DUBAI: A new study has revealed that carbon emissions in the Middle East and North Africa have more than doubled in the past three decades. Leading the region were the oil-rich countries of the Gulf, the British environmental organization Carboun said. Although the region, as a whole, represents a small global share in overall carbon emissions, the Gulf and other Middle Eastern countries lead the world in emissions per capita, the study said. Citizens are creating two to 10 times the amount of emissions than that of an average global citizen. It also stated that the rest of the world's carbon output remained stable. “Emissions from the Middle East and North Africa have doubled in the last 30 years, while the world average has remained pretty much the same,” said Karim Elgendy, an architect and sustainability consultant based in London, and one of Carboun's founders. Experts say carbon emissions, created as people burn fossil fuels to produce electricity and power cars and other means of transport, have the potential to unsettle the climate. Calculating emissions generated by countries and their citizens is important because it shows how responsibility for the climate should be shared, Elgendy said. Carboun's study used statistics for 2007, compiled by the World Bank. It revealed huge discrepancies in the countries of the region. “We realized that there was no such thing as an average Middle Eastern person,” Elgendy said. “We found out that the emissions from resource-rich countries far exceed the emissions from resource-poor countries.” BM
