Environmental Sustainability in the UAE: Case Study Analysis

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United Arab Emirates case study

Table of Contents
1. Discuss the reason why UAE was the country with the largest per capita Ecological
Footprints in the world (at almost 12 global hectares, living planet report 2006).....................3
2. What steps did they take to mitigate their standing regards to their ecological footprints?
What else could they do?...........................................................................................................3
3. What are the key findings of the Ecological Footprints Initiatives? Were they able to
reduce their energy and water consumption? What else were they able to improve?...............4
4. Do you believe they are on the way to be more sustainable with their ecological
footprints in the future? Why?...................................................................................................4

1. Discuss the reason why UAE was the country with the largest per
capita Ecological Footprints in the world (at almost 12 global
hectares, living planet report 2006).
With the reading of the scenario, it is observed that UAE was the country with the largest
carbon footprints from among 12 global hectares. It is a matter of concern and is very
important for the government to evaluate the reasons behind this. The major reason behind
this is the increasing economy of the nation (Global footprints network. 2015). With the
increasing rate of the economy the requirements of resources increase drastically that directly
or indirectly impacts the environment of the concerned nation. For the increment in the
economy, the authorities of the respective nation have to make use of the advanced or latest
technology that requires the involvement of resources (Reuters. 2019). In the process of an
increasing economy, the government of the respective nation have neglected the environment
and that resulted in the increment of the carbon footprints. In order to promote the growth of
the nation, the authorities have completely foregone the environmental practices and that
resulted in the concerned situation (Global footprints network. 2015).
2. What steps did they take to mitigate their standing regards to their
ecological footprints? What else could they do?
The footprints of UAE are continuously increasing with the effect of their economic growth.
It is very important for the authorities of the respective nation to implement required actions.
The authorities of UAE tried to launch a program for the respective cause which is named as
Al Basma Al Beeiya. The program is also known as Ecological Footprints Initiative. The
program was started in 2007 and in this program, the authorities tried to get into collaboration
with different ecological based departments. This is the key strategy of the authorities of
UAE (Reuters. 2019). They are trying to collaborate with Ministry of Environment and
Water, Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology, Emirates Wildlife
Society-World Wildlife Fund and Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (Global footprints
network. 2015). With these collaboration activities, the government of the respective nation
will be able to keep a watch on the activities that can harm the environment and will be able
to take required actions for the same (Treyer & Bauer, 2016).

Apart from this strategy, the government of the respective nation can try to motivate or
inspire the localities’ to save the environment. They can try to arrange concerts or programs
for their respective purpose. By doing so the government will be able to enhance the level of
awareness regarding environment protection among the citizens of the nation. This can help
them in ensuring environment protection in the long run (Reuters. 2019).
3. What are the key findings of the Ecological Footprints Initiatives?
Were they able to reduce their energy and water consumption? What
else were they able to improve?
Ecological Footprints Initiatives was a collaborative program that was started by the
authorities of UAE in 2007 for reducing the level of carbon footprints (Treyer & Bauer,
2016). The program was extremely successful and helped the nation in fulfilling its
objectives. Some of the major findings of the respective program are as follows:
 New Energy standard: With the effect of this program the government of UAE was
able to get approval for a new energy-saving program named as Energy Efficiency
Lighting Regulation. The program was approved in 2013 and helped in reducing the
total amount of energy consumed in the nation (Treyer & Bauer, 2016).
 Heroes of UAE: The main or chief contributor of the respective program was the
households of UAE. About 57% of the support was initiated from the households in
the respective program. With their support, the authorities are able to reduce the
amount of energy and water consumption that directly impacted the environment of
the nation in a positive manner (Global footprints network. 2015).
With the impact of this program, the government was able to identify that by 2030 the
respective nation will be able to reduce about 40% of the carbon footprints and can reduce
about 1% in comparison of the global hectares (Treyer & Bauer, 2016).
4. Do you believe they are on the way to be more sustainable with their
ecological footprints in the future? Why?
Ecological footprints initiative proves to be the most effective program for the development
and sustainability of the respective nation. With the effect of this program, the respective

nation will surely be able to reduce the usage of energy and water (Global footprints network.
2015). They will likewise be able to reduce the number of total carbon footprints of the
nation. The respective program is still continuing in UAE and is making progress with time.
The program is able to address the requirements of all the major stakeholders of the program
and is also able to enhance the scope of environmental sustainability in the respective nation
(Treyer & Bauer, 2016).

References
 Galli, A., Wiedmann, T., Ercin, E., Knoblauch, D., Ewing, B., & Giljum, S. (2012).
Integrating ecological, carbon and water footprint into a “footprint family” of
indicators: definition and role in tracking human pressure on the planet. Ecological
indicators, 16, 100-112.
 Global footprints network. (2015). United Arab Emirates. Retrieved on 17th August
2019 https://www.footprintnetwork.org/2015/11/18/united-arab-emirates/
 Rashid, A., Irum, A., Malik, I. A., Ashraf, A., Rongqiong, L., Liu, G., ... & Yousaf, B.
(2018). Ecological footprint of Rawalpindi; Pakistan's first footprint analysis from
urbanization perspective. Journal of Cleaner Production, 170, 362-368.
 Reuters. (2019). Factbox: Why does the UAE have such a high carbon footprint?.
Retrieved on 17th August 2019 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-emirates-
sustainability-factbox-idUSTRE69C5FQ20101013
 Szabo, S. (2012). The water challenge in the UAE. Policy Brief, 29.
 Toth, G., & Szigeti, C. (2016). The historical ecological footprint: From over-
population to over-consumption. Ecological Indicators, 60, 283-291.
 Treyer, K., & Bauer, C. (2016). The environmental footprint of UAE׳ s electricity
sector: combining life cycle assessment and scenario modeling. Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews, 55, 1234-1247.