A look into CGC energy usage: Qatar Case
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission status is a critical issue that has been around for many years. It is crucial for humans to reduce CO2 emissions as it is one of the most contributing factors for global warming.
As seen in the graph below, the CO2 total emissions has increased significantly throughout the years, which is entirely alarming and calls for us to take immediate actions now to stop this increase.
Indeed, there is a huge increase in CO2 emissions; however, the human population has also increased a lot from 1990 until 2022, which means we should also check the CO2 emission per capita.
The below graph shows that the total CO2 emission per capita has decreased slightly from 1990 till 2019 in metric ton. This is due to the usage of more green energy overall.
Now, it is interesting for us to check what countries are contributing the most to this, in order for these issues to be tackled at country level.
The below bar chart shows the highest 10 countries in terms of CO2 emission per capita: the leading country for CO2 emission is Qatar, and the top 3 countries are Arab gulf countries. It is quit interesting to see why Qatar is leading this metric and why. It could be that Qatar has a bad energy management system and does not rely on clean energy.
It is well known that Qatar is one of the leading countries when it comes to producing oil and gas. Thus, it might be directly affected by that.
The Pie chart below shows that 40.96% of Qatar CO2 emission comes from gaseous activities, and 26.36% comes from electricity usage. This shows the 2 major contributors for this high CO2 emission per capita.
That presents an important question: what types of energy does Qatar use in order to provide electricity and services for its population?
Qatar depends 100% on gas, oil and coal to provide energy and electricity. This is a major finding because it means that providing alternative energy sources can tackle this problem and reduce the CO2 emission. The figures below show how much Qatar depends on oil and that Qatar uses 0% of clean energy sources.
What makes it more interesting is that we can see that the total energy consumption had increased in Qatar since the late 90s on a steady trend; below line shows the electric power consumption in Qatar through the years.
Now, it is also clear that even though the electric power consumption has increased a lot, it has dropped from its peak while still maintaining a higher value than the first record of 28.32 in 1990 with a value of 32.76 in 2019. This is mainly impacted by the growing population in Qatar as many people have traveled to Qatar in order to find better opportunities since the 90s. This is also clearly demonstrated in the population line visualization below.
In short, the problem of Qatar’s high CO2 emission is mainly attributed to the zero usage of clean energy for its different activities. For that, a couple of actions are recommended.
- Using green energy for generating electricity
- Introducing the solar system as an alternative
- Implementing environmental regulations and policies to enforce emission standards and promote sustainable practices across industries
- Investing in research and development in order to find suitable ways to reduce the emission for gaseous activities
- Using of filters while producing gas and oil
- Raising the population’s awareness of the importance of adapting sustainable lifestyles to reduce CO2 emissions
- Abiding with carbon target zero ambitions in order to fight global warming