

the globe. Placing integrity at the center of 

business operations, we have been a solid, reliable 

partner for over 100 years – producing efficient 

products, acting as a global citizen, leading a 

sustainable business. To affirm these values and 

work towards making them universally accepted 

we joined the UN Global Compact in 2005. 

ENERGY EFFICIENCY IS PART OF OUR DNA 

Electricity for lighting accounts for almost 20 

percent of global electrical power consumption 

and close to 6 percent of worldwide greenhouse 

gas emissions. Replacing inefficient lighting 

technologies with state-of-the-art products like 

LED, innovative light systems and intelligent light 

management systems would cut the world share 

of electricity used for lighting by half. This could 

save as much CO2 as a newly planted forest around 

a quarter the size of the Arabian Peninsula would 

absorb – more than 600 million tons annually. 

One way of responding to this challenge is 

our environmental portfolio, comprised of 

products, systems, solutions and services with 

outstanding energy efficiency – meanwhile 

generating more than two thirds of total revenue. 

An example would be our light management 

system “Encelium” that demonstrates perfectly 

how energy savings of up to 75 percent can 

Energy-efficient light management 

be achieved in offices, industrial buildings and 

functional buildings such as hospitals. This is made 

possible by using special software that identifies 

the individual optimisation potential. With these 

and other efficient Osram lighting solutions our 

customers saved nearly 70 million tons of CO2 

within the last five years – this is as much as one 

Airbus 380 emits by flying around the world 

more than 30.000 times. 

Another important step towards replacing 

inefficient lighting technologies is our founding 

membership in the UNEP initiative “en. 

lighten”. The initiative addresses the challenge 

of accelerating global market transformation to 

environmentally sustainable lighting technologies 

by developing a global strategy in support of the 

gradual phase-out of inefficient lighting. 

This way, the global energy demand for lighting 

can be cut significantly, reducing greenhouse gas 

emissions resulting from electricity production. 

To achieve this aim the initiative developed a 

new toolkit: “Achieving the Transition to Energy 

Efficient Lighting”. This comprehensive toolkit is 

a practical reference manual that identifies many of 

the essential elements that need to be considered 

before and after inefficient lighting phase-out 

schemes have been initiated. This way it supports 

those that are responsible for drafting policies 

but also the private sector, public utilities and 

civil society organisations, helping to forward the 

transition to more efficient lighting technologies. 

106

OSRAM LED – Highlights in motion 


SHAPING THE LIGHTING MARKET WITH 

SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS 

An outstanding example of supporting the transition 

to sustainable lighting in developing countries is a 

project we implemented in Kenya in 2008, being 

the first lighting manufacturer to take a holistic 

approach to efficient lighting in off-grid areas. The 

Corporate Social Responsibility project aims at 

providing access to sustainable, environmentally 

friendly and affordable off-grid energy services 

such as light and potable water – thus significantly 

improving the livelihood of communities in remote 

areas. In 2011, a follow-up project was initiated with 

the aim to expand to peri-urban areas and informal 

settlements like those of Nairobi, addressing the 

challenge of urbanisation in areas without an 

affordable or regular power supply. 

Thus, we address global sustainability challenges 

with innovative, efficient lighting solutions. To 

ensure their advancement and the profitable growth 

of Osram, we invest around 6 percent of total sales 

in research and development (R&D), employing 

around 2.400 experts. One result of these endeavors 

is our market leadership in automotive lighting, 

demonstrated by the fact that Osram LEDs can be 

found in every second car worldwide. Above that, 

we have a share in total sales of about 25 percent in 

LED-based products and hold a strong intellectual 

property portfolio with 8.000 LED-related patents. 

However, with R&D centers located in all parts of 

the world we develop products specifically tailored 

to regional needs. Hence, we continue to provide 

a full spectrum of lamp technologies to ensure 

customer choice while supporting them with the 

transition to more efficient lighting. 

SUSTAINABLE LIGHTING – ENHANCING 

QUALITY OF LIFE 

However, sustainable lighting is more than just 

efficient: it protects, activates and comforts, thus 

improving people´s quality of life. For example, 

our automotive lighting portfolio provides 

cutting-edge technologies that contribute to 

increasing road safety. It encompasses innovative 

products such as distance and microsleep sensors 

or night vision assistance systems that help 

reducing the causes of traffic accidents. 

Light influences our biological 

well-being 

Another state-of-the-art technology developed by 

Osram is a special light system that matches the 

characteristics of natural daylight and therefore 

supports the daily biological rhythm of humans. 

This is based on studies demonstrating that blue 

enriched light influences the biological wellbeing 

of humans, improving daytime activity and 

cognitive brain functions, verifiably increasing 

productivity. Therefore these light systems 

can be used in educational institutions, office 

buildings, hospitals or homes for the elderly, 

addressing the challenges of demographic change 

and urbanisation. An innovative example for 

this is a study we carried out together with the 

“Transfer Centre for Neuroscience and Learning” 

in German schools, installing light systems of 

combined blue and white LEDs in classrooms. 

The results were consistently positive: Due to the 

biologically optimised lighting in the classrooms, 

the students achieved significantly better results 

in standardised tests for concentration ability than 

the comparison group, and their performance 

speed also increased substantially. 

Hence, Osram offers a broad range of innovative 

solutions – from components to luminaires and 

light management systems – providing integrated 

sustainable lighting concepts. This is how we are 

maximising efficiency, minimising environmental 

impact, creating sustainable value. 

OSRAM 

Website: www.osram.com 


107

SMART CITIES: A PATHWAY TO 

INCLUSIVE GROWTH 

By Frits Verheij, Director Smart Energy DNV KEMA, and 

Mohammed Atif, Director DNV KEMA Middle East 

With smart grids, growing cities can leapfrog 

into the heart of the future while simultaneously 

making their energy infrastructure stable, reliable 

and efficient. Such grids offer flexibility to match 

the demand for and supply of variable sources, 

and allow resources such as natural gas to be 

optimised for every generated unit of electricity 

and water, thus saving energy, minimising harmful 

emissions and creating a healthy city that can 

successfully compete at an international level. 

At the core of a modern city, smart grids regulate 

multi-directional flows of energy and water 

that support power generation from different 

sources, centralised or renewable and/or dispersed. 

Although most consumers do not realise this, net 

metering and flexible tariffs for variable sources 

during different times of the day are the result. 

Accurate, online information flowing from the 

grid has the profound ability to enhance network 

management and raise the standard of service for 

citizens, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) 

and large corporations. 

Smart grids will also provide greater access to 

electricity generation and storage systems, such 

as solar roof panels, cooling pumps and ultraefficient 

heat pumps. In addition, advanced 

information networks will not only result in the 

more efficient use of the grid, but will also enhance 

transport systems by providing better access to 

low or zero emission vehicles (hybrid or electric). 

Incorporating advanced smart technologies 

into the grid and combining this with existing 

and new green buildings will also improve the 

network’s resilience, efficiency and reliability. As the 

advantages are enormous, smart grid technology is 

forecast to become a multi-trillion dollar industry 

by 2050, accommodating a whole new landscape 

for start-ups and investors in all the utility sectors. 

SMART MIDDLE EASTERN CITIES 

The Middle East is on the brink of an energy 

transition that will affect all walks of life. Oilproducing 

countries can no longer depend solely 

on hydrocarbons. In the long run, they will have 

to shift to more sustainable resources such as 

solar power or wind power. Modernised grids, 

SMEs, large corporations, cities and national 

jurisdictions will play a key role in this transition. 

Moreover, smart grids will not only improve 

network resilience and reliability, but also result 

in energy savings (especially natural gas) and 

have a positive effect on the efficiency of the 

present-day infrastructure. In the near future, they 

will also enhance the quality of life by creating 

a breeding ground for innovation, higher-level 

jobs, better education, transport and healthcare in 

a less polluted environment, and hence serve the 

current policy objectives of Arab states. 

Due to abundant natural resources, governments 

and regulators in the Middle East used to be 

driven by a centralised producers’ supply model 

that focused on expansion. Within the next 20 to 

30 years, that dependency will come to an end. 

Not only will technically recoverable natural 

resources in the Middle East start to decline, but 

the existing electricity infrastructure also seems 

to be reaching its limits and will become unable 

to support continuing growth in demand. Power 

shortages are becoming more common. The 

export of natural resources and rising differences 

between the base load and peak demand put a 

strain on the infrastructure. A growing urban 

population will increase this effect. 

Renewable energy sources such as solar power, 

solar cooling or ultra-efficient heat pumps could 

gain ground and are rapidly being implemented 

– but cannot provide enough electricity to 

fill this gap. Meanwhile, advances in wireless 

telecommunications technology are penetrating 

regional markets in the Middle East fast. Modern 

information technology will attract high profile 

workers. A recent study shows that connected 

cities (smart grid cities) with highly skilled, 

educated, innovative and entrepreneurial workers 

108


have a higher GDP growth rate as well as lower 

unemployment and higher office occupancy rates. 

These characteristics offer excellent prospects 

for cities in the Middle East. Although a smart 

grid infrastructure is in its infancy and two-way 

telecommunication and energy flow models 

have not permeated the hearts and minds of the 

citizens yet, the vast majority of the population 

- who are rich, highly educated and very mobile 

- want to be on the cutting edge. They are eager 

to use the best and latest technologies, not only 

to distinguish themselves as pioneers in the world 

but also to harvest the fruits of this first-mover 

advantage. It should not take much for civic 

leaders to convince consumers to adopt smart 

technologies and at the same time learn from 

international experience for maximum benefit. 

THE WAY AHEAD 

Middle East countries have the workforce as 

well as the investors to establish the world’s first 

cost-effective smart city. Projects and trials on a 

small scale have already taken place, showing the 

potential of smart grid technologies. 

Smart cities are, in a nutshell, all about 

interconnectedness in a constrained world. 

In contrast with Europe and North America, 

Middle East cities do not have an ageing gas 

infrastructure. Cities like Dubai, Abu Dhabi and 

King Abdullah Economic City are modern and 

electricity-based. Regulators are forward-looking 

and municipalities have budgets for innovation. 

That being said, a cultural change is needed to 

convince customers, suppliers and governments 

to transform smart grids into smart cities and 

maybe even a Power Matching Emirate in which 

all information about energy and water flows is 

interconnected. 

Whereas customers must be made aware of the 

advantages of smart grids, leading to monitoring 

devices and iterative action, producers and 

suppliers ask for more reliability, lower energy 

losses and the expansion of the power grid. 

Cities in the Middle East can learn a lot from 

international experience and first-class examples 

and at the same time ensure that smart grids 

are adapted in the most cost-effective ways. If 

successfully introduced, smart cities offer far more 

than just operational excellence, environmental 

compliance, reliability, security of supply 

and consumer participation. They will create 

incentives for start-ups beyond the information, 

communication and utility sectors, they will boost 

commerce and investments, and they will provide 

clean transport and better access to healthcare. 

But above all, smart cities are the best way to 

reduce the tremendous strain on present-day 

infrastructure and enhance the quality of life in 

the hot climate of the Middle East. 

www.dnvkema.com 


109


THE ROAD TO 

LOW EMISSIONS GOES 

THROUGH THE CITY 

By Gino van Begin, Deputy Secretary General, ICLEI – Local Governments for 

Sustainability 

It is time for the global climate community to work with local leaders and governments to urbanise the 

climate agenda through ambitious goals and direct implementation. 

“It’s good that the negotiations are saved. Now 

it’s time to save the climate!” This comment 

sums up the mixed feelings of many participants 

on their way home after concluding the last 

48 hours of the historic Durban Conference 

in December 2011. This positivism had been 

strengthened by additional inspiring news like 

the successful reduction of China’s carbon 

intensity since 2005, the moderate decline of US 

national emissions in the last couple of years, or 

with reports that the global annual renewable 

energy investments exceeded those in fossil fuels 

for the first time in 2010. 

But this incremental and eclectic progress 

becomes meaningless as global concentrations 

of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reach 

peak values every year, the Arctic ice reaches its 

record summertime low extent, or unprecedented 

extreme heat and drought together with 

precipitation and floods occur in the same 

location within weeks of each other. In order to 

guarantee a safe climatic space in which six or 

seven billion urban dwellers can thrive in 2050, a 

fundamental transformation in our development 

model is required. 

If low emission development is the challenge 

of our time for both developed and developing 

countries, the international community must 

work together with local governments to ensure 

that sustainable urban development is the main 

driver of this transformation. 

WORDS TO ACTION: RAISING THE 

LEVEL OF AMBITION 

Last year, in this very publication, ICLEI urged 

the global climate community with the words, 

“So everyone needs to raise their ambitions.” 

In Durban, this clarion call was taken up in 

the official document. But more importantly, 

during the first Durban platform workshop in 

May 2012 in Bonn, Germany, many national 

delegations, as voiced by Jonathan Pershing of the 

110

Seoul City Mayor and World Mayors Council Chair Park 

Won Soon demonstrates ambition through his 'One less 

nuclear power plant' plan 

Mexico City Mayor and former World Mayors Council Chair 

Marcelo Ebrard announces the impressive Mexico City's 

2008-2012 Climate Action Programme. 


US State Department, expressed serious interest 

in the suggestions laid by ICLEI to engage local 

governments as governmental stakeholders to 

scale up climate actions. 

The week before Rio+20, at the ICLEI World 

Congress 2012 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 

numerous local governments demonstrated what 

raising levels of ambition meant in practice. The 

inspiring examples set by prominent local leaders 

tell a positive story: 

 

 

 

Showing political leadership. Park Won 

Soon, the newly elected Mayor of Seoul and 

Chair of World Mayors Council on Climate 

Change, swiftly demonstrated his ambition 

through Seoul’s new ‘One less nuclear power 

plant’ plan. The plan aims, through energy 

efficiency and renewable energy generation 

– and with a strong emphasis on stakeholder 

engagement – to reduce greenhouse gas 

emissions by 7.33 million tonnes of CO 2 

equivalent, save US$2 billion and generate 

40,000 jobs by 2014. 

Re-invigorating and redoubling efforts. 

Not content with existing commitments, 

Environment Mayor Ayfer Baykal shared 

a renewed plan for Copenhagen to 

become the world’s first carbon neutral 

capital by 2025, by acting on energy 

consumption, production, mobility and the 

city administration. Copenhagen’s efforts 

have been rewarded: it has just become the 

European Green Capital of the Year for 2014. 

Implementing emissions reductions. 

Minister of Environment Martha Delgado 

shared the impressive vision and strategy of 

Mexico City’s 2008-2012 Climate Action 

Programme. Two months later, she joined 

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard to proudly announce 

that Mexico City managed to reached a total 

 

emissions reduction of 7.7 million tonnes 

CO 2 

equivalent, exceeding its initial goal 

by 10.2 per cent. It has also succeeded in 

implementing a new programme to adapt to 

climate change. 

Being innovative. Kenji Suzuki, Director 

of International Cooperation, presented the 

first year’s results of Tokyo Metropolitan 

Government in successfully implementing 

the world’s first urban cap and trade 

programme. Targeting 1,300 buildings 

that contribute 40 per cent of the city’s 

commercial and industrial emissions, the 

Tokyo Cap and Trade Programme has not 

only become a key driver of emissions 

reductions, but also increased the city’s 

resilience to energy shortages during the 

Fukushima disaster. 

These are just snapshots of the massive amount 

of information reported by hundreds of local 

governments worldwide at the carbonn Cities 

Climate Registry (www.citiesclimateregistry.org) 

where “national governments can be encouraged 

to take ever bigger and more ambitious steps to 

fight climate change”, in the words of Christiana 

Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Climate 

Change Secretariat. 

A VEHICLE FOR PROGRESS 

The development path of emerging economies’ 

growing urban areas in the next 30-50 years is 

vital in attaining global emissions targets designed 

to limit the global temperature increase to 

2ºC; and so is the ability of cities to provide a 

sustainable and quality environment for the wellbeing 

of their citizens. Success will depend on a 

fundamental transformation in our development 

model. We need to demonstrate that shifting 

urban development to a low emission path can 

offer both a better urban livelihood to billions of 



people and yield immediate, direct, cost-effective 

and scalable greenhouse gas emissions reductions. 

Local governments cannot do this alone. 

Low emission development strategies, or 

LEDS, offer one vehicle towards making this 

transformation. In the Copenhagen accord, 

they were described as being indispensable to 

sustainable development. ‘Low carbon growth 

plans’ or ‘LEDS’ – the terminology is irrelevant. 

The important thing is that they effectively 

integrated economic development plans with 

low emission and/or climate resilient economic 

growth. Unless climate and development policy 

are created and implemented in a coherent way, 

we shall only be re-arranging deck chairs as the 

Titanic is sinking under us. 

That is why ICLEI has recently begun work, 

in partnership with UN-HABITAT, on a 

€6.7 million project, funded by the European 

Commission, to assist eight cities in four 

emerging economies to reduce their emissions 

as they grow. Implemented in Brazil, Indonesia, 

South Africa and India, the project will help 

model cities to formulate and adopt Urban 

LEDS, and then share these experiences within 

their countries and beyond. Model cities will be 

guided through a comprehensive process using 

ICLEI’s GreenClimateCities methodology, to 

create a coherent, development-based strategy 

which identifies the cities emissions’ footprint, 

identifies and prioritises actions, and moves to 

implementation through fully costing solutions 

in different sectors while seeking investments 

to bring them to fruition. The project will 

also strive to develop a globally acceptable and 

nationally appropriate verification process for 

reporting of local greenhouse gas inventories and 

mitigation actions. 

SCALING UP, MOVING TOGETHER 

A key aspect of the Urban LEDS project is to 

scale up action, and to link cities to the actors in 

the international climate regime. With up to 20 

other satellite cities able to share the experiences 

of the model cities and use this experience 

and learning to move forward on low emission 

development, scaling up will be started. 

The movement of local governments acting to 

promote low emission development is big, but it 

needs to be massive. Innovative ICLEI member 

cities need to be joined by thousands more. In 

Doha, the hope is to move closer to 

“Success will depend on a 

fundamental transformation in 

our development model.” 

a much needed global framework that involves 

and appropriately supports local governments, 

including enabling implementation through direct 

and additional financing, and matching their level 

of ambition. The global climate community has to 

provide all the necessary support to visionary 

local leaders and governments who are willing to 

move faster in reducing emissions and in offering 

sustainable livelihoods for their citizens. For the 

Earth doesn’t care where reductions take place 

– but demands urgently that less emissions are 

accumulated in the atmosphere. 

The author acknowledges valuable contributions of Steven Bland, 

Project Manager at ICLEI Africa Secretariat and Yunus Arikan, 

Manager of Cities Climate Center at ICLEI World Secretariat in the 

preparation of this article. 

Gino van Begin is the Deputy Secretary General 

of ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability. 

A lawyer by profession, his international career spans 

25 years, including stints in Russia, the European 

Commission and the Government of Flanders cabinet. 

Gino was a member of the EU Expert Group to the 

European Commission on the Urban Environment 

from 2003 until 2006. He is a co-drafter of the Aalborg 

Commitments on urban sustainability to which more 

than 500 cities and towns in Europe have adhered since 

its launch in 2004. Gino undertakes official observer 

duties on behalf of ICLEI at the COP negotiations on 

Climate Change, as well as expert roles at the European 

Commission and the Council of Europe, Congress of 

Local and Regional Authorities of Europe. 

ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability 

is the world’s leading association of cities and local 

governments dedicated to sustainable development. 

ICLEI is a powerful movement of 12 mega-cities, 100 

super-cities and urban regions, 450 large cities as well 

as 450 small and medium-sized cities and towns in 

84 countries. ICLEI promotes local action for global 

sustainability and supports cities to become sustainable, 

resilient, resource-efficient, biodiverse and low-carbon; to 

build a smart infrastructure; and to develop an inclusive, 

green urban economy with the ultimate aim of achieving 

healthy and happy communities. 

112


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MINIMAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION 

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113


SUSTAINABLE 

TRANSPORT ON A 

GLOBAL SCALE 

By Michael Replogle, Managing Director for Policy and Founder, and Ramón Cruz, 

Sustainable Development Program Manager, Institute for Transportation and Development 

Policy (ITDP) 

Transport infrastructure – such as bridges, roads and ports – is often the symbol of a civilised and 

prosperous society. However, the established business-as-usual paradigm must now give way to more 

effective sustainable strategies. 

For centuries, the transport of goods, services 

and people has been an essential component of 

economic growth. In recent decades as income 

grows, especially in emerging and developing 

economies, there is demand for more transport 

infrastructure. In general, the paradigm of the 

last 50 years has been to respond to this demand 

with infrastructure that benefits individualised 

motorised vehicles rather than by improving 

collective means of transport. The rapid growth 

of individual motorised vehicles, initially in 

the developed world but more recently also in 

emerging and developing economies, represents a 

major challenge to the international development 

community. Many have assumed that focusing on 

growth in the car industry, roads, and individual 

motorisation is the surest way to spur economic 

development. But growing evidence suggests that 

sustainable development is likely to result from a 

more balanced approach to transport investment 

that expands access and mobility options for all. 

CHALLENGES FOR THE 

TRANSPORT SECTOR 

While many areas essential to a well-functioning 

society, such as education, healthcare, energy, 

sanitation and water quality, usually improve with 

growing prosperity, if transport is not planned 

well, it can become increasingly inefficient 

and dysfunctional as GDP rises. The growth of 

individual motorisation has led to more congestion, 

which can erode economic growth in metropolitan 

areas. While improvements in transport have 

brought unparalleled mobility for many in recent 

years, these have often been associated with many 

adverse environmental, social and economic impacts. 

Transport is the fastest growing sector in terms of 

greenhouse gas emissions, an important contributor 

to climate change, and at the same time responsible 

for a large part of urban air pollution. The poor are 

often left behind without access to private vehicles, 

money to pay increasing travel costs, or the option 

of living in areas with good transport access to jobs 

114


© Clarisse Linke - ITDP Brazil 

TransOeste Bus Rapid Transit, Rio de Janeiro - BRT is one of the fastest 

growing public transport systems because of its cost-effectiveness. Over 

100 cities in the developing world have developed BRT corridors. 

and services. Finally, transport accidents account for 

1.4 million traffic fatalities per year and for about 15 

million serious injuries. 

But these negative effects can be reversed with 

sound planning and investment. Sustainable transport 

strategies have been demonstrated in a growing 

number of cities and countries and shown to foster 

more cost-effective and equitable economic growth 

with a different mix of traffic, lower pollution and 

greenhouse gases, and fewer adverse health impacts. 

But taking sustainable transport to scale globally 

requires a further shift in transport investment by 

national and local governments from old-fashioned 

road construction and fossil fuel subsidies to 

investment in safe, complete streets and highways 

designed for public and non-motorised transport, 

with traffic management and operations, and green 

freight strategies. It also requires development of 

related institutional capacity for sustainable transport 

planning, development, regulations and policymaking 

and operations. 

Engaging the capacity of the world’s major 

development finance institutions, such as regional 

development banks and the World Bank, will 

be very helpful to scaling up global sustainable 

transport. These institutions lend approximately 

US$30 billion a year for transport and could 

help shape national development plans, policies 

and infrastructure finance programmes, which 

invest, together with the private sector, well over a 

trillion dollars a year in transport infrastructure and 

services. This effort could be even more effective if 

co-ordinated with actions to educate and engage 

national transport, housing, urban development, 

environment, health, finance and foreign ministries 

in support of sustainable transport. 

VOLUNTARY COMMITMENTS AND 

GLOBAL TARGETS 

Rio+20, the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable 

Development, celebrated the 20-year anniversary of 

the historic Earth Summit in 1992, where countries 

signed Agenda 21, a blueprint for action in the 

three pillars of sustainable development: economic 

growth, social equity and environmental protection. 

Major international processes such as the UN 

Framework Convention on Climate Change came 

out of the earlier summit. The 2012 conference 

was not considered as successful as the first one 

because countries did not agree on decisive actions 

© Cornie Huizenga, SLOCAT 

Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda announces pledge of $175 

Billion for sustainable transport initiatives on behalf of 8 multilateral development 

banks during the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012 

beyond a declaration of good intentions. However, 

Rio+20 was often framed as a conference about 

implementation and there was a strong focus on 

voluntary commitments to advance concrete actions 

to achieve sustainable development. 

For the transport sector, Rio+20 has been 

categorised as a ‘game-changer’ – the moment 

when sustainable transport was finally recognised 

by the international community as having the 

same importance as other sectors such as energy 

or water. The transport sector community 

together contributed to more than 15 voluntary 

commitments for sustainable transport finance, 

policy-making, capacity development and knowledge 

development and sharing. The most important of 

these commitments was advanced by the world’s 

eight largest multilateral development banks (MDBs). 

Together, they pledged to spend at least US$175 

billion on more sustainable transport projects in the 

next decade with annual reporting and monitoring. 

Rio+20 served also as a catalyst for the international 

transport community to develop a series of global 

targets with the aim of proposing sustainable 

transport as an official Sustainable Development 

Goal (SDG) in order to play a key role in the 

post-2015 global development agenda, which will 

be developed as a continuation of the Millennium 

Development Goals. An expert working group 

convened by the Partnership on Sustainable 

Low Carbon Transport (SLoCaT), which brings 

together 68 organisations including UN agencies, 

MDBs, NGOs and international research bodies, 

proposed the consideration of a sustainable transport 

sustainable development goal: ‘Universal Access to 

Safe, Clean and Affordable Transport’. 

Related targets identified by the SLoCaT 

working group might include the following: 

Ensure that the proportion of the urban and 

rural poor for whom mobility problems 

severely restrict access to employment and 

essential services should be halved by 2030 

compared with 2010; 

Maintain the 2010 share of personal trips 

by public and non-motorised transport for 

countries currently above 50 per cent, and 

where this share is currently below 50 per cent, 

achieve at least a 10 per cent gain by 2025; 

Support the Decade of Action for Road 

Safety (2011-20) and its objective to cut 



 

 

 

traffic-related deaths in half by 2025; 

Cut the contribution of freight and passenger 

transport to emissions of harmful air 

pollutants by half by 2025; 

Cut the average fuel use per km of new 

light duty vehicles by 50 per cent by 2030, 

compared with 2005 levels; 

Ensure global greenhouse gas emissions from 

passenger and freight transport peak by 2020 

and are cut by at least 40 per cent by 2050 

compared with 2005 levels. 

FROM VISION TO REALITY 

In order to achieve these global targets, a much 

greater degree of co-ordination will be needed 

from the local to the international level. Often the 

most difficult part of international development is 

finding the funds to develop substantive projects 

with the capacity to become replicable models. 

The US$175 billion pledged by the MDBs could 

serve as a catalyst to spur timely progress on a 

post-2015 sustainable development framework in 

which sustainable transport plays a key role. 

What are the next key steps to advance progress 

and build on the momentum from Rio+20? 

There are different roles for various actors and 

opportunities through various international and 

local forums. Informed local-global co-ordination 

and communication is needed to achieve sustainable 

transport targets and goals. COP18 delegates in 

Doha can play an essential part, ensuring that all 

sectors can contribute to mitigation under the new 

Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform 

for Enhanced Action (AWG-ADP). Failure to 

include transport in Kyoto made it impossible for 

the sector to substantially contribute to mitigation 

under the instruments developed for the Kyoto 

Protocol, resulting in a bigger problem now. With 

respect to NAMAs the COP-18 needs to develop 

consensus on how the incremental cost principle 

will apply to transport as sustainable transport is 

generally less costly than traditional solutions and 

it also has more cobenefits. Yet, there is a need 

for financial support to enable the transition to 

sustainable, low carbon transport systems. The 

unique circumstances of transport need to be 

reflected in the MRV for transport NAMAs." 

Start new Paragraph with next sentence, "Other 

suggestions for action include the following: 

Suggestions for action include the following: 

City and regional governments should develop 

comprehensive mobility plans based on their 

priorities and needs, taking into consideration 

environmental protection, social equity and 

Ecobici, Mexico City - Bike share systems have become a popular way 

for municipalities around the world to reduce traffic congestion, combat 

climate change and provide healthy mobility options for its citizens. 

access to goods and services for the majority 

of the population, especially the poor. 

National ministries in charge of transport and 

infrastructure, in co-ordination with local 

and regional governments, should develop 

national freight and passenger mobility plans 

and national transport policies that would 

incorporate the plans of key urban regions 

and markets. 

UNFCCC in co-ordination with ministries 

of transport and infrastructure should ensure 

to incorporate national mobility plans into 

the Nationally Appropriate Mitigation 

Actions (NAMAs) and the National 

Adaptation Programmes of Actions (NAPAs). 

National governments should be involved (if 

they are not already) in the Environmentally 

Sustainable Transport (EST) Forums of each 

continent (Asia, Europe and Central Asia, 

Latin America are already in place and Africa 

will start in 2013) and a Global EST Forum 

being planned for April 2013. 

National governments should become 

active at the UN forums around sustainable 

transport such as the Secretary General’s 

working group on sustainable transport or 

the Friends of Transport group, which is 

currently being discussed with leadership of 

Dutch and Thai missions. 

Michael Replogle has more than 30 years of experience 

in transport and urban planning, policy, environmental 

assessment and finance. He launched ITDP’s Global 

Policy Program, which documents global best practices 

and enhances the capacity of international development 

organisations and is now Managing Director for Policy. 

Ramon Cruz is the Sustainable Development Program 

Manager at ITDP. He was Vice President for Energy 

and Environment at the Partnership for New York City, 

a business group, and Senior Policy Analyst for the 

Environmental Defense Fund. He has been an adviser to 

the NYC government on energy and solid waste issues. 

The Institute for Transportation and Development 

Policy (ITDP) works with cities worldwide to bring 

about sustainable transport solutions that cut greenhouse 

gas emissions, reduce poverty, and improve the quality of 

urban life. 

116


AMERICA’S CITIES 

PLUG INTO 

ELECTRIC DRIVE 

By Brian Wynne, President, Electric Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) 

American cities large and small are enhancing local transportation by integrating electric drive vehicles 

and charging stations into their communities. Many communities are demonstrating how to plan for the 

advanced deployment of electric vehicles, and are playing a key role in fostering a sustainable and energyefficient 

future. 

Through diverse initiatives, local communities 

and their residents who drive electric vehicles are 

beginning to realise the benefits of electric drive 

transportation. A more electrified transport fleet 

can be a crucial solution to reducing dependence 

on oil, creating a cleaner, healthier environment 

and boosting the domestic economy. 

Some communities that are already leading the 

charge in electric drive adoption include the city 

of Los Angeles; Austin, Texas; the town of Normal, 

Illinois, and Mercer Island, Washington (located in 

the greater Seattle area). These communities are 

pioneering models for: 

Installing public charging stations; 

Offering rebates and incentive programmes 

to electric drive customers; 

Providing educational resources to customers 

and potential customers about the benefits of 

electric drive; and 

Partnering with public utility companies and 

auto manufacturers to expand electric vehicle 

adoption among residents. 

FORWARD THINKING 

Public-private partnerships are especially 

important for accelerating national electric vehicle 

adoption because they help grow manufacturing 

and support jobs in the electric drive industry. 

For example, Mitsubishi Motors, manufacturer 

of the Mitsubishi iMiEV battery electric vehicle, 

has partnered with the community of Normal, 

Illinois, to create EVTown, an effort driven by 

a coalition of business officials, government 

representatives and other interested stakeholders 

who understand that electric vehicles offer 

tremendous benefits to individual vehicle 

owners, businesses, and the greater community. 

EVTown will connect interested residents with 

opportunities to view, test drive, and purchase 

electric vehicles. The EVTown website will 



provide businesses and potential EV customers 

within the Normal community with all of the 

information needed to evaluate available electric 

vehicle technologies. The EVTown effort is also 

helping to expand the Normal community’s 

reputation as a forward-thinking, technology 

leader, which enhances the city’s ability to attract 

and retain top quality employees and businesses 

and contributes to the expansion of jobs and its 

local economic base. 

Since the US transport sector produces onethird 

of all the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, 

accelerating electric drive vehicle adoption 

is good for the environment. When it comes 

to communities helping to promote the 

environmental benefits of electric drive, Mercer 

Island in the state of Washington is educating 

its community about how to participate in the 

Mercer Island Green Ribbon Commission Carbon 

Challenge, which encourages community members 

to help the city reduce its carbon footprint and 

consider environmentally-friendly practices. One 

component of the challenge promotes the use 

of electric vehicles, particularly within the city 

government’s fleet, and improving overall fuel 

efficiency. In addition, through a grant from the 

US Department of Energy, public charging stations 

have been installed at Mercer Island City Hall. 

These are in addition to the more than 2,000 

charging stations that have already been deployed 

in the central Puget Sound area (in Washington 

“Public-private partnerships 

are especially important for 

accelerating national electric 

vehicle adoption.” 

State) and the 1,500 anticipated to be installed in 

the area over the next year. 

In Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has 

committed to upgrading more than 100 public 

charging stations in the city, and he has directed 

the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, 

the municipally-owned electric utility, to offer 

electric car customers rebates of up to US$2,000 

on home charging systems and time-of-use 

prices for charging electric cars during offpeak 

hours. Knowing that electricity is cheaper 

in off-peak hours will encourage electric 

vehicle owners to charge during these times 

and increase efficient use of the power grid. 

Specifically, the city of Los Angeles offers a twoand-a-half 

US cent per kilowatt hour discount 

to customers who charge off-peak. The Los 

Angeles Department of Water and Power has also 

created a free phone number that customers can 

call for further information on electric vehicles 

and charging. 

120


In Texas, the city of Austin is another leader in 

establishing public charging for electric vehicles. 

For example, the city’s public utility, Austin 

Energy, has created the first charging station 

network to be powered completely by renewable 

energy through Austin Energy’s GreenChoice 

programme. Considered to be the nation’s most 

successful utility-sponsored and voluntary greenpricing 

energy programme, this is the first of its 

kind in the country. It provides subscribers with 

a fixed charge instead of the regular fuel charge 

for the term of their subscription, allowing them 

to make a lasting contribution to Austin’s quality 

of life. By using the GreenChoice programme, 

customers have been able to support the growth 

of renewable energy in Texas. The renewable 

energy industry creates new jobs in the state 

and produces new revenues for school districts. 

In addition to GreenChoice, Austin Energy also 

offers electric drive customers the opportunity to 

take advantage of the company’s US$1,500 home 

charging rebate. 

Other cities across America are looking for 

ways to become more EV-friendly. The Electric 

Drive Transportation Association (EDTA) offers 

these tips: 

Partner with a local utility to offer rebates for 

customers who use home charging systems 

for their electric vehicle, or offer overall 

reduced rates for customers who are charging 

electric vehicles at home; 

Offer a variety of consumer and business 

incentives such as tax credits, access to 

high-occupancy vehicle lanes, fast-tracking 

permitting processes for installation of 

charging stations or free parking benefits 

to consumers who purchase and drive an 

electric car (37 US states already offer a 

number of these incentives); 

Identify code changes for new construction 

to make it easier to install public charging 

 

stations; and 

Provide education about maintaining 

grid stability, including charging during 

off-peak hours, using clean sources of 

energy and advocating for renewable 

sources. Consumers and public utilities 

can visit EDTA’s educational website, 

GoElectricDrive.com, for more information 

on the electric car industry. 

Community and city-level efforts are moving 

the USA closer to national scale adoption. With 

more than 20 electric drive models coming to 

the US market by the end of 2014, consumers 

“By using the GreenChoice 

programme, customers have 

been able to support the growth 

of renewable energy in Texas.” 

will have multiple options to meet their drivers’ 

driving needs. Local and regional initiatives like 

the ones detailed here are also linking EV-friendly 

communities. For example, the West Coast Green 

Highway Initiative has installed public charging 

stations every 40-60 miles along Interstate 5 from 

British Columbia in Canada to Baja in California. 

Communities across the USA are building the 

templates for electrifying the national fleet. 

Following their lead in using electricity in place 

of oil will enhance energy security, expand 

competitiveness and protect public health and 

the environment. 

“With more than 20 electric 

drive models coming to the US 

market by the end of 2014, 

consumers will have multiple 

options.” 

Brian P. Wynne was appointed President of the 

Electric Drive Transportation Association in 2004. 

Wynne brings in-depth experience in transportation 

and technology applications gained in leadership roles 

in trade associations and public-private partnerships. 

He previously served as Senior Vice President for 

business and trade at the Intelligent Transportation 

Society of America. 

The Electric Drive Transportation Association 

(EDTA) is the pre-eminent trade association 

representing battery, hybrid, plug-in hybrid and 

fuel cell electric drive technologies and infrastructure. 

EDTA conducts public policy advocacy, education, 

industry networking, and international conferences. 

EDTA’s membership includes vehicle and equipment 

manufacturers, energy companies, technology developers, 

component suppliers, government agencies and others. 


INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY 

POLICY AND INNOVATION 

IN THE ICT INDUSTRY 

By Dr Hamadoun I Touré, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 

The adoption of green ICT solutions can have a startling effect on greenhouse gas emissions if planned 

with vision. Policy-makers need to prioritise technology transfer, the specific needs of individual 

countries, and resource efficiency. 

The global community is requesting world leaders 

to step up the political will to address the urgent 

challenges of climate change. This was one of the 

major messages that emerged from the last United 

Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17), 

held at the end of 2011 in Durban, South Africa. 

The conference did not represent the step forward 

many of us had wished for in order to move the 

climate change process from negotiations to action. 

As civil society and other major stakeholders 

lose their faith in the capacity of their leaders to 

agree on the necessary steps to mitigate climate 

change and adapt to its effects, the technological 

community has continued developing innovative 

solutions that can assist in moving towards a 

low-carbon economy. A prominent example 

of these technologies is the use of information 

and communication technologies (ICT), such as 

satellites, mobile phones or the internet, which 

are already significantly reducing greenhouse 

gas (GHG) emissions generated by several 

industrial and service sectors, such as transport, 

manufacturing and energy. 

Overall, the use of ICT-enabled solutions has 

the potential of reducing 15 per cent of GHG 

emissions. According to The Broadband Bridge, 

a recent report published in April 2012 by the 

Broadband Commission for Digital Development 

– a joint ITU-UNESCO initiative – ICTs 

can introduce reductions in GHG emissions of 

7.8 Gt by 2020. This represents 87 per cent of 

the reductions needed to address the so-called 

‘emissions gap’, the difference between the cuts 

in global emissions that are needed to keep the 

expected increase in the global temperature below 

2 degrees Celsius and the pledges that have been 

made so far by parties to the UNFCCC. 

Unleashing this unique potential requires a 

number of actions to move from the energyintensive, 

physical infrastructure of the last 

century to the connected, information-based 

122


© Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez 

© Steve Roetz 

infrastructure of the 21st century. These actions 

include visionary leadership from governments 

in adopting ICT public policies, promotion of 

technology transfer, assessing technology needs 

and advancing towards resource efficiency 

through ICTs. 

LEADING WITH VISION 

To begin with, the public sector has to lead with 

vision, and adopt comprehensive ICT public 

policies that promote digital inclusion, open 

markets and innovation, remove barriers to and 

provide incentives for research and innovation, 

connecting at the same time with the climate 

goals defined in national environmental policies. 

In addition, governments should partner with the 

private sector, civil society and other governments 

in order to create a co-operative mindset and to 

share experiences and best practices to identify 

the most successful solutions. 

According to data collected by ITU, 119 

governments now have a national strategy to 

promote the deployment of broadband networks, 

services and applications. However, only 34 

per cent of these countries have incorporated 

references to low-carbon planning and 

environmental sustainability in their broadband 

policies. This is a clear indicator of the urgency 

of breaking down the artificial ‘silos’ that result 

from sectoral approaches. In order to address the 

gaps, we need to cultivate co-creativity across 

public, private and non-governmental sectors 

and industries and define shared targets and 

goals. It is only through a unified approach based 

on collaboration that we can achieve the much 

needed conversion to a low carbon economy. 

From an institutional standpoint, regulatory 

certainty, integrated decision-making and crossministerial 

flexibility should contribute to 

overcoming the barriers that currently hinder 

the adoption of broadband-enabled applications 

that can promote environmental sustainability. 

Incentivising the uptake of such low carbon 

solutions, funding or facilitating scalable pilots, 

forming partnerships among the private sector and 

government agencies, promoting the dissemination 

and findings and boosting measurement and 

standardisation are all parts of this holistic 

broadband regulatory framework promoted by the 

Broadband Commission (see Table 1). 

“We need to cultivate 

co-creativity across public, 

private and non-governmental 

sectors and industries.” 

PROMOTING TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER 

The second element that it is important to 

highlight is the importance of promoting 

the transfer and diffusion of innovative green 

technologies. In order to successfully tackle 

climate change, all countries need adequate 

technologies and know-how to reduce GHG 

emissions, limit the loss of natural resources 

and effectively assist their population to adapt 

to the effects of climate change. However, not 

all countries have the same level of access to 

environmentally sound technologies. Addressing 

these disparities requires effective co-operation 

and support among countries, taking into 

account different contexts, priorities, capacities 

and responsibilities. 

Intergovernmental organisations and bilateral 

co-operation can play a pivotal role by actively 

disseminating project findings, sharing best 



Table 1. Recommendations from the Broadband Commission to promote a low carbon economy through the use of 

broadband and ICTs 

Source: The Broadband Bridge. Broadband Commission for Digital Development 

1. Lead with vision 

Adopt a long-term 

National Broadband Plan/ 

Strategy based on universal 

affordability and accessibility, 

open markets and innovation, 

and consciously connect this 

to your climate goals. 

2. Bring convergence 

Bring convergence to 

ICT policy formulation 

so that it aligns with 

other policy areas such as 

energy, health, education 

and climate in order to 

maximise impact. 

3. Ensure regulatory 

certainty 

Ensure regulatory 

certainty in regard to 

policy and regulations on 

climate and broadband to 

create a good framework 

for investment. 

4. Be an example 

Drive cross-ministry 

collaboration and integrated 

decision-making to align 

climate and digital goals 

and use government 

procurement to send the 

right market signals 

5. Foster flexibility 

Identify and remove the 

regulatory and policy barriers 

currently hindering research 

and investment in 21st 

century ICT-based broadband 

enabled infrastructure and 

low carbon solutions. 

6. Provide incentives 

Encourage uptake of low 

carbon solutions and support 

market change by rewarding 

or incentivising desired 

consumer behaviours. Spur 

innovation among individuals, 

companies and sectors. 

7. Build the market 

Fund and facilitate scalable 

pilots to demonstrate 

feasibility and effectiveness 

of broadband as an enabler 

of low-carbon solutions, and 

build a strong business case to 

attract private investment. 

8. Form partnerships 

Cultivate ‘connectivity’ 

and ‘co-creativity’ across 

public, private and nongovernmental 

sectors and 

industries to help develop a 

collaborative mindset, shared 

goals, common language and 

break down silos. 

9. Measure and standardise 

Develop harmonised metrics and measurements 

and common standards for calculating both ICTs’ 

environmental impacts and the positive contribution the 

sector can make to others – from individual products 

to systems, and from individual households to city or 

national levels. 

10. Share knowledge and raise awareness 

Actively disseminate project findings, share best practice and 

learn from mistakes to identify success factors and facilitate 

leapfrogging, especially among less developed markets. 

Communicate the opportunities and synergies that can be 

achieved through an integrated, trans-sector approach to digital 

development. Infrastructure and low carbon solutions. 

practices and identifying success factors 

to facilitate leapfrogging, especially in less 

developed markets. In this regard, the Technology 

Mechanism created within the UNFCCC has the 

potential of becoming an excellent platform to 

conduct this work. To achieve this, all stakeholders 

must contribute to the work of the Technology 

Executive Committee (TEC) and the Climate 

Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), under 

the principle of co-operation, thereby building on 

the progress achieved by other organisations and 

platforms in this domain. 

ICTS IN TECHNOLOGY NEEDS 

ASSESSMENTS 

The third element for consideration is 

the importance of identifying the specific 

technological needs that each country may 

have to mitigate climate change and adapt to 

its effects, in particular as climate change may 

affect each region differently. Many countries 

have already advanced in conducting their own 

Technology Needs Assessments, which constitute 

a precious source of information and the 

basis for future projects and programmes. The 

challenge that lies ahead will be to move from 

analysis to action. 

As part of this work many countries have 

highlighted their expectations with regard to 

the role of ICTs for climate action, in particular 

in three macro areas: monitoring the effects of 

climate change through observation systems; 

improving resource efficiency, in particular 

in transport and energy production and 

consumption; and in connecting communities to 

allow for better information sharing. 

“The challenge that lies ahead 

will be to move from analysis 

to action.” 

With regard to barriers to technology adoption, 

the vast majority of the assessments conducted 

so far present the lack of access to information 

as one of the main obstacles for the effective use 

of technologies for mitigation and adaptation 

action. This is precisely one of the areas in 

which ICTs can play a major role, as these 

technologies expand access to information, 

124


allowing experts and key stakeholders to 

communicate with their peers anytime from 

almost anywhere. Investing in improving access 

to ICTs, in particular to high speed high 

connectivity broadband networks, is an effective 

way to address this barrier. 

DOING MORE WITH LESS 

The final element for consideration is the need 

to continue advancing towards improved resource 

efficiency, an element that has been identified as 

a priority by almost 90 per cent of the countries 

who have completed their technology needs 

assessment. This is another key contribution of 

ICTs to combat climate change, in particular 

through the use of smart grids. 

ICTs will provide a level of intelligence 

into electricity grids, enabling cost-effective 

applications such as distribution automation, 

diagnostic and fault location, smart metering, 

demand response, energy management, smart 

appliances, grid-to-home communications, and 

advanced recharging systems for electric vehicles. 

The use of smart grids for energy production, 

for example, reduces the necessity to have 

excess production capacity because real-time 

information is provided by customers. 

In the context of efficient energy consumption, 

several countries also mention the need to 

improve the efficiency of their transport sector. 

ICTs provide solutions with intelligent transport 

systems that reduce pollution and congestion. In 

addition, with an efficient broadband network, the 

practice of teleworking can be expanded, cutting 

back on the carbon footprint as the need for 

commuting is reduced. 

Another key application in the context 

of efficiency is using ICTs to assist in the 

management of fresh water resources. Smart 

water management programmes set strategies for 

waste water management, rainwater harvesting, 

water recycling and flood management, 

all extremely useful in improving water 

management, especially in the agricultural 

sector. The use of technologies such as smart 

meters that can be placed throughout the water 

distribution network can play an important role 

in saving precious water resources. These are 

all applications in which ITU is promoting the 

exchange of best practices and setting up the 

technical standards to support the transfer and 

diffusion of green ICT solutions. 

“The use of smart grids 

for energy production, 

for example, reduces the 

necessity to have excess 

production capacity.” 

ACTION FOR A SUCCESSFUL 

TRANSITION 

The 2012 United Nations Conference on 

Climate Change (COP18) will be a conference 

of transition. It marks a transition between the 

end of the work mandated by the Bali Action 

Plan and the new road map for the negotiations 

agreed last year in Durban. A transition that may 

depend on the successful implementation of the 

agreements reached two years ago in Cancun, 

in particular as most of the challenges related to 

climate change remain unresolved. 

We must work together to support this success, 

putting our organisations at the service of the 

climate change process to turn the opportunities 

at hand into solutions for the future. Solutions, 

such as ICTs, that can assist in the transformation 

needed for a better and more sustainable future: 

the future we all want. 

Dr Ha madoun Touré has been Secretary-General 

of ITU since January 2007. Re-elected for a second 

four-year term in October 2010, Dr Touré is committed 

to ITU’s mission of connecting the world, and to 

helping achieve the Millennium Development Goals 

and sustainable development through harnessing the 

unique potential of Information and Communication 

Technologies (ICTs). 

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) 

is the UN specialised agency responsible for ICTs. 

Its membership, comprising 193 governments, some 

700 private companies and about 50 universities, has 

called for ITU to take the lead in engaging the global 

community in addressing climate change through 

the use of ICTs. ITU is headquartered in Geneva, 

Switzerland, with 12 field offices around the world. 

Further information about ITU’s climate change 

activities, including the reports referenced in this article, 

is available at www.itu.int/climate. 



ICT FOR ONE-PLANET 

LIVING 

By Luis Neves, Chairman of the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) 

A sustainable future requires nothing less than a full transformation of the world economy and society 

through ICT. Innovative ICT solutions ranging from smart buildings and teleworking to cloud 

computing can allow us to preserve both our planet and our quality of life. 

If everyone in the world lived like an average 

European, we would need three planets to live 

on. And if we all lived like an average North 

American, then it would take five planets to 

support us (www.oneplanetliving.org). Unless 

special action is taken, the human footprint will 

grow at a rate far beyond the carrying capacity 

of our planet. Our society will collapse just 

as the great civilisations did in the past – the 

Mesopotamians, the Egyptians, the Greeks 

and the Romans. As stakeholders prepare for 

the 18th round of the global climate change 

negotiations at COP18 in Qatar, the Global 

e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) affirms the 

potential of information and communication 

technology (ICT) to enable the transition to a 

low-carbon economy. 

Climate change scientists have recently presented 

updated assessments that are alarming. The 

accumulation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 

in the Earth’s atmosphere is growing faster than 

“It is now widely recognised 

that incremental solutions are 

not enough.” 

originally predicted. In many regions of the 

world, scientists, economists and policy-makers 

are calling for targets to reduce GHG emissions 

by 20 per cent, or even 30 per cent, compared to 

1990 levels. However, it is now widely recognised 

that incremental solutions, those that marginally 

reduce emissions within current systems, are not 

enough. The tremendous opportunity for radical 

change provided by ICT needs to be understood 

by all those who can make a difference. 

ENABLING A CONNECTED SOCIETY 

Twenty years ago high quality video conferencing 

still belonged in science fiction, and teleworking 

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with a laptop or a mobile phone was barely 

more than a dream. Today, modern high speed 

communication networks and devices are a key 

enabler for almost all industries, and essential 

for leading the way to a low-carbon economy. 

Although we cannot rebuild our economy from 

scratch, we can use ICT to transition from the 

energy-intensive physical infrastructure of the 

20th Century to the innovative, connected world 

that will characterise the information society of 

the 21st Century. 

GeSI’s landmark report SMART 2020: Enabling 

the Low-Carbon Economy in the Information Age 

gave a clear picture of the key role that the ICT 

industry plays in addressing climate change 

globally and facilitating low-carbon development 

(http://gesi.org/portfolio/project/5). Published 

in 2008, the study showed how the application 

of ICT solutions to key sectors of the economy, 

including energy, transport and buildings, has the 

potential to reduce global GHG emissions by 

as much as 15 per cent while saving up to €600 

billion and creating 15 million green jobs by 

the year 2020. These savings are five times larger 

than the total expected emissions from the entire 

ICT industry. Aware of changing contexts and 

technological developments since 2008, GeSI 

recently launched an update to the SMART 

2020 report. The new findings will be published 

in conjunction with the global climate change 

negotiations at COP18. 

WORK AND SHOP ONLINE TO SAVE 

GHG EMISSIONS 

Building upon the findings of the SMART 

2020 report, GeSI wanted to identify the key 

areas where the ICT sector can make its biggest 

contribution to sustainability within normal 

household activities. GeSI and its member 

companies BT, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson and 

Verizon contracted with Yankee Group and 

the American Council for an Energy-Efficient 

“Modern high speed 

communication networks 

and devices are essential 

for leading the way to a lowcarbon 

economy.” 

Economy (ACEEE) to explore how the increased 

use of simple and convenient online activities 

like teleworking and online shopping can reduce 

GHG emissions by millions of tonnes and deliver 

significant energy savings. 

“Telecommuting practices have 

the potential to have a multiplier 

effect and facilitate greater lowcarbon 

benefits.” 

To establish the link between broadband internet 

usage and energy reduction, the 2012 study 

entitled Measuring the Energy Reduction Impact of 

Selected Broadband-Enabled Activities within 

Households assessed eight household-level activities 

that are enabled or enhanced by the use of 

broadband internet access (http://gesi.org/ 

portfolio/report/26). By replacing more energyintensive 

conventional activities, the focus areas 

were telecommuting, using the internet as a 

primary news source, online banking, 

e-commerce, downloading and streaming media 

(music and video), e-education, digital 

photography and email. 



Assuming reasonable adoption of all eight 

activities, the six countries featured in the study 

can achieve net energy savings equivalent to 2 per 

cent of their total energy consumption. The USA 

can generate annual net energy savings of about 

336 million barrels of oil, while France, Germany, 

Italy, Spain and the UK can generate annual net 

energy savings of 164 million barrels of oil – 

equivalent to 2 per cent of the total energy use in 

these countries. 

At first glance, the total savings in this report 

might seem small. However, when considered 

in context, these eight activities represent only 

a sample of the countries’ respective economies. 

Even at this scale, these activities can generate a 

larger benefit, equal to the total GHG emissions 

impact of the ICT industry. Telecommuting 

provided the largest energy benefit across the 

EU-5 and US, generating about 83 to 86 per cent 

of net energy savings respectively. Telecommuting 

practices have the potential to have a multiplier 

effect and facilitate greater low-carbon benefits, 

for example, reduced driving time. The areas of 

least savings were online news and e-education. 

In these cases, consumers are likely to continue 

old practices, such as reading a newspaper, while 

adopting new broadband-enabled activities. 

MOVE TO THE CLOUD 

Continuing to develop its position as a thought 

leader on ICT and climate change, GeSI 

supported a study to examine the carbon 

abatement potential of cloud computing in China, 

Canada, Brazil and seven European countries. 

Entitled The Enabling Technologies of a Low-Carbon 

Economy – a Focus on Cloud Computing, the study 

is being conducted by the Think Play Do Group, 

a spin-out from Imperial College London, with 

the support of GeSI and GeSI member Microsoft. 

The study has been validated by researchers at 

Reading University and the Harvard Business 

School, and will be published in early 2013. 

In October 2012, GeSI released preliminary 

findings in relation to China in conjunction with 

a workshop on connected cities in Shenzhen 

(http://gesi.org/portfolio/project/2). The 

findings revealed a number of important insights 

concerning the carbon abatement potential of 

cloud computing in China assuming that 80 per 

cent of all organisations across the country adopt 

the technology, while permanently switching off 

their on-premise servers. 

“As cloud computing services 

become more prevalent, we 

can expect further benefits.” 

The increased use of cloud computing services 

by businesses can reduce annual GHG emissions 

by nearly 2 mega tonnes (1.9 Mt CO2e), which 

is equivalent to the removal of over 700,000 cars 

from Chinese roads, and would create nationwide 

savings in energy bills of almost 900 million 

Yuan. Around 65 per cent of these potential 

savings relate to small or micro-sized firms. 

Two mega tonnes is just the beginning as the 

study focused upon readily available cloud-based 

email, customer relationship management and 

groupware applications. As cloud computing 

services become more prevalent, we can expect 

further benefits. 

COLLABORATE FOR ONE-PLANET 

LIVING 

The ICT sector has both a profitable opportunity 

and a critical role to play with other sectors in 

deploying solutions needed to create a lowcarbon 

economy and enable us to live within the 

resources of one planet. To make this happen we 

engage fully with a wide range of stakeholders to 

clearly understand ICT’s potential and accelerate 

the deployment of ICT services and solutions. 

As GeSI has shown, the ICT sector seeks to fulfil 

its mission to make the world a more sustainable 

place for future generations. 

“The ICT sector seeks to fulfil 

its mission to make the world a 

more sustainable place.” 

Governments and policy-makers are vital to this 

process. Their support is needed to play a key role 

in expanding the demand for ICT solutions and 

create a conducive policy environment. Policy 

measures supporting the deployment of ICT 

solutions include: developing global 

methodologies and standards to measure the 

GHG footprint of the ICT sector and assess its 

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© Getty © Getty © Shuttershock © Veer 

enabling impact in other sectors; supporting 

investment in broadband infrastructure; including 

ICT solutions in policies designed to tackle 

transformational change; facilitating cross-sector 

collaboration between the ICT sector and other 

sectors; green public procurement; investing in 

R&D; and building awareness of ICT solutions by 

educating users and helping to facilitate 

behavioural change. 

GeSI endeavours to work with the wide range of 

stakeholders needed to make a difference for our 

planet. We aim to collaborate and work together 

to move from potential to reality, and truly enable 

ICT to achieve one-planet living. 

Luis Neves is Chairman of the Global 

e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), a position he has 

held since 2006 after being re-elected for a third 

term in 2012. He is also Climate Change and 

Sustainability Officer, Executive Vice President, at 

Deutsche Telekom Group. With over thirty years of 

experience at the national and international level in 

the field of telecommunications and the Information 

Society, Luis has played a fundamental role in 

promoting the role of ICT in relation to climate 

change. Luis was the driving force and chairman of the 

steering committee of the landmark study SMART 

2020 - Enabling the Low Carbon Economy in the 

Information Age. Luis currently holds positions and 

participates in a range of international projects and 

initiatives including GeSI, the United Nations Global 

Compact Lead and the Steering Committee of the 

United Nations ‘Caring for Climate’ initiative. 

The Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) 

is a strategic partnership of the Information and 

Communication Technology (ICT) sector and 

organisations committed to creating and promoting 

technologies and practices that foster economic, 

environmental and social sustainability. Formed in 

2001, GeSI’s vision is a sustainable world through 

responsible, ICT-enabled transformation. GeSI fosters 

global and open co-operation, informs the public 

of its members’ voluntary actions to improve their 

sustainability performance, and promotes technologies 

that bring forward sustainable development. GeSI 

has 32 members representing leading companies 

and associations from the ICT sector. GeSI also 

partners with two UN organisations – the United 

Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the 

International Telecommunications Union (ITU) – as 

well as a range of international stakeholders committed 

to ICT sustainability objectives. These partnerships 

help shape GeSI’s global vision regarding the 

evolution of the ICT sector, and how it can best meet 

the challenges of sustainable development. For more 

information, see www.gesi.org. 



A SUSTAINABLE 

DIRECTION FOR ICT 

By Sarah O’Brien, Director of Outreach and Communications, EPEAT and the Green 

Electronics Council 

The worldwide adoption and proliferation of ICT products is having a rapidly increasing 

environmental impact. Making ICT more sustainable requires a rethinking of processes, materials and 

supply chain management. 

Information and Communications Technology 

(ICT) is at the centre of modern life, from 

work functionality to social communication 

and entertainment, and its penetration of every 

aspect of life shows no sign of slowing. Handheld 

devices now do the work formerly performed 

by supercomputers, and ICT tools have moved 

from luxury items for consumers in the developed 

world to basic tools for a broad swath of people 

around the globe. 

Demand for ICT devices and services will 

grow exponentially as education, commerce, 

government and other sectors increasingly rely 

on electronically mediated communications, 

as products become less costly, and as a larger 

share of a growing global population obtains the 

material wealth to afford them. 

PREVENTING FALSE TRADE-OFFS 

Information technology can significantly 

contribute to global sustainability through 

support for increased efficiency and electronic 

substitution for physical processes (telepresence 

instead of travel, for example) across multiple 

sectors. However, without fundamental rethinking 

of the current business model based on continual 

creation and disposal of short-lived products, 

the environmental impacts of ICT-related 

resource extraction, production, shipping, energy 

consumption and disposal will rapidly increase. 

This rapid increase in impact reduces the net 

sustainability gains from ICT. 

The fundamental challenge to ICT 

manufacturers is how to meet burgeoning 

market demand in the face of increasing 

resource constraints, and how to reduce the 

environmental impacts of products at all stages 

of life. In brief – how can the ICT sector be 

transformed to supply vital services to several 

billion humans over future decades, without 

130


deleterious impact on the environment and on 

the health of manufacturing workers, and endof-life 

processors of e-waste? 

Presuming that the ICT industry remains reliant 

on a widely distributed global supply chain, the 

impact of improvements in the production and 

recycling of electronics can have a worldwide 

positive or negative effect on social and economic 

development, and reduce or increase potential 

environmental degradation. Resolving these 

questions and establishing norms and mechanisms 

to support best practice can benefit countries and 

individuals around the globe. 

CURRENT STATUS 

The ICT industry has moved to address many 

issues relative to environmental and social 

sustainability. That is not to say that the issues have 

been resolved, but they have been well defined by 

industry and interested stakeholder groups, and 

many active programmes have been established to 

address them. 

Legislative and regulatory initiatives around the 

globe have proliferated in recent years to address: 

 

 

 

 

Problematic materials. The European 

Restriction of Hazardous Substances 

directive (RoHS) and its Chinese 

counterpart (China RoHS) have had global 

impact; companies are engaged in internal 

design and engineering efforts aimed at 

toxic content reduction. 

E-waste collection and processing. 

Dozens of countries around the world 

now have e-waste collection and recycling 

regulations in place or in process; a wide 

array of best management and certification 

programmes identify responsible processors. 

Multinational initiatives like the UN’s 

Solving the E-Waste Problem (StEP) 

programme support capacity building in the 

e-waste management sector. 

Conflict minerals. US regulations and 

purchaser preferences are driving increased 

supply chain supervision and controls to 

reduce looting of rare natural resources by 

military means. 

Manufacturing working conditions. 

The Electronics Industry Code of Conduct 

and numerous company initiatives have 

been established to attempt to curb worker 

exploitation. The complexity of the global 

supply chain and rapidity of turnover 

continue to present serious challenges to 

these efforts but progress is being made. 

Importantly, significant ICT purchasers have 

supported these positive steps through widespread 

adoption of purchasing requirements to address 

the triple bottom line of environmental, social 

and economic sustainability. Such purchasing 

initiatives have been supported by a broad array 

of national ecolabels, and more broadly enabled 

by transnational product certifications such as the 

Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool 

(EPEAT) and TCO, that address product attributes, 

resource efficiency and end-of-life (EOL) 

environmental impacts. 

“The fundamental challenge 

to ICT manufacturers is 

how to meet burgeoning 

market demand in the face of 

increasing resource constraints.” 

A ROAD MAP FORWARD 

The sector has put significant effort into 

slowing the growth of environmental impact 

through design and engineering innovation and 

environmental initiatives, even as production 

increases. In the future, that effort must be 

intensified to achieve real reductions in the 

worldwide impact of the ICT sector. Laudable 

though they are, current efforts rely on addressing 

known problems and eliminating well-understood 

risks. Even within the R&D functions of 

manufacturing companies, where great effort is put 

into development of safer products and processes, 

the focus often remains relatively near-term and 

looks to substitutions and modest changes to 

reduce environmental and human impacts. 

A much more future-oriented approach will 

be needed to develop a truly sustainable ICT 

sector. Such an approach must involve broad 

and challenging questions that go well beyond 

the content of products to consider aspects of 

the sector’s business model and value chain 

management. Such questions are summarised in 

the following section. 



KEY QUESTIONS 

How can we manage the product life cycle 

to optimise resource efficiency? ICT devices 

contain a wide variety of materials, some of 

which are, or may become, scarce or otherwise 

critical. The embedded resources in ICT devices 

will need to be managed intelligently across 

the entire product life cycle, rather than used 

once and then wasted. Product design and EOL 

management are currently managed by separate 

economic actors without effective motivational 

loops - how can they be optimized as a system? 

How to enhance product longevity and life 

cycle extension? Products need to last longer 

in use, while also meeting end user demand 

for improving technologies, to reduce the 

overall impact of the ICT sector. A widespread 

infrastructure will be necessary to support ongoing 

repair, refurbishment, redeployment of equipment 

– how do manufacturers and the broader society 

support rational development of such infrastructure? 

MOVING THE DISCUSSION 

BEYOND GENERALITIES 

To find a way forward to a more sustainable 

electronics sector, stakeholders around 

the globe must begin to engage with 

fundamental issues that create barriers to 

progress. A series of forums, sponsored by the 

non-profit Green Electronics Council, the 

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 

and others will bring together key business 

leaders, technology and environmental 

researchers, purchasers, and environmental 

and social advocates to discuss root causes 

and identify targets for concerted effort. 

The goal of these forums is to develop 

guidance well beyond generalised high 

level discussion. Thanks to its extensive 

efforts at redesign and responsibility, the 

ICT industry is beyond that conversation; 

the challenge now is to refine specific 

questions and approaches to the most 

knotty issues as a way forward for research 

and development. Open and detailed 

discussions must address how technological 

changes, and their environmental 

implications, can be factored into 

manufacturing and EOL systems – and 

into standards and eco-label requirements – 

to drive real change at a fundamental level. 

Sustainable, safe and benign materials. 

Some materials in ICT devices are known to 

be toxic to people or ecosystems; the hazards of 

other chemicals are unknown. The removal and 

replacement in manufacturing and recycling of 

hazards known to be harmful to workers and to 

impact the environment is imperative. Effective 

alternatives assessment for replacement materials is 

critical, to avoid a continual cycle of replacement 

as new harmful effects are discovered later. 

Energy efficiency. The efficient use of energy 

is a critical dimension for these energy-using 

products. Technological evolution and customer 

demand will drive towards ever increasing 

efficiency in both the use phase, and in 

production processes that affect embedded energy. 

Corporate transparency and supply chain 

management. The supply chain for ICT 

products is vast, spans continents and includes 

companies with disparate ability to manage 

and report on their environmental and health/ 

safety performance. Brand manufacturers must 

assure that the suppliers, who do the bulk of the 

manufacturing of the products they sell, improve 

their performance in many dimensions. 

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS 

It’s easy to agree that designs and systems should 

be optimised for efficient use and recovery of 

resources. But in order to move forward in this 

task stakeholders will need to confront more 

fundamental questions. Looking at a single area 

of concern, critical materials, for example, we will 

need to consider such questions as: 

 

 

 

 

 

Which materials found in ICT products 

should EOL systems be optimised to recover 

and manage? 

How do we best define ‘critical materials’ for 

recovery and management? What research is 

necessary to identify which materials are the 

most critical? 

Which critical materials lend themselves to 

effective recovery at end of life, and how? 

Which materials are too costly in terms of 

processing inputs to be worth recovering? 

What changes, improvements and 

technological developments are needed in 

EOL processing and treatment systems to 

optimise the recovery of critical materials? 

What changes in product design are needed 

to optimise the recovery and management of 

critical materials? 

132


 

How do we measure the success of EOL 

systems in terms of resource recovery and net 

environmental impact? 

As expert stakeholders begin digging into the 

topic at this level of specificity, the resulting 

analysis can reveal unexpected gaps that block 

progress forward. For example, in a discussion 

convened by the Green Electronics Council at 

the Electronics Goes Green (‘EGG’) conference 

in Berlin, one of the signal points made by 

participants on recovery of critical materials was 

that top level ‘manufacturers’ – global companies 

whose names are on the final products – often 

simply do not know the full array of materials in 

their products. 

So the discussion of materials recovery reveals a 

much more fundamental need for tracking and 

reporting of materials use throughout the value 

chain – and moves the discussion to practical 

questions of how to best establish such systems, 

and away from simple assumptions about what is 

currently within the purview of manufacturers. 

CONCLUSION 

Over the past decade, the ICT sector has been 

commendably alert to the impacts of their 

operations around the globe. Design efforts 

have incorporated environmental as well as 

performance goals, materials and technology 

choices have been conditioned on warnings from 

environmental and health advocates, significant 

EOL infrastructure is under development to 

try to address the dangers of unregulated EOL 

processing. And importantly, purchasers are 

making use of a number of tools and systems to 

select products with lower environmental impact 

and reward manufacturers whose efforts are most 

groundbreaking. 

But even in this forward-looking sector, the 

fundamental issues endemic to the current model 

of production and consumption remain to be 

addressed. Remarkably, as with the issues of 

critical materials above, basic understanding of the 

complex products we rely on is lacking, not yet 

incorporated into the overall flow of commerce. 

And the product designs and business models 

that will allow for reduced overall consumption, 

while still supporting a thriving industry to 

drive innovation, are as yet underdeveloped or 

lacking. Concerted effort to excavate and pursue 

the fundamental issues is still needed to provide 

direction towards a more sustainable ICT sector. 

AN INVITATION 

Over 2013 the Green Electronics Council 

will be soliciting stakeholder input to the 

development of a truly long-term strategic 

vision of sustainable ICT. We encourage those 

who read this article and want to participate in 

that visioning process to email 

forum@greenelectronicscouncil.org to provide 

your thoughts, and register to participate 

in ongoing forum and online discussion 

opportunities. 

Sarah O’Brien is an expert in the use of ‘green 

purchasing’ initiatives to reduce environmental impact. 

A key purchasing member of the stakeholder process that 

created the EPEAT purchasing tool to address lifecycle 

environmental impacts of ICT, she now works with 

EPEAT and the Green Electronics Council to educate the 

purchasing community on EPEAT’s utility, and to support 

education for end users around environmental impact 

reductions in ICT purchasing, operations and end of life. 

The Green Electronics Council (GEC) founded in 

2005, is based in Portland, Oregon, USA. GEC’s 

mission is to inspire and support the effective design, 

manufacture, use and recovery of electronic products to 

contribute to a healthy, fair and prosperous world. GEC 

acts through constructive partnerships with the electronics 

industry and a broad array of interested stakeholders to 

implement market-driven systems to recognize and reward 

environmentally preferable electronic products, and to build 

the capacity of individuals and organizations to design 

and manage the life cycle of electronic products to improve 

their environmental and social performance. 



AGRICULTURE AND CLIMATE 

CHANGE – THE CHALLENGES 

AND OPPORTUNITIES 

By José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization 

of the United Nations (FAO) 

The question of how to ‘climate proof’ our food systems is no longer a theoretical issue but a matter of 

pressing importance. Communities must work together to achieve food security and conquer hunger. 

Although some people like to think that the effects 

of climate change are still decades away, extreme 

weather events associated with the changing 

climate are already having an impact on global food 

production and the world’s ability to feed itself. 

The clearest examples of these are the droughts in 

key producing regions that have hit yields of staple 

crops in three of the past five years, contributing 

to food price spikes. Recurrent droughts are also 

affecting production in dry land countries, as can 

be seen in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa. 

The UN Climate Change Conference in 

December 2011 in Durban, South Africa, agreed 

to call for the inclusion of agriculture as part 

of the solution to climate change impacts. The 

UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties 

in Doha should advance this debate, supporting 

concrete action in this direction. 

CONFRONTING THE DANGERS 

TOGETHER 

No single blueprint can be used to address the 

impacts of climate change on ecosystems and 

on the livelihoods of millions of farmers and 

consumers or to promote sustainable development, 

as the Rio+20 Outcome Document makes clear. 

This is important because even as a consensus has 

been reached of where we should be heading, 

countries have retained the freedom they need to 

choose their priorities, the paths they will follow, 

and the speed at which they will move. 

This does not mean that they need to go it alone. 

The international community and local nongovernmental 

stakeholders – from civil society to 

the private sector – have important roles to play, 

helping to design and implement nationally led 

and owned processes. 

In this spirit, the High-Level Panel of Experts on 

Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee 

on World Food Security, in its June 2012 report on 

Food Security and Climate Change (HLPE Report 

3), suggests five main recommendations for policies 

and actions to achieve greater coherence between 

134


THE FUTURE WE WANT 

The Outcome Document of the 

Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable 

Development (The F uture We Want, A/ 

RES/66/288, September 2012) stresses 

that adaptation to climate change is an 

immediate and an urgent global priority. 

It recognises that climate change is one of 

the greatest challenges of our time, noting 

that all countries, particularly developing 

countries, are vulnerable to its adverse 

effects. The conclusion follows that it 

seriously threatens food security and hinders 

efforts to eradicate poverty and achieve 

sustainable development. 

The document also recognises that 

hunger eradication is the central element 

in sustainable development, since no 

development can be sustainable as long as 

hundreds of millions of people remain hungry. 

food security and climate change policies: 

1. Integrate food security and climate change 

efforts. 

2. Increase resilience of food systems to climate 

change. 

3. Develop low-emissions agriculture strategies 

that do not compromise global food security. 

4. Collect information locally and share 

knowledge globally. 

5. Facilitate participation of all stakeholders in 

decision-making and implementation. 

A TRIPLE CHALLENGE 

Agriculture has to address three intertwined 

challenges simultaneously: ensuring food security 

through increased productivity and income, 

adapting to climate change, and contributing 

to climate change mitigation. Addressing these 

challenges will require radical changes in our 

food systems. 



To articulate these changes FAO, together with 

other partners, has forged the concept of Climate- 

Smart Agriculture (www.fao.org/climatechange/ 

climatesmart). The aim is to combine increasing 

farm productivity and incomes with strengthening 

the resilience of rural communities to climate 

change and variability; and also with contributing 

to climate change mitigation by adopting farming 

practices that cut greenhouse gas emissions and 

increase levels of carbon storage in farmland. 

There is a growing body of experience among 

farmers of innovative approaches to food 

production that contribute to all three objectives 

and, at the same time, result in better soil health, 

more efficient water management and greater 

diversification in farming systems. These practices, 

defined by FAO using the paradigm ‘Save and 

Grow’ (www.fao.org/ag/save-and-grow), build 

on natural ecosystem services to provide more 

sustainable crop intensification. They produce 

more from the same area of land while conserving 

resources, reduce the use of fossil fuels and other 

sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and enhance 

natural capital and the flow of ecosystem services. 

With support, farmers can adapt a range of 

techniques to local conditions. This process of 

adaptive research involves partnership between 

farmers, researchers, extension workers and agrodealers. 

One successful example is Conservation 

Agriculture, which has been taken up by smalland 

large-scale farmers on over 100 million 

hectares worldwide. 

INTERVENTIONS THAT BUILD 

RESILIENCE 

FAO’s strategy focuses on interventions 

that provide immediate relief but also build 

the resilience of recipients to surmount 

future crises. This link between emergency 

response and long-term development is 

crucial to advance towards sustainable food 

security, especially in Africa. Examples 

of actions that helps bridge these two 

aspects are the distribution of seed of 

improved local crop varieties, cash-for-work 

programmes, linkages between small-scale 

farming and social protection networks, 

distribution of small ruminants – a source 

of milk and meat but also of capital growth 

– and help to combat the threat of plagues 

and pests such as the desert locusts. 

“It is feasible to protect rural 

people from the worst effects of 

drought and food price hikes.” 

Bringing about the necessary changes in food 

systems has to start with building up the capacity 

of the people most directly involved in those 

systems – the world’s 500 million smallholders 

and their families. It requires a combination of 

short- and longer-term initiatives that help people 

survive immediate crises while enabling them to 

develop the ability to resist future shocks. Sharing 

knowledge of possible solutions through engaging 

farmers in identifying the impacts of climate 

change and in testing possible location-specific 

solutions must be a central part of any response. 

“We must move quickly and 

decisively to cut food waste 

and over-consumption.” 

Promising approaches include payment for 

environmental services, giving poor rural families 

an income while at the same time preserving 

natural resources and biodiversity; and cash-forwork 

programmes, including those financed from 

funds to mitigate the impact of climate change, 

that provide families with income while also 

creating infrastructures such as water storage or 

irrigation facilities. In Somalia and other countries 

we have seen how cash-for-work programmes can 

be integrated into emergency responses. 

But, to build resilience to shocks induced by 

climate change, prevent asset depletion and 

ensure access to adequate food, social protection 

systems need to be expanded significantly in 

vulnerable countries and, when possible, linked to 

smallholder production to create virtuous cycles 

of local development. 

AFRICA: THE PRIORITY 

The priority must be in Africa because, although it 

is the region that contributes least to greenhouse 

gas emissions, it is here that agriculture is likely 

to be most adversely affected by climate change. 

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Many African countries are already suffering from 

protracted emergency situations, which call for 

large-scale measures aimed at building resilience 

within rural communities to extreme climatic 

events as well as to the global food price rises that 

these may induce. 

As we are learning from the experience of 

Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme, 

it is feasible to protect rural people from the 

worst effects of drought and food price hikes 

and thereby reduce the need for emergency 

interventions. FAO and its partners are starting 

to apply similar approaches in Somalia and in the 

countries of the Sahel, so as to ensure that farmers 

who face extreme weather events are not forced 

either to sell their productive assets to survive or 

to abandon their homes in search for food. 

The case for concentration of efforts to promote 

socially and technically sustainable farming 

systems in Africa is all the stronger from a 

hunger eradication perspective, as this remains 

the region in the world with the highest 

proportion of hungry people: over 234 million are 

undernourished in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, 

nearly 27 per cent of its population. 

Of particular concern are the countries in the 

Sahel and Horn of Africa, which have been hit by 

recurrent droughts and where approximately 25 

million people are in immediate need of assistance. 

FAO will work with interested governments in 

the region in planning and implementing a shift 

to sustainable and resilient production systems that 

diminish the frequency with which people have 

to face emergency situations. 

SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION 

Finally, we must move quickly and decisively to 

cut food waste and over-consumption. Globally, 

one-third of the food produced is currently 

wasted or lost due to spoilage, damage and other 

causes – a scandalous fact in a world where 

nearly 870 million people go hungry. Cutting 

this wastage offers a way of quickly reducing 

agriculture’s carbon footprint by some 30 per 

cent, while also taking the pressure off natural 

resources. Policies to curb over-consumption of 

food, adopted mainly for their potential to reduce 

future human health burdens, will also play a 

significant role in cutting future food demand and 

hence in reducing agriculture’s contribution to 

greenhouse gas emissions. 

MORE EFFICIENT USE OF RESOURCES 

In conclusion, even in the absence of climate change, 

food systems have to be made much more 

efficient in their use of resources and more 

resilient to shocks, at every scale from the farm 

to the global level. Doing so will play an essential 

role in saving lives, greening the economy and 

contributing to sustainable development and 

human progress. The UN Secretary-General’s 

Zero Hunger Challenge, issued at Rio+20, pushes 

us in the direction of a more sustainable and 

inclusive future. It consists of five elements: 

100 per cent access to adequate food all year 

round; 

Zero stunted children; 

All food systems are sustainable; 

100 per cent increase in smallholder 

productivity and income; and 

Zero loss or waste of food. 

“Food systems have to be 

made much more efficient in 

their use of resources and 

more resilient to shocks.” 

Big problems require bold goals. The Zero 

Hunger Challenge can help society as a whole 

embrace this cause, backing and pushing 

governments to transform political will into 

action at the scale needed to eradicate hunger. 

The sooner we act, the better. The hungry can’t 

wait. And our planet will thank us. 

José Graziano da Silva is the Director- General of 

FAO. He has had a distinguished career in the fields 

of food security, agriculture and rural development, and 

led the design and initial implementation of the Zero 

Hunger programme in Brazil that helped lift 28 million 

people out of extreme poverty. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the 

United Nations (FAO) has the mandate to raise levels of 

nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of 

rural populations and contribute to the growth of the World 

Economy. Achieving food security for all is at the heart of 

FAO’s efforts – to make sure people have regular access to 

enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. 


NEW HOLLAND AGRICULTURE: 

DEVELOPMENT OF A SUSTAINABLE 

AGRICULTURE 

By Franco Fusignani, President, New Holland Agriculture 

Climate change represents one of the 

greatest challenges of our age, but it can 

also be seen as an opportunity to catalyse 

a transition to a low-carbon, resource 

efficient, sustainable agriculture. 

Agriculture around the world is being affected by 

climate change. While this is a global phenomenon, 

it is having particularly devastating effects in 

developing and high growth markets. New 

Holland Agriculture believes that, as an agricultural 

equipment manufacturer, it has a role to play in 

supporting local farming communities through a 

smooth transition to sustainable development while 

protecting natural resources for future generations. 

New Holland has been working in agricultural 

projects around the world to ease countries’ 

transition to sustainable mechanised farming, 

integrating innovations and good practices and 

offering efficient farming solutions that optimise 

the use of resources and increase productivity while 

cutting down costs, fuel consumption and emissions. 

That is not just good for the environment – 

it makes business sense. When agriculture is 

approached with a long-term vision of sustainable 

growth that aims to protect from the damaging 

effects of inappropriate agricultural practices 

that could contribute to desertification or soil 

degradation, such a healthy agriculture is good for 

our business, good for the environment, and good 

for the local community. It uses natural resources 

efficiently, contributing to their preservation, is 

cost effective and productive, and it can be open 

to further development. 

MAKING GOOD USE OF SCARCE 

RESOURCES WITH MECHANISATION 

The correct use of the appropriate machinery is 

key in making the most of scarce resources, and 

New Holland has the widest product offering in 

the industry, supported by a global manufacturing 

and R&D network in order to tailor its machines 

– from basic specification, easy to maintain 

machines, to the most advanced, high productivity 

technologies – to the different conditions around 

the world. 

“We offer the widest range of 

Tier 4A compliant products in 

the industry.” 

Our machinery has contributed to the transition 

from manual to mechanised harvesting in several 

countries with evident benefits. The cutting of 

grain losses is a case in point. Our experience tells 

us that grain loss can be dramatically reduced with 

a modern combine harvester. For every hectare 

farmed with modern mechanised harvesting a 

farmer can bring home in a day almost 700 kg of 

grains more than with an older machine, and 2,700 

kg more than with manual harvesting. 

Transitioning to a mechanised agriculture is not 

just a matter of putting machinery in the field. 

Mechanisation, combined with the appropriate 

farming techniques, can make a huge difference 

in obtaining the most from scarce resources, 

optimising the use of land, water and fertiliser. It 

enables the farmer to complete the harvest in the 

short window of time when the crop is at its best 

in terms of yield, quality and moisture, maximising 

the quality and quantity of their harvest. It also 

minimises the lag between harvesting and sowing, 

increasing the land’s productivity. 

Sustainable no-till farming practices, which 

have spread fast in North and South America, 

are beginning to gain traction in other parts 

of the world – every year the no-till world 

increases by around 6 million hectares. When 

performed correctly, with the right equipment, 

138


no-till practices can improve a farm’s profitability 

while reducing the need for irrigation. Yields 

improve because of higher water infiltration and 

storage capacity, as well as less erosion. Lower 

CO2 emissions from the soil and lower fuel 

consumption from the tractors are added benefits. 

LOCAL SUPPORT FOR MECHANISATION 

A sustainable agriculture requires the involvement 

of expertise in complementary specialties, such 

as irrigation and cultivation techniques, as New 

Holland did for example in Africa with specialists 

in water-retention farming techniques to fight 

desertification. The ability to implement largescale 

projects, coordinating government agencies 

and international organisations is also vital. 

New Holland has long been involved in such 

projects, leveraging on our broad expertise, 

local knowledge and the field support of our 

distributors and dealers, providing a wide range of 

equipment. Our dealer network is a fundamental 

element in the success of such projects. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE 

TRANSFER 

Once the machines are in the field, skilled 

operators and service technicians are critical to a 

successful transition to mechanisation. That is why 

at New Holland Agriculture we see training as 

essential when we supply agricultural equipment. 

Its importance was particularly evident during the 

implementation of a large-scale international aid 

project aimed at restoring Iraq’s fleet of tractors 

and kick-starting its agriculture in 2008. 

Involved by the USAID and the Italian Ministry 

of Foreign Affairs, New Holland Agriculture 

participated in a massive programme to bring 

back into service 3,200 tractors and subsequently 

supplied 1,250 New Holland knockdown kits 

for local assembly at a factory in Iskandariyah. 

At the same time, we provided training to 

200 technicians from the Iraqi Ministry of 

Agriculture and Industry. We have developed a 

training programme at our facilities in Turkey 

to improve and update the skills of operators 

in the country’s agricultural equipment sector. 

This large-scale project looked beyond the 

immediate concern of making agricultural 

equipment available as quickly as possible, and 

created the conditions necessary to re-starting 

local production and transferring the technical 

know-how the Iraqi machinery industry needed 

to regain self-sufficiency. 

MODERN AGRICULTURE AND THE 

ENVIRONMENT 

New Holland’s commitment to the environment 

has led to its pioneering Clean Energy Strategy; 

this was launched in 2006 to look for practical 

and accessible ways to reconcile the needs of the 

agricultural industry with increasingly urgent 

calls for action to protect the environment. We 

invested heavily in our own low emissions engine 

technology and today we offer the widest range 

of Tier 4A compliant products in the industry 

with 30 tractors and 18 harvesting products. 

This has also led New Holland to become involved 

in the biomass industry in Europe, North America, 

Brazil and India, working with industry-leading 

biomass operations. In India, a 150-strong fleet of 

New Holland tractors and balers, rakes and mowers 

is at work in the fields of Punjab to harvest, collect 

and transport straw from paddy fields, cotton, 

maize and oilseed rape, to be turned into electricity 

delivered to the national grid. We also opened 

the first Crop Solution dealership to provide full 

services in the country’s agricultural mechanisation 

process. New Holland has recently received the 

2012 Agriculture Leadership Award in recognition 

for its work in India and its outstanding 

contributions in defining a new framework for a 

sustainable approach to agriculture. 

CLIMATE CHANGE: AN OPPORTUNITY TO 

CREATE A SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE 

The challenges of our time are daunting, but 

they provide us with an exceptional opportunity 

to create a sustainable agriculture through the 

introduction of good mechanisation and farming 

practices. Innovate for a sustainable future. 

New Holland Agriculture 

Email: media.international@cnh.com 

Web: www.newholland.com 


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LOW CARBON 

AGRICULTURE 

By Shenggen Fan and Tolulope Olofinbiyi, International Food Policy Research 

Institute (IFPRI) 

The change to a green and better fed world depends on the development of low carbon agriculture. 

Improving food and nutrition security while protecting the earth’s natural resource base will require a 

smarter, more innovative, better focused and cost-effective approach. 

World agriculture has reached a crossroads. 

Agriculture’s capacity to feed the world is being 

threatened by a combination of existing and 

emerging trends and challenges, even as global 

hunger and malnutrition remain pervasive. Rising 

incomes, changing population, demographics, and 

consumer preferences, growing natural resource 

constraints, increasing energy prices and a varying 

climate are redefining the global supply and 

demand of food. At the same time, almost 870 

million people remain undernourished globally, 

according to new estimates from the Food 

and Agriculture Organization of the United 

Nations (FAO). IFPRI’s Global Hunger Index 

for 2012 shows that more than 50 countries still 

have levels of hunger that are in the categories 

of serious, alarming, and extremely alarming. 

Moreover, over 2 billion people around the 

world continue to suffer from micronutrient 

deficiencies, important vitamins and minerals that 

are needed for good health. 

The task ahead of global agriculture is not 

an easy one. As FAO estimates, agricultural 

production will have to increase by 70 per 

cent to meet the growing demand of a world 

population that has expanded by 40 per cent, 

and also to increase the daily average food 

consumption per capita to 3130 kilocalories by 

2050. Yet, climate change poses a serious threat 

to future production of adequate and nutritious 

food in a sustainable manner. 

Against this background, the realisation has 

come that business as usual is not sufficient to 

ensure food and nutrition security and safeguard 

the earth’s natural resource base, particularly in 

the face of climate change. Certainly, sustainable 

development is once again at the top of the 

global agenda. At the recent Rio+20 Conference, 

major stakeholders across the globe convened to 

discuss the move towards a Green Economy as a 

pathway to sustainable development. 

140


CLIMATE CHANGE AND AGRICULTURE 

The increase of greenhouse gas (GHG) 

emissions is raising the earth’s temperatures 

and inducing climatic changes. The effects of 

the increase of GHGs such as carbon dioxide, 

methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere 

have been observed around the world, with 

higher frequency and intensity of extreme 

weather events and natural disasters. Agriculture 

is extremely vulnerable to these climatic shifts. 

While climate change may be beneficial for a 

few farmers in some regions, many will face 

major challenges to maintain or even improve 

their productivity, which is required to ensure 

food security. A less predictable climate, 

marked by extreme weather events and shifting 

seasons, will significantly increase poor farmers’ 

difficulties in managing other risks, thereby 

increasing their vulnerability. IFPRI research 

shows that developing countries, which are 

home to 98 per cent of the global hungry, are 

projected to suffer most from the impacts of 

climate change and bear up to 80 per cent of its 

costs. Additionally, climate change is expected 

to reduce crop yields and increase food prices. 

Between 2010 and 2050, climate change could 

cause maize, rice, and wheat prices to increase 

by 87, 31, and 43 per cent respectively, under 

optimistic assumptions. Where the effects of 

climate change are perfectly mitigated, price 

increases would be smaller – about 33 per cent 

for maize, 18 per cent for rice, and 23 per cent 

for wheat. Climate change could also reduce 

average daily calorie availability per capita and 

impair general well-being. Under optimistic 

assumptions, it could increase the number of 

malnourished children by about 18 per cent by 

2050. To counter these effects and raise calorie 

consumption enough to offset the negative 

impacts of climate change on children’s wellbeing 

and health, IFPRI research estimates that 

global agricultural productivity investments of 

US$7.1 billion to 7.3 billion would be needed. 

“While climate change may be 

beneficial for a few farmers in 

some regions, many will face 

major challenges.” 

AGRICULTURE IN A GREEN ECONOMY 

A Green Economy, according to the United 

Nations Environment Programme, is one 

that results in “improved human well-being 

and social equity, while significantly reducing 

environmental risks and ecological scarcities”. 

Agriculture, particularly smallholder agriculture, 

has a crucial role to play in achieving green 

growth. In developing countries, the agriculture 

sector employs almost two-thirds of the labour 

force, as estimated by the World Bank. A large 

proportion of the world’s agricultural output is 

produced on small farms – in these countries, 

farms of less than two hectares. Yet smallholder 

farmers constitute the bulk of the poor and 

half of the world’s hungry, according to IFPRI 

estimates. Furthermore, a large part of these 



farmers are women, who play a key role in 

producing food and providing for the food and 

nutrition needs of their household, especially 

children. These poor small farmers, who rely 

on good climatic conditions to produce food 

and generate income, are the ones that will be 

particularly hard hit by climate change. 

Agriculture is part of the climate change 

problem. As estimated by the World Bank, it 

contributes more than one-third of global 

GHG emissions, together with forestry and 

land-use change. Agriculture is also part of 

the solution, as it has a large potential for 

adapting to and mitigating climate change, 

thus contributing to the reduction of GHG 

emissions. Agriculture’s mitigation potential 

is cost-efficient and comparable to other 

large sectors such as industry, energy, and 

transport. The global mitigation potential of 

agriculture is worth between US$32 billion 

and US$420 billion, as indicated by IFPRI 

research. Exploiting this potential fully is 

increasingly important in order to create a low 

carbon agricultural sector that contributes to 

substantial reductions in hunger and poverty 

levels while emitting less GHG and protecting 

the environment. However, this potential must 

be harnessed in a way that is pro-poor and that 

benefits smallholder farmers and women. 

A GREEN AND BETTER FED WORLD 

While the shift to a Green Economy is a must, 

it must not be achieved at the cost of food 

and nutrition security. The goal of improving 

food and nutrition security while protecting 

the earth’s natural resource base will require 

an approach that is not ‘business as usual’ but 

‘business as unusual’. Such an approach has to 

be smarter, more innovative, better focused, and 

cost-effective. The approach must include the 

following elements: 

Low-carbon agriculture. Farmers, policymakers, 

scientists and investors must develop 

ways for agriculture to contribute to a low 

carbon economy while helping to achieve food 

security on a large scale and in a sustainable 

manner. Low carbon agriculture initiatives 

are already being implemented in different 

parts of the developing and developed world. 

However, new policy and expanded market 

incentives are needed to encourage a significant 

switch to low carbon agriculture. Technological 

innovations that help measure, track, and map 

GHG emissions must be developed to better 

target and monitor the mitigation potential held 

in agriculture. These innovations are necessary 

steps towards making low carbon agriculture a 

technologically and economically feasible option 

to small farmers across the world. In addition 

to developing GHG emission reductions 

measurement tools, it is important to expand 

GHG emission reductions markets to agriculture. 

“New policy and expanded 

market incentives are needed 

to encourage a significant 

switch to low carbon 

agriculture.” 

A new nexus approach. To integrate food and 

nutrition security into sustainable development, 

the silo approach is not acceptable any more. 

Despite the fact that trade-offs between green 

growth, environmental sustainability, and food 

productivity exists, it is important to explore and 

develop complementary solutions. Several 

agricultural practices in Africa, such as 

combinations of inorganic fertiliser, mulching, 

and manure, offer triple-wins in terms of 

productivity, smallholder incomes, and 

sustainability. Technological innovations in the 

agriculture, water, and energy sectors are critical 

to increase productivity, provide adaptive buffers 

against emerging challenges, and enhance the 

nutritional value of food crops. 

“Innovations in the agriculture, 

water, and energy sectors are 

critical.” 

New measures to evaluate cross-sectoral 

impacts. The full costs and benefits of natural 

resource use in food production have not been 

taken into consideration by stakeholders in 

their decision-making. To send the right signals 

to all actors along the food value chain, the 

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prices of food and natural resources must fully 

reflect social and environmental costs and 

benefits, such as the cost of environmental 

degradation, or the benefits of ecosystem 

services. To achieve this, new measures are 

needed to track, monitor, and evaluate impacts 

across sectors. Economic incentives, taxation, 

and regulation will also be needed. Mechanisms 

to track, monitor, and evaluate cross-sectoral 

impacts are crucial to build up evidence for 

sound policies. 

New talents at the country level. 

Strengthening countries’ capacity to design 

strategies for agricultural development and 

food and nutrition security will be vital. 

Greater technical and financial support should 

be allocated towards establishing institutions 

for the design, implementation, monitoring 

and evaluation of policies related to food and 

nutrition security. IFPRI’s Regional Strategic 

Analysis and Knowledge Support System 

and Country Strategy Support Programs, for 

example, are designed to support country-led 

development strategies and have been doing so 

in the last few years. 

New players. New actors, such as the private 

sector, must be engaged because they play a key 

role in enhancing food and nutrition security. 

As evident during the Rio+20 Conference, 

these new actors have become a major force 

in shaping discourses around green growth 

and broader development goals. For example, 

with the right incentives, the private sector 

can provide – at a greater scale – effective and 

sustainable investment, unique expertise, and 

innovation for achieving these goals. 

In moving forward, co-ordination among all 

actors will be essential and research-based 

“New measures are needed 

to track, monitor, and evaluate 

impacts across sectors.” 

evidence will be critical for strategy development 

as well as policy formulation and implementation 

for a more inclusive Green Economy. 

This article draws from Fan, S. and A. Ramirez, Journal of 

Renewable Sustainable Energy 4, 041405 (2012). 

Shenggen Fan has been director general of the 

International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) 

since 2009. Dr. Fan joined IFPRI in 1995 as 

a research fellow, conducting extensive research on 

pro-poor development strategies in Africa, Asia, and 

the Middle East. He led IFPRI’s program on public 

investment before becoming the director of the Institute’s 

Development Strategy and Governance Division in 

2005. He is the Chairman of the World Economic 

Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Food Security. 

Tolulope Olofinbiyi is senior research analyst in the 

Director General’s Office. She currently supports the 

Director General in research and outreach. She has 

an extensive background working in the agribusiness 

sector in Nigeria. 

The International Food Policy Research 

Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for 

ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI is one of 15 

centres supported by the Consultative Group on 

International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an 

alliance of 64 governments, private foundations, and 

international and regional organisations. 



WATER: AT THE CENTRE OF THE 

WATER-ENERGY-FOOD NEXUS 

By Adrian Sym, Executive Director of the Alliance for Water Stewardship 

The nexus of water, energy and food issues is at the heart of many global problems that have proved 

difficult to solve. Collective action around water can play an important role in identifying solutions that 

combat climate change. 

As one of the givers of life itself, and a resource 

that is finite in quantity, water is the ultimate 

cross-cutting issue. We all need water, so addressing 

water-related issues naturally lends itself to 

collective action. But as a cross-cutting issue, 

water cannot be viewed in isolation. The growing 

prominence of the water-energy-food nexus in 

development discourses and policies is a vital piece 

of the climate change puzzle. The challenge is to 

make this collaborative thinking operational by 

developing workable yet meaningful solutions. 

POSITIVE OUTCOMES FROM RIO+20 

Despite the widespread (and probably predictable) 

disappointment with the Rio+20 outcome 

document, two really positive things stood out 

from the overall Rio programme: 

The water-food-energy nexus – an approach 

that integrates the management and governance 

of these three critical issues – was promoted 

strongly by some key players, including the 

German government. Although on a conceptual 

level this nexus clearly makes sense, it takes 

courage to explore the unexplored and face the 

inevitable uncertainties. In the lead-up to the Rio 

conference, and following on from it, the nexus 

approach has gained significant momentum that 

must now be translated into meaningful action. 

The critical role of business in building a more 

sustainable economy also came through strongly, 

especially at the Corporate Sustainability Forum 

hosted by the UN Global Compact in Rio. 

Circumstances at the time added emphasis to 

this point: at the same time as government 

representatives in Rio were steadily chipping 

away at the teeth of the outcome document, and 

G20 leaders were in Mexico, with those to whom 

the world has traditionally looked for solutions 

– North America and Europe – increasingly 

hamstrung by their sovereign debt, business 

leaders in Rio were announcing significant 

commitments to sustainable development. 

144


This other ‘nexus moment’ was indicative 

of the changing political context in which 

the sustainable development agenda is being 

played out – we cannot expect one sector or 

organisation, no matter how big, to deal with the 

range of issues that is becoming more complex by 

the day. Business can and must play a leadership 

role, and should do so in partnership with the 

governments, NGOs, academia and civil society. 

WHY THE NEXUS MATTERS 

Economic growth is still widely seen as a vital 

prerequisite for sustainable human development. 

Achieving and maintaining a desirable level of 

economic growth is something for which all 

governments strive, but doing so needs everincreasing 

amounts of energy. Even with moves 

towards ‘green growth’, BP estimates that global 

energy demand will increase by around 40 per cent 

over the next 20 years, with the overwhelming 

majority of this growth coming from emerging 

economies. Whichever way we choose to meet 

increased energy demand, there will be implications 

for food security and fresh water resources. 

Managed poorly, increased water use in energy 

production, for example through increased biofuel 

production, could jeopardise food security and 

other economic activity in a world that already 

has more than 7 billion human inhabitants, 

nearly 1 billion of whom are undernourished. It 

is not just biofuels that impact water resources – 

extracting, refining, processing, and transporting 

all forms of energy requires large quantities of 

WATER: A TANGIBLE BENEFIT 

One of the advantages of focusing on water 

is its tangibility. Water issues are ‘here and 

now’, whereas carbon, by contrast, is ‘where 

and when?’ A company or community 

that fails to address water risks in a given 

location should not be surprised at the 

consequences. But by understanding the 

shared nature of water risk, and adopting a 

collective approach to managing it, there is 

the potential for physical benefits (enough 

clean water), greater clarity on respective 

roles (for example, technical innovation 

being led by the private sector, consensusbuilding 

being led by civil society and 

governments managing natural resources 

in the public interest), and increased levels 

of trust. This trust can be used to move the 

needle on other nexus issues too. 



water, as do cooling processes in conventional 

thermoelectric power plants. At the same time, 

heating, treating and moving water consumes vast 

amounts of energy. For example, in California, 

water-related energy use accounts for 19 per 

cent of the state’s electricity use and 30 per cent 

of its natural gas. Competing demand for scarce 

water resources will lead to inevitable trade-offs 

between water for food production, water for 

energy production and water for direct human 

consumption. Seen in this way, water is at the 

centre of the water-energy-food nexus. 

As we continue to develop ways of managing 

water resources more equitably and sustainably, 

we do so in an environment inextricably 

linked to energy, food and climate change. This 

environment demands cross-sectoral collaboration 

as the best pathway to lasting solutions. It is no 

longer acceptable to view water as a stand-alone 

issue, ignoring the implications on energy and 

food security. This environment compels us to 

look beyond sector-specific approaches, and forces 

governments, multilateral agencies, international 

organisations, the private sector and civil society 

to work collectively to address the issues. With the 

International Water Stewardship Standard, AWS 

is providing a vehicle to drive that cross-thematic 

and cross-sectoral engagement from which nexus 

solutions will emerge. 

USING WATER AS THE SPRINGBOARD 

Although at first glance the AWS Standard is a 

water-specific approach, it is designed to exist 

within a broader system that engages all sectors in 

driving consensus-based responses to shared water 

risk. This cross-sectoral approach is not limited 

to those who directly use a lot of water; rather, 

it includes all who have an interest in promoting 

healthy watersheds. In this way, by focusing on 

collective engagement on water, the range of 

perspectives needed to identify cross-sectoral 

solutions is hard-wired into the AWS system. 

“Corporate commitment provides 

a golden opportunity to address 

other elements than water.” 

Similarly, there is a growing range of examples of 

corporate leadership in collective action around 

water that can be built on to address other 

elements of the nexus. For example, at Rio the 

heads of 45 UN CEO Water Mandate endorsing 

companies called on governments to join them in 

making global water security a top priority. This 

corporate commitment provides a golden 

opportunity to address other elements than water. 

A company with water risks also has energy risks. 

Many or most of the signing CEOs lead 

companies that depend on agricultural supplies. If 

addressing shared water risk is done in a way that 

is sensitive to energy and food security then it 

becomes a truly positive-sum game. 

There are several tools and approaches already in 

place that aim to build collective action around 

shared water risk. At AWS we are drawing 

together businesses, public sector agencies and 

civil society around the stakeholder-endorsed 

International Water Stewardship Standard. The 

UN CEO Water Mandate is developing collective 

action guidelines and platforms for its corporate 

endorsers. These and other initiatives can be 

146


springboards for building collective cross-sectoral 

action. And importantly, they provide businesses 

with what they need to take a leadership role. 

ADDRESSING THE NEXUS 

COLLECTIVELY 

There are at least three ways in which collective 

action on water can drive collective action on the 

nexus, starting today: 

Adopt a holistic approach to risk 

management 

From a business perspective, sustainability and 

resilience are centred on managing risk. With 

water, there are several tools available to help 

business to measure their water use, understand 

their water risk and make informed decisions on 

responses. Although still an evolving space, water 

stewardship based on a risk approach has already 

proved successful in building understanding across 

stakeholder groups and encouraging informed 

and targeted interventions. This same approach 

– understanding and managing shared risk – can 

be employed across the energy and food issues 

as well. Doing so will require the tools to enable 

companies to assess their risks in a holistic way, 

and a way that is both practical and meaningful. 

Providing a simple yet meaningful approach to 

an inherently complex problem is a challenge, 

but the severity of the situation demands that we 

accept this challenge. With our multi-stakeholder 

and multi-user approach, the AWS International 

Water Stewardship Standard provides a good 

starting point for meeting this challenge. 

Incentivise good performance 

We need to find a practical way to incentivise 

good performance on nexus issues, even if a 

business is not excessively exposed to associated 

risks. Again, we can build on existing waterrelated 

approaches and lessons learned. For 

example, at AWS, we are using recognition 

of compliance with best practice on water 

stewardship to incentivise improved performance. 

Because water stewardship is a collective approach 

we are also aiming to incentivise promotion of 

good performance, for example through supply 

chains, policy choices or investment or financing 

decisions. Incentivising performance in the nexus 

calls for closer collaboration between sectorand 

commodity-specific approaches. It should 

be more about bringing related pieces together 

rather than creating nexus-specific incentives. For 

example, voluntary standards and certification 

systems for water, energy and agricultural 

commodities should join forces to create a 

landscape that delivers associated benefits in a way 

that is accessible for business. 

“The complexity and urgency of 

the issues we are facing demand 

that we all escape from our 

sectoral or thematic silos.” 

Build bridges 

There is one vital prerequisite for achieving better 

understanding of shared risk and incentivising 

performance: building bridges between 

stakeholders. The complexity and urgency of the 

issues we are facing demand that we all escape from 

our sectoral or thematic silos. Again, the tangibility 

of water provides examples of good practice in 

collaboration and mechanisms to assist a collective 

approach, including the AWS Standard. 

We must move quickly, progress beyond 

exploration and identify and test solutions that 

meet communities’ needs while being workable 

for business and ensuring the health of our 

environment. In doing so, we need to embrace 

the inevitable failures and setbacks as part of 

a learning process. Rio has shown that major 

businesses around the world recognise the need for 

a collaborative approach and are ready and able to 

play a leading role in driving nexus solutions. 

Adrian Sym is Executive Director of the Alliance 

for Water Stewardship and has devoted his energy to 

development issues, initially working on disabilityrelated 

programmes in Bangladesh and Nepal, before 

moving to the world of social and environmental 

standard setting. Adrian joined the Alliance in 2011. 

The Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) 

brings together some of the world’s leading players 

in sustainable water resource management. Through 

building and making operational an international water 

stewardship system, at the heart of which will be the 

stakeholder-endorsed International Water Stewardship 

Standard, AWS is driving verified, watershed-level 

responses to shared water risk that benefit people, nature 

and the economy. 



WATER AND ENERGY 

EFFICIENCY 

By Kathy Shandling, Executive Director, International Private Water Association (IPWA) 

and Jeanette Brown, Board Certified Environmental Engineer, American Academy of 

Water Resources Engineers 

Improved efficiency in water and energy use is crucial in addressing global climate change. There is much 

to be gained from the two industries working more closely together. 

No one could possibly question the critical 

role that energy and water play when it 

comes to human development and sustainable 

communities/municipalities. And it would be 

hard to find any professional operating in either 

the water or energy industry sectors who would 

dispute the existence of the strong energy-water 

nexus. It takes a significant amount of water to 

create energy. And, it takes a significant amount of 

energy to treat and/or transport water. 

Water is very much a factor in the steam cooling 

process of electric power plants that are driven by 

energy sources such as oil, coal and natural gas. It 

is very difficult to contemplate the construction 

of a power plant in a region that has a challenging 

access to sustainable water supplies. 

The treatment and distribution of drinking 

water as well as the conveyance and treatment 

of wastewater collectively represent one of the 

largest sector users of energy. Taking the USA 

as an example, about 4 per cent of all energy 

generated is used by the combined activities of 

water and wastewater treatment operations. It 

is also interesting to note that energy is a major 

driver not only in the treatment of water but also 

in the transport and delivery of water from place 

of origin to the end user. For example, the energy 

required for the both the treatment and delivery of 

drinking water accounts for as much as 80 per cent 

of its total cost. The insufficient supply of available 

affordable energy will therefore have a negative 

effect on the price and availability of water. 

Energy costs also represent over 20 per cent of the 

operating budgets of wastewater treatment plants. 

Yet, despite this co-dependency, these two 

industry sectors do not have an extended track 

record of proactively working together. Also, 

there has been little evidence that the end 

users (particularly the industrial, corporate or 

148


agriculture users) proactively seek to address 

the reduction of their energy/carbon and water 

footprints simultaneously. After all, where there 

is a high energy/carbon footprint in the daily 

operations of a plant, factory or building, in many 

cases there is also a high water footprint. 

Nevertheless, good news is beginning to percolate. 

There now appears to be an evolving demand 

from both municipal and industrial customers for 

solutions that collectively address the energy and 

water footprint issues. Dean Amhaus, President 

and CEO of The Water Council, a leading 

water technology cluster based in Milwaukee, 

Wisconsin, has emphasised that “there is not a 

meeting I have attended where I don’t hear about 

the relationship and importance of the waterenergy 

nexus. From here on out these areas will 

not be thought as disparate but instead symbiotic.” 

The mayor of Milwaukee, Mayor Tom Barrett, 

also acknowledges the interdependence between 

water and energy. He notes the importance 

of addressing this nexus when it comes to 

sustainable economic development for the 

region. In fact, Mayor Barrett reinforces the 

view that “Milwaukee is a region fortunate to 

have an abundant supply of clean water from 

Lake Michigan. However, that does not mean 

we should be wasteful. We’re embarking on a 

sustainable energy and water path by upgrading 

our wastewater reclamation plants so they reduce 

their energy needs and utilise renewable energy 

sources instead of fossil fuels. Cutting energy 

costs is part of my strategy to grow our economy 

and make our water-intensive industries more 

competitive.” 

“Energy is a major driver not 

only in the treatment of water 

but also in the transport and 

delivery of water.” 

Around the world as the global population 

continues to flourish, urban metropolitan regions 

grow, and industrial sectors are encouraged to 

expand, there is clearly a growing need and 

interest to assertively focus on challenges such as 

water efficiency, water conservation, improved 

water resource management and water re-use, 

along with energy efficiency, energy conservation, 

and the development of new energy sources. 

Given the high energy usage that is very much 

associated with water-related operations, evolving 

water efficiency and water conservation initiatives 

will clearly lead to lower energy usage, improved 

energy conservation, and a reduced energy 



footprint. Leaders of international organisations 

and governments are beginning to acknowledge 

that without appropriately addressing these 

water and energy challenges, there cannot be 

viable long-term sustainable development by 

municipalities and countries situated across the 

globe. According to US Congressman Ed Markey 

(MA), the Ranking Member on the Natural 

Resources Committee within the US House of 

Representatives, “The drought of 2012 may be a 

harbinger of the energy-water conflicts to come. 

We need a plan to address climate change before 

water wars erupt pitting ‘frackers’ against farmers, 

and food plants against power plants.” 

WATER RE-USE 

The concept of re-use has slowly joined the 

vocabulary of both the water and energy arena. 

Communities around the world (energy/water 

rich as well as energy/water poor communities) 

need to embrace defined initiatives that encourage 

total energy and water re-use. After all, initiatives 

that embrace re-use greatly contribute to improved 

sustainability and more efficient use of the 

world’s energy and water resources. By enhancing 

sustainability and efficiency via re-use, there will 

be more available steady sources of energy and 

water to support the continued growth of the 

world’s population and evolving steady economic 

development of all regions in the world. 

Re-use is not just about the implementation 

of renewable energy initiatives. It is also about 

recycled water. And in the USA, where in 

summer 2012 half the country experienced the 

worst drought conditions in over fifty years, 

there is vital need for sustainable water treatment 

solutions that can help re-purpose chemically 

laden wastewater. This also applies to ‘grey 

water’ – the wastewater generated from domestic 

activities such as laundry and dishwashing. 

Water re-use/recycling is clearly a means to use 

appropriately treated wastewater for beneficial nonpotable 

purposes like agricultural and landscape 

irrigation, groundwater recharging, large building 

cooling systems, and industrial operations. There 

is no reason why any of these activities need to 

access the world’s finite supply of potable water. 

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore, 

Maryland, and who serves as the co-head of the 

US Conference of Mayors’ well respected Water 

Council, says: “In Baltimore, we understand the 

environmental responsibilities we face and the 

challenges we must meet in improving the quality 

“By enhancing sustainability 

and efficiency via re-use, there 

will be more available steady 

sources of energy and water.” 

of our water. Like municipalities across the country, 

we also face the challenge of having infrastructure 

that is old and needs to be revitalised. Investing in 

water re-use and recycling as part of a balanced and 

holistic approach to revitalisation will be important 

as we work to maintain top quality water resources 

and ensure an ongoing, reliable water supply.” 

Recycling and re-using water can help contribute 

to reduced energy usage. For example, recycling 

water reduces the energy needed to move water 

longer distances, or pump water from deep within 

an aquifer. And using recycled water for activities 

that do not demand high quality can save energy 

and money by reducing treatment requirements. 

“Recycling water reduces the 

energy needed to move water 

longer distances.” 

WASTEWATER TO ENERGY 

Wastewater contains more than twice the energy 

that it takes to treat, as pointed out by Professor 

George Tchobanoglous. The embedded energy 

in wastewater is in the form of kinetic, thermal 

and chemical. Kinetic energy comes from the 

movement of the water through the process and 

can be captured using hydro-turbines. Thermal 

energy can be recovered using heat pumps. 

An example of a thermal energy recovery 

system is the one used at the Saanich Peninsula 

wastewater treatment plant in British Columbia, 

USA. Wastewater leaves homes and businesses at 

an elevated temperature. Once it reaches Saanich 

Peninsula treatment plant, the wastewater passes 

through a heat exchanger which transfers the 

heat to a clean medium, typically water. The 

temperature of the warmed water is further 

increased by use of heat pumps. The heated 

water is then pumped through a distribution 

150


system to heat a swimming pool at the Panorama 

Recreation Centre. 

The largest amount of energy in wastewater 

is chemical energy. Chemical energy can be 

recovered from the solids captured and produced 

during the treatment process. Typically undigested 

solids have an energy value of about 19-22 MJ/ 

kg. One way to capture this energy is through 

anaerobic digestion, which converts the volatile 

matter to methane and carbon dioxide. The gas 

can be used for heating or generating electricity. 

Another method is through pyrolysis or 

gasification, which also creates a gas which can be 

used for heating or generating electricity. 

Methane production in anaerobic digesters 

can be enhanced by adding fats, oils and grease 

(FOG) and food scrapes. This is referred to as codigestion. 

In addition to the benefit of diverting 

food scraps and FOG from landfills and the 

public sewer lines, these high-energy materials 

have at least three times the methane production 

potential of biosolids and manure. 

East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) in 

California, USA, uses co-digestion. In addition, 

EBMUD has incorporated other renewable 

energy sources and conservation at the facility, 

offsetting all the power used for treatment. 

Gasification/pyrolysis is a thermo-chemical 

process that converts carbon-based organic 

materials to hydrogen, carbon monoxide and a 

small amount of methane at high temperatures 

and sub-stoichiometric oxygen concentrations. 

The resultant gas, known as syngas, can be used as 

a fuel in internal combustion engines to generate 

electricity and provide heat (combined heat and 

power, CHP). Syngas can also be converted to 

liquid fuels using the Fischer-Tropsch reaction. 

The ash produced in the gasification process 

can be used beneficially. It contains a high 

concentration of phosphorus so it can be used as 

a soil conditioner, as an aggregate in asphalt and 

concrete, or in the manufacture of engineered 

tiles and stones. 

ESCO TO W-ESCO 

The concept of an energy service company or 

ESCo was introduced in the USA in the 1970s 

as a means to address rising energy costs. An 

ESCo is recognised as a business that provides a 

broad range of comprehensive energy solutions 

including the design and implementation of 

energy savings projects, energy conservation, 

energy efficiency, energy infrastructure 

outsourcing, power generation and energy supply 

and risk management. 

“There is a clear-cut role 

for the W-ESCo that brings 

technology and engineering 

know-how as well as financing 

resources to a given energywater 

project.” 

Given the growing recognition of the strong 

energy-water nexus, it is time that established or 

even newly created ESCos evolve into ‘W-ESCo's 

that not only can develop, install and arrange 

financing for projects designed to improve the 

energy efficiency and maintenance costs for 

designated building facilities, but are also projects 

designed to improve the water efficiency/water use 

of a building facility over a 7-20 year time period. 

It is critical to understand that the cost effective 

measures of a W-ESCo would not be limited 

to just the implementation of high efficiency 



heating and air conditioning systems, high 

efficiency lighting and centralised energy 

management systems; it would now involve 

the design and installation of equipment that 

enhance water conservation and improve and 

implement water efficiency. 

Most importantly, the W-ESCo approach would 

allow a corporate or municipal water user to 

amortise its energy and water retrofit costs in 

order to realise savings at a more expedient pace. 

Additionally, a number of the existing ESCos 

that are ripe to evolve into a W-ESC'o have 

the ability to bring upfront funding to energywater 

efficiency initiatives. These W-ESCos 

would then be paid (for the loans as well as their 

fees) via the financial savings achieved from the 

implementation of more efficient water and 

energy systems. There is a clear-cut role for the 

W-ESCo that brings technology and engineering 

know-how as well as financing resources to a 

given energy-water project, particularly a project 

that can help mitigate the spread of global 

warming and climate change. 

PROACTIVE CO-OPERATION NEEDED 

The water and energy industry sectors still have 

a long way to go when it comes to establishing a 

proactive working relationship that can collectively 

address and deliver improved energy and water 

efficiency initiatives – ones that will improve 

the amount of energy used in the operations of 

water and wastewater systems around the world, 

as well as improve water use within the cooling 

operations of energy/electricity production. It is 

gratifyingly impressive that the US wastewater 

sector has already begun to embrace not only 

energy conservation but energy production, and is 

currently working towards systems that are energy 

neutral or net energy producers. 

In conclusion, as observed by Governor 

Dannel P Malloy (CT) who is the past Chair 

of the National Governors Association Natural 

Resources Committee, “The United States joins 

countries around the world that are well into 

preparations to address drought, sea level rise, 

and other effects of climate change. Supporting 

energy efficiency and conservation initiatives, 

protecting and hardening infrastructure, and 

investing in clean water projects are paramount 

to both slowing global heating and preparing for 

its impacts. Billions of dollars in federal funding 

support statewide efforts, but it is imperative that 

states are working through regional collaborations 

and public-private partnerships to ensure longterm 

progress and sustainability.” 

It is important that the water and energy industry 

sectors learn to synchronise better to effectively 

address and minimise ongoing climate change 

evolutions. Progress has been made, but additional 

initiatives must be put in place to encourage more 

extensive efforts to recognise the energy–water 

nexus and embrace the imperative to reduce both 

the energy and water footprints of industrial, 

corporate, agricultural, and residential operations 

around the world. Without the reduction of both 

the energy and water footprints, it will be difficult 

to effectively arrest the negative impact generated 

by the expansion of climate change. 

Kathy Shandling is the Executive Director of the 

International Private Water Association (IPWA). Ms 

Shandling was instrumental in launching the IPWA 

Financial Tools Taskforce that has been steadfast in its 

support of evolving local currency financing initiatives 

for the funding of water/wastewater infrastructure 

projects in developing countries. Prior to joining IPWA 

in 2000, Ms Shandling held positions at Infrastructure 

Finance Magazine, the World Council for Infrastructure 

Development, and Global Finance Media. 

Jeanette Brown is a Board Certified Environmental 

Engineer and a Diplomate in the American Academy 

of Water Resources Engineers. She was the first 

female elected as the President of the American 

Academy of Environmental Engineers (2004) and 

the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of 

ASCE (2008). She was also President of the Water 

Environment Federation (2010-2011). Until 2011, 

she was the Executive Director of the Stamford Water 

Pollution Control Authority. 

The International Private Water Association 

(IPWA) was formed in 1999 to address the changing 

dynamics that are taking place in individual countries 

around the world within the context of the evolving 

water/wastewater infrastructure project and service 

arena. IPWA serves as a conduit between the public 

and private sector players, facilitating effective timely 

dialogues that highlight the critical need for speed, 

transparency and cost-effectiveness in the development 

and operations of global water and wastewater projects. 

IPWA is uniquely recognised as one of the few 

independent organisations that address, as a central part 

of its mission, the potential expanding role of the private 

sector as a viable partner to governments and parastatals 

within the global water/wastewater arena. 

152


SUSTAINABLE POWER 

FOR DESALINATION 

By Dr P.K. Tewari, President, Indian Desalination Association 

Desalination processes allow for the conversion of saline water to fresh, and therefore represent great 

potential for alleviating water scarcity. However, desalination is energy-intensive, so the source of power is 

strongly linked to global energy issues. 

The energy for desalination plant is generally 

supplied in the form of either steam or 

electricity, usually from conventional power 

plants. The intensive use of fossil fuels gives 

rise to environmental concerns, especially 

about greenhouse gas emissions. It is clear that 

desalination using fossil energy sources would 

not be compatible with sustainable development. 

Therefore, sustainable non-polluting energy for 

desalination can be provided only by nuclear 

energy and renewable energy sources such as 

wind, solar, wave, etc. While renewable energy 

is not currently considered cheap, the costs are 

decreasing steadily, especially with increasing fuel 

prices and growing awareness of air pollution and 

climate change effects. 

NUCLEAR POWERED DESALINATION 

Nuclear desalination is adapted for the production 

of desalinated water on a large scale without 

contributing CO 2 

to the atmosphere. Nuclear 

energy, like most renewable energy sources, 

“The intensive use of 

fossil fuels gives rise to 

environmental concerns, 

especially about greenhouse 

gas emissions.” 

produces virtually no greenhouse gases. According 

to World Nuclear Association (WNA) estimates, 

each year the use of nuclear power plants around 

the world saves emissions of up to 2.5 billion 

tonnes of CO 2 

. According to estimates by the 

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the 

full nuclear power chain, from resource extraction 

to waste disposal, emits below 6 grams of carbon 

per kilowatt-hour, the same as wind and solar 

power and well below coal, oil and natural gas. 



About 1 million tonnes of CO 2 

is released when 

1 TWh of electricity is produced by using coal, 

gas or oil. 

Interest in using nuclear energy for producing 

potable water has been growing worldwide. 

This has been motivated by variety of factors, 

from the economic competitiveness of nuclear 

energy to energy supply diversification, from 

conservation of limited fossil fuel resources 

to environmental protection, and the spinoff 

effects of nuclear technology in industrial 

development. In a nuclear desalination facility, 

both the reactor and the desalination system are 

located on a common site, with some degree of 

shared facilities, services, staff, seawater intake 

and outfall structures. These nuclear plants can 

be dedicated to desalination, or combined with 

power production facilities. 

Co-location of desalination and power plants 

has the obvious benefit of sharing infrastructure 

resources such as a common intake and outfall 

of sea water. In recent years a number of projects 

have been carried through using the co-location 

concept. Dual purpose plant (power together with 

desalination) has inherent design advantages in 

optimising thermodynamic efficiency, in addition 

to its economic benefits. 

Pioneering thermal and hybrid nuclear 

desalination 

Development of thermal desalination 

technologies using low grade and waste heat for 

seawater desalination is well estabished at the 

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in 

India. Technology was evolved using a 15,000 

litres/day capacity three-stage multi-stage flash 

(MSF) system. A pilot plant of 425,000 litres/ 

day capacity was setup in BARC Trombay. The 

experience helped in the design, installation 

and commissioning of a 4,500,000 litres/day 

(4.5 MLD) MSF system as a part of the Nuclear 

Desalination Demonstration Plant (NDDP) at 

Kalpakkam. 

The use of low grade waste heat as energy input 

for desalination was pioneered in the islands of 

Lakshadweep, producing 10,000 litres/day of 

distilled quality water using the waste heat of 

a diesel generator facility. Other value-added 

thermal desalination technologies are being 

developed, such as multi-effect distillation vapour 

compression (MED-VC) and low temperature 

evaporation (LTE). 

Figure 1 

“Interest in using nuclear 

energy for producing potable 

water has been growing 

worldwide.” 

It is possible to save product costs through a mix 

of different techniques. This is known as a hybrid 

system, using both steam and electricity as power 

sources. MSF uses thermal energy from low grade 

steam, while the reverse osmosis (RO) process 

operates with the help of electricity. The concept 

takes into account the product quality 

requirements for different uses, such as providing 

high quality boiler feed water, process water for 

industrial applications, and potable water for 

human use. 

“Significant waste heat is 

available in the moderator 

system of a pressurised heavy 

water reactor.” 

The NDDP at Kalpakkam (Figure 1) makes use 

of hybrid technology. NDDP consists of a hybrid 

MSF-RO desalination plant of 6.3 million litres 

per day (MLD) capacity (4.5 MLD MSF and 1.8 

MLD by RO) coupled to Madras Atomic Power 

Station (MAPS), Kalpakkam. The requirement of 

seawater, steam and electrical power for the 

desalination plant are met from MAPS. The RO 

plant has been operating and producing potable 

water from seawater. The plant incorporates the 

necessary pretreatment and an energy recovery 

154


To main grid 

Power plant 

Condensale 

return 

Electricity 

L.P. Steam to MSF 

MSF unit 

To RO plant 

To MSF plant 

Heat 

rejection 

MSF Distillation (10ppm) 

Seawater 

out 

Common 

outfall 

facility 

Blended 

product (150-200ppm) 

MSF 

make-up 

Blow down 

Brine 

Common 

intake 

facility 

Seawater Feed 

(25000-4000ppm. 25-35 def.C) 

MSF 

feed 

RO 

feed 

Single pass 

RO unit 

RO 

product (400-500ppm) 

Figure 2 

system. It operates at relatively lower pressure and 

employs less pretreatment chemicals because of 

relatively clean feed seawater from the MAPS 

outfall. The potable water produced is supplied to 

a water reservoir. The MSF plant produces 

distilled quality water for high end applications 

such as demineralised quality make-up water for 

MAPS. The design is aimed at conserving energy 

and enhancing plant efficiency due to high gain 

output ratio (GOR). A long tube design concept 

was used to bring down the capital cost. 

Hybrid technology has several advantages 

(Figure 2) such as provision for redundancy, 

utilisation of streams from one to another and 

production of two qualities of water. As many 

urban areas with intensive water use are located 

in coastal regions, there would be great potential 

for seawater desalination to deal with the water 

related challenges due to climate change. These 

areas also have a need for distilled water for 

industrial use. 

Significant waste heat is available in the moderator 

system of a pressurised heavy water reactor 

(PHWR) nuclear power plant. Much of this can 

be used for seawater desalination, producing pure 

water for in-house consumption in the power 

“The coupling of solar energy 

and desalination systems holds 

great promise.” 

station. The available raw water in many coastal 

regions contains higher salt content, leading to 

high production costs for make-up de-mineralised 

(DM) water. It is possible to produce up to 1.0 

MLD pure water by sea water desalination using 

the waste heat of a 500 MW(e) coastal PHWR. 

Figure 3 



A low temperature evaporation (LTE) 

technology for producing pure water from 

seawater by using low quality waste heat has 

been developed at BARC. A 30,000 litres/day 

low temperature evaporation (LTE) plant for 

sea water desalination was integrated into the 

nuclear research reactor at Trombay (Figure 

3) to make use of part of the waste heat from 

the primary coolant water system and produce 

desalted water to meet the make-up water 

requirement of the reactor. 

SOLAR POWERED DESALINATION 

Coupling of desalination units with a renewable 

energy source is important for climate change 

mitigation and adaptation. Use of solar 

desalination has been investigated vigorously 

earlier, and a few systems set up for water 

desalination. The most significant challenges 

faced were frequent breakage of glass panes, and 

maintenance of the glass surface. With natural sea 

water being used as a feed, the concentrate left 

over contained fishes and other bio-organisms, 

attracting wildlife to cause damage to the 

desalination units. However, solar energy can 

be applied for very small scale desalination on 

individual rooftops. With a few litres of brackish 

water, a quantity of drinking water can be 

produced for a small household. The concept is 

akin to solar water heaters or solar power panels. 

The coupling of solar energy and desalination 

systems holds great promise. Effective integration 

of these technologies will be a step forward to 

dealing with water shortage problems with a 

domestic energy source that does not produce 

air pollution or contribute to the global problem 

of climate change. Currently, solar energy may 

appear expensive. However, it is predicted that the 

unit cost of solar energy will decrease substantially, 

while the costs of conventional fuels are expected 

to continue to rise. 

Solar thermal energy may be used in MSF and 

multiple-effect distillation (MED) desalination 

plants, while solar photovoltaics (SPV) are 

suitable for RO plants. The SPV option is 

more attractive than the thermal option in 

terms of land requirements (40 per cent less for 

SPV). While initial investment costs are high, 

improvements in efficiency and production scale 

economies can bring SPV plant costs down 

substantially in the future. These two factors 

are more important than higher government 

subsidies for renewable options. 

Photovoltaic cell research is concentrating 

on increases in efficiency, the reduction of 

manufacturing costs and the search for other 

suitable materials. Efficiencies higher than 30 

per cent (known as ultra high efficiency) have 

been reached in cells using gallium arsenide and 

its alloys. From the cost reduction point of view, 

a three-fold decrease in SPV electricity costs 

is required to make it more competitive. SPVpowered 

RO plants will become a reality in the 

future as it becomes more expensive and less 

acceptable to use fossil fuel energy. 

Other concepts such as solar ponds, providing 

thermal energy for MED and MSF systems, 

are also gaining attention. The desalination 

units powered by renewable energy systems are 

uniquely suited to provide water and electricity in 

water scarcity areas. 

“Improvements in efficiency 

and production scale 

economies can bring SPV 

plant costs down.” 

A promising future technology for thermal solar 

desalination is membrane distillation. The water 

vapour from the hot feed (brackish or sea water) 

permeates across a hydrophobic membrane due 

to the thermal gradient, and condenses on the 

other side, enabling the collection of relatively 

pure water. 

Dr. Paramahamsa Tewari has held senior positions 

in large engineering and construction organisations, 

mostly in Nuclear Projects of the Department of 

Atomic Energy, India. He was also deputed abroad 

for a year at Douglas Point Nuclear Project, Canada 

and is the former Project Director of the Kaiga Atomic 

Power Project. 

Indian Desalination Association (InDA) was formed 

in 1991 in Chennai with the main goal of developing 

and promoting appropriate use of desalination and 

desalination technologies nation wide in water supply, 

water reuse, water pollution control, water purification 

and water treatment. 

156


NATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS 

TO CLIMATE CHANGE 

By Julia Marton-Lefèvre, Director General, International Union for Conservation of 

Nature (IUCN) 

Good conservation and natural resource management can provide a tangible and cost-effective response 

to climate change and other global challenges. Now is the time to make full use of nature-based solutions. 

The slow progress in climate negotiations means 

that many options for early action are being 

foreclosed, rendering future strategies to avoid 

dangerous climate change more demanding and 

more expensive. As we work towards a new global 

climate deal, the international community must 

look at all viable options to curb greenhouse gas 

emissions and to respond to the growing impacts 

of climate change. 

One option on the table is to deploy the socalled 

nature-based solutions, a concept coined 

by IUCN a few years ago in the context of 

climate negotiations. The idea is to use healthy 

and resilient ecosystems for both climate change 

mitigation and adaptation, with notable benefits 

to people and biodiversity. 

Granted, the role of forests in fighting climate 

change has been acknowledged for some time, 

as captured in the Reducing Emissions from 

Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) 

mechanism. Nonetheless, the general view has 

been that nature-based solutions are, at best, 

an add-on, if not a distraction, from the ‘real’ 

climate change issues at stake – developing new 

energy and transport solutions, building disaster 

preparedness and response infrastructure, and 

securing future fresh water and food supplies. 

These are all essential strategies; however they 

are unlikely to succeed unless they put nature at 

their heart. Healthy, diverse and well managed 

ecosystems lay the foundation for practical and 

sustainable solutions to global problems. 

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and The 

Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity study 

clearly demonstrate the significant values that 

biodiversity and ecosystem services make to 

national and global economies. In recent years, 

more credible evidence has emerged to support 

moving nature-based solutions from auxiliary 

into mainstream climate action strategies. Such 

solutions include forest landscape restoration, 

ecosystem-based adaptation, and new climate 

finance mechanisms. 

158

Harvesting ground nuts in Fau, Sudan 


© IUCN/Intu BOEDHIHARTONO 

MEETING THE BONN CHALLENGE 

Halting the loss and degradation of natural 

systems and promoting their restoration have the 

potential to contribute over one-third of the total 

mitigation of climate change that science says is 

required by 2030. 

In 2011, the so-called Bonn Challenge to 

restore 150 million hectares of lost forests and 

degraded lands worldwide by 2020 was launched 

at a ministerial round table hosted by Germany, 

IUCN and the Global Partnership on Forest 

Landscape Restoration. This target directly relates 

to existing international commitments on climate 

change and biodiversity. It will contribute to 

the biodiversity convention target calling for 

restoration of 15 per cent of degraded ecosystems 

by 2020, and the UNFCCC goal on REDD+, 

which calls for countries to slow, halt and reverse 

the loss and degradation of forests. 

In recent months, USA forest service, Rwanda, a 

Brazilian coalition and indigenous groups from 

“Restoring 150 million hectares 

of forest and agroforestry 

landscapes could generate 

around US$85 billion per year.” 

Mesoamerica have committed to restoring a total 

of more than 18 million hectares of their forest 

landscape, or just over 10 per cent of the Bonn 

Challenge target. This will pump billions into 

local and global economies and bring a host of 

other benefits. According to new analysis by 

IUCN and partners, restoring 150 million 

hectares of forest and agroforestry landscapes 

could generate around US$85 billion per year for 

some of the world’s poorest communities. 

For example, opportunities from locally 

controlled forestry are vast, involving one billion 



Submerged mangrove 

© IUCN/Andre Seale 

people and one quarter of the world’s forests. It 

provides up to US$100 billion per year in goods 

and services (roughly equivalent to the total 

annual official development assistance) and a 

broad range of other economic, environmental, 

social, cultural and spiritual benefits. Overall, more 

than two billion hectares of the world’s deforested 

and degraded landscapes – equivalent to half the 

size of Asia – offer opportunities for restoration. 

NATURE-BASED BUFFERS 

On the adaptation side, resilient ecosystems are 

proven to reduce the impacts of extreme climatic 

events on the most vulnerable. With increasing 

scope, scale and intensity of climate-related 

disasters, from hurricanes to droughts, there is 

growing recognition of the role ecosystems can 

play in reducing the impact of such disasters. 

Mangroves and coral reefs serve as buffers 

for floods and tsunamis, forests help prevent 

landslides, wetlands act as sponges that can release 

water in times of drought. Such natural buffers 

are often less expensive to install or manage, and 

often more effective than physical engineering 

structures, such as dykes, levees or concrete walls. 

In the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, 

IUCN and partners launched Mangroves for 

the Future (MFF), a collaborative platform 

for countries, sectors and agencies to promote 

investments in coastal ecosystems that support 

sustainable development. After focusing initially 

on the countries worst affected by the tsunami 

– India, Indonesia, Maldives, Seychelles, Sri 

Lanka and Thailand – MFF has now expanded to 

include Pakistan and Vietnam, where many such 

nature-based solutions are being showcased. 

“Where ecosystems are 

resilient, they are more likely 

to sustain delivery of essential 

services.” 

As an example, on the Vietnamese coastline, 

planting and protecting nearly 12,000 hectares of 

mangroves cost just over US$1 million but saved 

annual expenditures on dyke maintenance of well 

over US$7 million. 

Although MFF has chosen mangroves as its 

flagship ecosystem, the initiative embraces all 

coastal ecosystems, including coral reefs, wetlands 

and seagrasses. These are commonly referred to 

as ‘blue carbon’, as they are particularly effective 

at storing carbon. Recent studies have shown 

that these ecosystems may be able to store an 

WHAT MAKES A NATURE-BASED SOLUTION 

None of the major 21st century challenges of climate change, food security and economic and social 

development can be resolved through nature-based solutions alone, but all of these issues depend to 

some degree on the health and functionality of the earth's ecosystems. 

Apart from providing effective solutions to major global challenges, nature-based solutions also deliver 

clear biodiversity benefits in terms of diverse, well-managed and functioning ecosystems. They must 

also be cost-effective relative to other solutions. 

As nature-based solutions are designed to reach beyond the conservation community they need to be 

easily and compellingly communicated as well as being measurable, verifiable and replicable. Finally, 

they must be designed and implemented in such a way as to respect and reinforce communities' rights 

over natural resources. 

160


Forest landscape restoration at the Great Lakes, Kigali, Rwanda 

“The Livelihoods Fund 

provides its investors with 

a return in the form of high 

quality carbon offsets.” 

©IUCN/Intu BOEDHIHARTONO 

amount of carbon up to five times greater than 

tropical forests. 

Where ecosystems are resilient, they are more 

likely to sustain delivery of essential services – from 

fisheries to recreation – generating income and 

improving the well-being of almost half of the 

world’s population that lives within the coastal zone. 

CLIMATE FINANCE 

Another promising approach to generate positive 

local outcomes both for our planet's carbon 

balance and for people's livelihoods is climate 

finance. Over the past four years, the Livelihoods 

Fund, in partnership with IUCN and the Ramsar 

Convention on Wetlands, has implemented 

innovative carbon projects. This new investment 

fund allows companies to offset their carbon 

footprint by investing in ecosystem restoration 

programmes that deliver lasting community 

benefits, including increased food security. 

The Livelihoods Fund provides its investors with 

a return in the form of high quality carbon offsets. 

It is already supported by several major companies, 

including Danone, Crédit Agricole, Schneider 

Electric, CDC Climat, the French Post, Hermès 

International and Voyageurs du Monde. The Fund 

will store 6.1 MTe CO2 (million tonnes equivalent 

CO2) over the next two decades, primarily 

through three types of projects: the restoration and 

preservation of natural ecosystems, agro-forestry, 

and the boosting of rural energy supplies. The 

Fund was also the main driver in the development 

of a methodology for carbon accounting of largescale 

mangrove restoration, which has now been 

approved by the UNFCCC Clean Development 

Mechanism. This has boosted restoration efforts 

by making large-scale projects more accessible and 

easier to implement. 

Through support from the Livelihoods Fund, the 

residents of 450 villages in Senegal have planted 

more than 100 million mangrove trees in the 

regions of Casamance and Sine Saloum since 

2009. This has improved the quality of agricultural 

land by reducing the build-up of salt in the soil 

and recreating a habitat thriving in food sources 

such as fish, oysters and crabs. In India, more 

than 65,000 people living in the Araku Valley in 

Andhra Pradesh have boosted food security after 

planting fruit trees on 6,000 hectares of land. 

Julia Marton-Lefèvre is Director General of 

IUCN. Prior to this position, she was Rector of 

the University for Peace, Executive Director of 

LEAD International and Executive Director of The 

International Council for Science. She is a member 

of several boards, including the UN Global Compact, 

the China Council for International Cooperation 

on Environment and Development, and the UN 

Secretary General’s High-level Group on Sustainable 

Energy for All. She is a Fellow of the World Academy 

of Art and Science and a Councillor of the World 

Future Council. Ms Marton-Lefèvre has co-authored 

numerous books and papers. She is a recipient of 

the AAAS Award for International Cooperation in 

Science, Chevalier de l’Ordre national de la Légion 

d’Honneur (France) and Chevalier dans l’Ordre de 

Saint-Charles (Monaco). 

The International Union for Conservation of 

Nature (IUCN) helps the world find pragmatic 

solutions to our most pressing environment and 

development challenges. IUCN is the world’s oldest 

and largest global environmental organisation, with 

more than 1,200 government and NGO members and 

almost 11,000 volunteer experts in some 160 countries. 

IUCN’s work is supported by over 1,000 staff in 

45 offices and hundreds of partners in public, NGO 

and private sectors around the world. IUCN offers 

its knowledge and know-how in nature and natural 

resource management as a contribution to addressing 

some of the biggest challenges of our time. 


UNDERSTANDING OUR OCEANS: 

THE CLIMATE ENGINE 

By Dr. Dawn Wright, Chief Scientist, Esri 

On a planet where 71 percent of the surface 

is covered by water, the oceans are critical for 

life itself. They feed us, regulate our weather 

patterns, provide over half the oxygen that 

we breathe, and contribute to our energy 

and economy. And in a world where climate, 

oceans, and people are tightly linked, we must 

understand the oceans before we can address the 

issues of climate change. 

A number of ocean factors are critical to 

climate change, including rising sea surface 

temperatures, coastal storms, and the harmful 

impact of ocean acidification which limits the 

calcification and growth of coral reefs. We 

need a deeper understanding of how oceans 

and climate are interrelated; vulnerable coastal 

communities need to design adaption strategies; 

and comprehensive risk assessment models need 

to be developed. 

Indeed, ocean scientists are still trying to 

understand exactly how the ocean modulates 

Earth’s climate, and conversely how climate change 

affects ocean circulation, the distribution of heat, 

ocean ecosystems, and sea level rise, how changes 

in ocean temperature and CO2 concentration will 

affect the rate of ocean acidification, and so forth. A 

huge question is: how do we predict the outcomes 

and impact of climate change, then adapt and 

mitigate accordingly? 

Geographic information systems (GIS) technology, 

which has long provided effective solutions to 

the integration, visualization, and analysis of 

information about land, is now being similarly 

applied to oceans. Our ability to measure change in 

the oceans (including open ocean, nearshore, and 

coast) is increasing, not only because of improved 

measuring devices and scientific techniques, but 

also because new GIS technology is aiding us in 

better understanding this dynamic environment. 

This domain has progressed from applications 

that merely collect and display data to complex 

simulation, modeling, and the development of new 

research methods and concepts. 

A myriad of challenges related to climate change, 

exploration, ecosystems, and energy face the 

marine science community. Confronting all these 

challenges requires a broad, interdisciplinary 

approach. As a company with the mission to 

inspire and enable people to positively impact their 

future through a deeper, geographic understanding 

of the changing world around them, Esri recognizes 

that this understanding must involve a strong 

commitment to the oceans; and that’s why Esri 

recently launched a major Ocean GIS Initiative. 

Global Climate Models show how a doubling of atmospheric CO 2 

pushes Aragonite below 3.0, 

marginalizing this essential building block for coral reefs 

162


“GIS plays a critical role in consolidating and 

managing the increased flow of ocean data and 

creating the visualizations to aid ocean industries 

in the safe and responsible use of the oceans. 

Expanded information from ocean users will 

help improve the modeling and predictability of 

weather, ocean conditions, and climate change, 

and will support responsible use of ocean space 

and resources – with clear benefits for science, 

government, society, and business.” 

– Paul Holthus, Founding Executive Director, World 

Ocean Council 

CALL TO ACTION 

The Ocean GIS Initiative has been motivated in 

great part by the need to provide effective mapping 

tools and techniques to respond to recent disasters 

such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf 

of Mexico and the Tohoku-Oki earthquake and 

tsunami in Japan. It is also motivated by a sincere 

desire to assist in the implementation of the US 

National Ocean Policy, particularly in the area of 

coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP), in 

which adaptation to climate change is a critical 

ingredient, and for which GIS provides a crucial 

decision-support engine. 

As part of this initiative, Esri is pursuing a greater 

engagement with the ocean science community, 

as complex ocean science questions and data 

increasingly inform the responsible use and 

governance of the oceans, as well as effective 

management and conservation. 

I invite you to explore more details of what Esri is 

doing and how we can work together by reading 

our free e-book, “The Ocean GIS Initiative”. 

Local sea level rise: different rates of thermal expansion cause spatial variation 

from 0.35m to 1.35m, as projected for 2100 by 13 Global Climate Models. 

OCEAN GIS RESOURCES 

“Our Reefs at Risk” Story Map 

http://esriurl.com/5099 

University Cooperation for Atmospheric 

Research/National Center for Atmospheric 

Research Resources 

http://gisclimatechange.ucar.edu 

http://serc.carleton.edu/eet/ncardatagis/ 

index.html 

Woods Hole Research Center: An Arctic 

Solution to Global Warming 

http://www.whrc.org/ecosystem/ 

highlatitude/siberian_solution.html 

NOAA Coastal Services Center 

http://www.csc.noaa.gov/climate/ 

Esri Oceans Basemap 

www.esri.com/oceanbasemap 

SimCLIM: GIS for Climate Change 

Adaptation and Risk Assessments 

http://www.climsystems.com/about/ 

activities/News%20Release_GeoSpatial_ 

News.pdf 

READ THE FREE E-BOOK: 

Dr. Dawn Wright is Esri’s chief scientist, where she 

helps to formulate and advance the agenda for the 

environmental, climate, and ocean sciences aspects of GIS. 

This free e-book details Esri’s Ocean GIS 

Initiative, including our commitment to and 

strategic plans for ocean science, resource 

management, and conservation. 

http://www.esri.com/library/ebooks/ocean-gisinitiative.pdf 

Dawn Wright, Ph.D., GISP, Esri Chief Scientist, 

Esri 

380 New York Street 

Redlands, CA 

92373, USA 

Tel: 909-793-2853, ext. 2182 

Email: dwright@esri.com 

Website: esri.com/oceans 

Twitter: @deepseadawn 

LinkedIn: Dawn Wright 


163


ECOSYSTEM-BASED 

ADAPTATION IN THE 

RED SEA AND 

GULF OF ADEN 

By Professor Ziad Hamzah Abu Ghararah, Secretary General and 

Dr Ahmed S M Khalil, Regional Programme Coordinator for Living Marine Resources 

and Climate Change at the PERSGA 

The coastal region that includes the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden is among the most vulnerable in the 

world to the impacts of climate change. 

The desert climate that characterises the coasts 

of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (the PERSGA 

region) imposes extreme conditions of aridity 

and high temperature, which reach levels close 

to the physiological limits endurable by living 

organisms. Climate change impacts are likely to 

be critical for communities living in such limiting 

conditions. However, the PERSGA region is 

distinguished by the remarkable prosperity of its 

coastal marine ecosystems and the long history of 

coping with extreme climate, which give it great 

potential and many options for coastal Ecosystembased 

Adaptation (EbA) to climate change. 

Understanding the resilience of coastal ecosystems 

and their regional communities can enlighten and 

enrich EbA solutions, and help to develop an EbA 

approach and policy options for the region. 

This article outlines the potential, policy options 

and regional perspective for coastal EbA in 

the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden Large Marine 

Ecosystem (LME), based on the LME’s particular 

ecological scope and features, and the role of the 

regional approach in implementing coastal EbA, 

as demonstrated by the efforts established by 

PERSGA and its member states in the region. 

“The coral reefs of the region 

are the best developed in the 

western Indian Ocean.” 

COASTAL EbA IN THE REGION 

The PERSGA region supports extensive 

resources of coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves 

and salt-marshes (Figure 1), which are the key 

tropical coastal ecosystems often highlighted 

164


for their potential for coastal EbA. A basis for a 

region-wide mainstreaming of coastal EbA exists 

through the regional approach established by 

PERSGA, particularly its habitat-specific Action 

Plans and the Regional Strategy for Adaptation 

to Climate Change, in which the role of coastal 

EbA and its links to the Action Plans for the key 

coastal ecosystems are recognised. 

The Red Sea represents less than 0.2 per cent of 

the world’s ocean, while it supports around 4 per 

cent of the world’s coral reefs. The coral reefs of 

the region are the best developed in the western 

Indian Ocean, occurring as fringing reefs around 

the mainland and islands, barrier reefs and atolls; as 

well as submerged patch reefs, coralline red algal 

beds, relic reef formations, and volcanic rock flows. 

Major harbours on the Red Sea coast are protected 

by coral reef wave breaks, saving the huge cost of 

building sea defences. It has been reported that the 

price for ensuring reef health through management 

is far lower than constructing and maintaining an 

equivalent defence. 

Similarly, seagrass is abundant along the Red 

Sea coast, occurring up to depths of 70 metres 

because of the high transparency of the seawater; 

for example, around 42 per cent of the Red Sea 

coastline of Yemen supports seagrass beds, and the 

Dungunab Bay on the Sudanese coast supports 

around 1,200 ha of dense seagrass covering 

around 4.5 per cent of the bay area. Seagrass has 

great adaptation potential by reducing erosion 

and wave power, and has been reported for its 

efficiency of carbon storage in roots and soil (P 

van Eijk, 2009). 

“Seagrass has great adaptation 

potential by reducing erosion 

and wave power.” 

Mangroves are found on the coastline throughout 

the Red Sea, the northernmost reach of their 

distribution in the Indian Ocean. Assessments 

have revealed that there is a great potential for 

extending mangrove cover in the region. 

Mangroves’ varied adaptation potential includes 

the elimination or considerable absorption of 

storm and tsunami waves; their ability to 

withstand annual sea level rises of 3-9 mm; and 

the reduction of erosion. They have also the 

documented ability to sequester atmospheric 



carbon, while their upper sediment layers have 

especially high carbon content (J E Ong, 2002). 

Salt-marshes are widespread in the region, owing 

to the existence of numerous valleys that drain 

the Red Sea hills to the sea across coastal plains. 

Extensive areas are occupied by diverse salt-tolerant 

plants, which have high EbA potential through soil 

stabilisation and protection from erosion. 

COASTAL EbA POLICY OPTIONS 

Coastal EbA can generate many social, economic 

and cultural co-benefits to the PERSGA region. 

Their implementation is strongly linked with 

the existing Regional Action Plans (RAPs) 

for conservation of coral reefs, mangroves, and 

seagrass, because EbA largely draws on the 

sustainable management and conservation of such 

ecosystems. EbA can reduce vulnerability through 

strengthening ecosystem resilience and capacity 

to provide environmental and economic services, 

enabling local communities to adapt to climate 

variability and change. The regional approach of 

the RAPs could enhance implementation through 

co-ordinated EbA actions across the wide LME 

geographical area, addressing trans-boundary issues, 

and facilitating knowledge exchange. The main 

EbA policy options for the region may include: 

Integrated management planning for 

strengthening resilience. Coastal habitats are 

particularly sensitive to changes in coastal land-use 

patterns, dredging, land-filling, and various forms 

of pollution. Important steps towards coastal 

management planning and legislation have been 

taken or are under way in PERSGA countries. 

However, the functional interdependence of 

the key habitats and the importance of their 

integrated management still need to be fully 

recognised: for instance, the dependence of 

mangroves and coral reefs on each other for 

protection from erosion or sedimentation. Policies 

should facilitate integrated coastal management 

of associated coastal habitats to maintain their 

resilience and potential for EbA. Underpinning 

these policies are appropriate legislation, land use 

planning, participatory approaches, environmental 

impact assessments and effective enforcement. 

Education and awareness for sustainability. 

Effective policy actions will require dedicated 

and continued support across governmental and 

inter-governmental levels, and from the public at 

large. EbA policies should include raising general 

awareness on their socio-economic benefits and 

cost-effectiveness through implementation of 

education and awareness programmes, developed 

for dissemination via suitable communication 

networks to decision-makers, mass media, schools, 

universities and local communities in the region. 

“Mangroves’ varied adaptation 

potential includes the 

elimination or considerable 

absorption of storm and 

tsunami waves.” 

Sustainable use of marine resources. The 

coral reefs, seagrass, mangroves and salt-marshes 

constitute essential sources of marine food, animal 

fodder and firewood, and support such benefits as 

tourism for the coastal communities in most of 

the PERSGA region. Using up such habitats 

beyond sustainable levels degrades the economic 

and environmental services provided by them 

– for instance for fishery support, coastal 

protection and tourism. Policies for sustainable 

ecological utilisation must be implemented, such 

as accurate assessments of standing stocks and 

carrying capacity for the different economic 

activities, effective monitoring and regulation 

through licensing, protected and managed areas 

(see below) and other methods, in addition to 

operative surveillance and enforcement. 

“EbA policies should include 

raising general awareness on 

their socio-economic benefits 

and cost-effectiveness.” 

Coastal marine protected/ managed areas 

(CMPAs /MMAs). CMPAs and MMAs are 

crucial to the long-term maintenance of the key 

coastal habitats and viability of their populations 

of endemic, endangered or harvested species, 

which essentially contribute to the overall 

ecosystem resilience. The PERSGA region has 

166


taken important steps towards developing MPAs, 

although considerable gaps in management 

capacity exist, so capacity-building in MPA 

management is a priority. National policies need 

to support the regional network of MPAs 

established through the PERSGA’s Regional 

Protocol Concerning Biodiversity 

Conservation and MPAs (2005), which can 

demonstrate management practices for sustainable 

economic services and EbA impacts. 

Control of sea-based and land-based 

pollution. The PERSGA region is one of the 

major thoroughfares for maritime traffic, and is 

also the world’s largest producer and exporter 

of oil, mostly transported by sea. Coastal areas 

of the region are witnessing great development 

of economic activities, such as industrial zones, 

port constructions, tourism resorts and associated 

infrastructures. The region’s coastal ecosystems are 

thus at high risk of ecological disruption through 

sea-based and land-based pollution, often with 

adverse effects on the coastal ecosystem. Regional 

policies should facilitate implementation of 

obligations under regional and international 

conventions, including improved navigation 

systems and oil spill response capacities, and 

protection from land-based pollution, above 

all in sensitive coastal key habitats with high 

significance for EbA. 

EbA research and economic valuation. 

Proper coastal resources management requires the 

provision of tangible information on the status 

and trends in the relevant components, derived 

through research and monitoring. Furthermore, 

investigating ecosystem resilience and economic 

value has a significant role in effective lobbying for 

conservation and decision-making at government 

and inter-government levels, and strengthens 

capacity to make realistic comparisons of the costs 

and benefits from different courses of action. EbA 

policies must support sustainable biophysical and 

socio-economic monitoring, as well as research 

into coastal ecosystem valuation, resilience, human 

interaction, and long-established knowledge 

on adaptation to climate variability and change 

throughout the past history of the region. 

“The region’s coastal 

ecosystems are at high risk of 

ecological disruption through 

sea-based and land-based 

pollution.” 

Professor Ziad Hamzah Abu Ghararah has been 

the Secretary General of PERSGA since 2005 

and was the Vice President of the Meteorology and 

Environmental Protection Administration (MEPA) 

in Saudi Arabia from 2000 to 2004. Dr. Ghararah 

was an IPCC Bureau Member from 2002 to 2007 

and holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering from 

Virginia Polytechnic & State University in USA. 

Dr Ahmed S M Khalil has been Regional 

Programme Coordinator for Living Marine Resources 

and Climate Change at the PERSGA since 2007. 

Dr. Khalil holds a PhD in Marine Ecology from 

the Institute of Tropical Marine Ecology, University 

of Bremen, Germany and has worked as Assistant 

Professor of marine ecology at the University of 

Khartoum since 2001. 

PERSGA is the Regional Organization for the 

Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and 

Gulf of Aden, an intergovernmental body dedicated to 

the conservation of the coastal and marine environments 

found in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aqaba, Gulf of Suez, 

Suez Canal, and Gulf of Aden surrounding the Socotra 

Archipelago and nearby waters. PERSGA’s member 

states include Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, the Kingdom of 

Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. 



ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES 

IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA 

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systems (GIS) and equipment supply. Our vision 

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offering comprehensive environmental technology, 

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SERVICES 

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Ambient air quality monitoring. We deal with 

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168


ENVIRONMENTAL 

CHALLENGES IN THE 

ARABIAN PENINSULA 

By Dr Faisal Awawdeh and Dr Ibrahim Hamdan, President and Executive Secretary 

of AARINENA 

The problems faced by the Arabian Peninsula are to some degree typical of arid lands where population 

pressure and land degradation pose huge difficulties for agriculture. 

The Arabian Peninsula (AP) is home to Bahrain, 

Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United 

Arab Emirates and Yemen, and has a total land 

area of three million sq km. The AP countries 

are characterised by arid and semi-arid climates, 

with annual rainfall typically ranging from less 

than 50 mm up to 250 mm. However, some 

areas in Oman and Yemen receive much more. 

Temperatures are generally high; some locations 

reach 50°C in summer, when the relative 

humidity is also high. The soils of the region are 

fragile and subject to wind and water erosion, 

and degradation through salinisation. Over 95 per 

cent of the AP land area suffers from some form 

of desertification, and more than 80 per cent is 

classed as degraded by wind erosion. 

The region’s population was 49.2 million and 

69.6 million in 2002 and 2011 respectively 

(World Bank, 2011). During this period the 

average annual growth rate was nearly 4 per cent. 

If this rate continues, the region’s population will 

reach over 119 million by 2025. 

CHALLENGES 

The AP is a water-limited region with extreme 

aridity and limited renewable water resources. In 

most areas the annual precipitation is far below 

the potential crop water requirements. Hence, 

with the exception of a few areas in Yemen, all 

arable crop production requires irrigation. The 

renewable supply of water per capita in AP is 

among the lowest in the world. The average 

renewable water supply for the Middle East 

and North Africa is 695 cubic metres per capita 

per year; for the AP it is about 100 cu metres, 

compared with a global average of 6,300 cu 

metres (World Bank data, 2009) 

Of the 3 million sq km land area of the AP, 

about 50 per cent is rangeland, mostly in Saudi 

Arabia. The condition of this rangeland is very 

poor, and consequently production is well below 

potential in some areas. Large areas are classified 

as ‘empty lands’, and others have few species at 

very low densities. There are signs of deterioration 

in both the soil and plant components of the 



rangeland ecosystem. Overgrazing is the main 

cause of deterioration, reflected in livestock feed 

shortages. In attempts to alleviate feed shortages, 

farmers have relied on growing exotic forage 

crops with high water requirements. Excessive 

use of groundwater has lowered water tables and 

increased salinity; in severe cases this has led to 

croplands being abandoned. 

The AP is facing great challenges in developing 

more sustainable and efficient land and water use, 

while preserving its environment and heritage 

with the current rate of population growth. 

The issues of water management, productivity, 

sustainability and the environment are closely 

interconnected. If current inefficient practices 

continue, there will be rapid depletion of water 

resources, extinction of native species and 

knowledge of them, and rapid environmental 

destruction. 

FOOD SECURITY IN THE REGION 

The total commodity demands resulting from 

AP population growth has led to a rapid increase 

in food imports. The Gulf Cooperation Council 

(GCC) countries, with a population of 40 million, 

represent 64 per cent of AP residents. Research 

has concluded that due to water shortage and lack 

of arable land, GCC countries need to import 

almost 90 per cent of their food requirements. 

The situation is worst in Yemen, where 32.1 per 

cent of the population lacks food security, and 

57.9 per cent of all children are malnourished. 

During the period between 2007 and 2009, 

when the food price rises were intensified by the 

financial crisis and global economic recession, 

the number of people in the world suffering 

from hunger and under-nutrition increased 

significantly, and reached a peak in 2009 of more 

than 1 billion, according the UN Food and 

“In most areas the annual 

precipitation is far below 

the potential crop water 

requirements.” 

Agriculture Organization (FAO). As a result, the 

world has witnessed an increase in export 

restrictions by trading partners, which has caused 

concern in the Arabian Peninsula countries, 

especially the six GCC countries that are the 

major food importers. Local supplies of food 

have been falling due to the low productivity of 

the farming systems and severe water scarcity, 

while population growth is driving food demand 

ever higher, making it likely to double from 

2000 to 2030. 

“Excessive use of groundwater 

has lowered water tables and 

increased salinity.” 

International food prices still show an upward 

trend. The FAO’s Food Price Index rose steadily 

until 2008, when it reached a peak of 200 units, 

representing double the prices of four years 

earlier (Figure 1). Although there was a slight 

decrease in 2009, during 2010 and 2011 the 

index resumed an upward trend, which is 

expected to continue through 2012. The Food 

Price Index was set at 100 from average export 

shares over the period of 2002-2004 of 55 

commodities considered by FAO as representing 

280.0 

230.0 

180.0 

130.0 

80.0 

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 

Figure 1. FAO Food Price Index from 2002 to 2011 (2002-2004=100) 

Source: FAO 

170

The Arabian Peninsula is home to Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, 

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, and has a 

total land area of three million sq km. 


international food prices, in five groups: meat, 

dairy products, cereals, oils and fats, and sugar. 

Similarly, a review of GCC food retail prices 

indicates that these have increased continually 

every year over the past decade. The growth rate 

become merely slower in 2008, but again picked 

up in 2010 and 2011. It is forecast that retail food 

prices will rise by just over 4 per cent in 2012. 

One of the major food security challenges 

facing Arabian Peninsula countries is increasing 

food production within their own boundaries. 

Domestic agricultural production in AP countries 

is suffering from the harsh environment, water 

scarcity and a lack of suitable land for arable crops. 

ARABIAN PENINSULA COUNTRIES’ 

FOOD SECURITY STRATEGY 

High dependence on imports makes the region’s 

food supply very vulnerable and highly dependent 

on the world food market. Stemming either from 

policy restrictions by exporting countries, or as 

a result of natural calamities, any interruption in 

food imports has affected the region significantly. 

To enhance the status of food security, AP 

countries follow twin policies which involve 

taking initiatives to improve domestic production, 

while at the same time securing food imports 

through international agricultural investment. 

In addition to National Agricultural Research 

Systems (NARS), the importance of food 

security in the region is confirmed by the 

number of specialised organisations and 

foundations dealing with these issues. An 

example is the Qatar National Food Security 

Programme (QNFSP). 

THE IMPORTANCE OF RESEARCH AND 

DEVELOPMENT 

Considering the harsh environment of the 

peninsula, enhancing agricultural production 

within AP countries requires effort to be 

concentrated on research and development 

activities aiming at more suitable production 

techniques. For instance, water resources in the 

region are very limited while demand is high. 

During last 20-30 years, all GCC countries have 

adopted polices for expansion of areas under 

irrigated agriculture, while managing the supply 

by both regulation of demand and economy 

incentives. However, groundwater is being 

rapidly depleted; and agriculture has come to 

depend on unconventional sources of water, using 

desalination techniques. Production systems have 

to become more efficient if such expensive water 

is to be economic. 

“Any interruption in food 

imports has affected the region 

significantly.” 

On the other hand, due to climate change and the 

effects of global warming effect, the number of 

countries which will face same constraints as the 

peninsula countries is expected to increase. 

Therefore, the AP countries should consider 

themselves as a large-scale laboratory, and make 

sure there is good infrastructure for building 

knowledge, so that in the future other countries 

can call on their expertise in developing and 

enhancing suitable production systems. 

“The AP countries should 

consider themselves as a 

large-scale laboratory.” 

ICARDA’S ACHIEVEMENTS IN AP 

In 1988, the International Center for Agricultural 

Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) began a 

special programme for the AP countries called the 

Arabian Peninsula Regional Program (APRP). 



The initiative addresses three priority themes: 

rangelands, forage and livestock; protected 

agriculture; and water resources management. 

These themes are supported by research in 

agro-ecological characterisation and stress 

physiology. Emphasis is also placed on institutional 

strengthening and capacity building, human 

resource development, and promotion of the use of 

information technology. The present APRP project 

aims to transfer and promote the technology 

packages developed during previous collaborative 

research projects that show positive impacts on 

enhancing yield and water productivity, and on 

natural resources management. 

AARINENA’S ROLE 

AARINENA role is, first, to contribute to 

the enhancement of agricultural and rural 

development in t he West Asia/North Africa 

region through fostering agricultural research 

and technology development; secondly, to 

promote the exchange of scientific and technical 

experience and information; and thirdly to 

strengthen collaboration within and outside the 

region to achieve a greater degree of self-reliance 

in food and agriculture. 

AARINENA has identified several tools 

and actions to strengthen co-operation 

among members and stakeholders. These 

include the establishment of seven Regional 

Technical Networks on date-palms, cotton, 

olives, medicinal plants, water use efficiency, 

agricultural biotechnology, and plant genetic 

resources. In addition, the Consortium of 

Farmer Organizations and Regional Agricultural 

Information Systems (RAIS) has been established. 

AARINENA has organised a wide range of 

meetings, workshops, symposiums, seminars and 

training courses in different areas of agricultural 

research for development. 

Dr. Faisal Awawdeh, the President of AARINENA, 

holds a PhD in animal sciences from Washington 

State University and was the Director General for 

The National Center for Agricultural Research and 

Extension for five years. Dr. Awawdeh is regional 

coordinator for APRP and ICARDA and is national 

coordinator of several international projects. He has 

written numerous articles, studies and reports and has 

wide experience in technical and management positions 

and extensive networking with regional, national and 

international organizations. 

Dr. Ibrahim Hamdan holds a PhD in Food 

Technology & Nutrition from The Ohio State 

University, USA and worked as a research 

scientist at the Ohio Research Center and later as 

Project Leader and Manager of the Biotechnology 

Department at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific 

Research. He served as Associate Professor and 

Director of the Agricultural Research Center at the 

Jordan University for Science and Technology and 

served as FAO Senior Regional Agro-industries & 

Technology Officer and was appointed Executive 

Secretary of AARINENA in 2004. 

The Association of Agricultural Research 

Institutions in the Near East and North Africa 

(AARINENA) is an autonomous body and a platform 

for agricultural research and innovation in the West 

Asia and North Africa (WANA) region, created in 

accordance with the recommendations of the 14th and 

16th FAO Regional Ministerial Conferences. 

172

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