by Isabel Ovalle
The Doha Exhibition Center is showcasing a sample of one of the most bio-diverse spots on Earth: Yasuní National Park, in Ecuador. This unique location is over 13,000km away from Qatar. Readers must wonder why there’s a place for it in Qatar Sustainablity Expo. The answer is that it has reserves of 846 million barrels of oil, which the government of Ecuador has decided not to extract, to preserve biodiversity.
This is only one of many initiatives implemented with a sustainable goal, in order to save the environment, and not so much to save money. This is the case with the government of Ecuador, a country that has decided not to exploit the reserves of oil worth $7.2bn located in the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT) area of the National Park, which is also home to two indigenous cultures living in voluntary isolation.
Those attending the exhibition will learn that Ecuador wants to raise awareness about the importance of preserving biodiversity in this area. In addition, not extracting oil will avoid emissions of 1.2 billion metric tonnes of CO2.
To preserve the unique biodiversity in the park, Ecuador will give up 50 percent of the revenue it would have received had the oil been exploited. The objective is to get international contributions amounting to the remaining 50 percent, equivalent to $3.6bn.
In Doha, the Yasuní ITT movement hopes to find support for the initiative. To this end, Ecuador’s constitution is the first to recognise the rights of nature, as well as the right of indigenous communities to self-determination.
By not extracting oil in the National Park, the country will not release 800 million metric tonnes of CO2 from deforestation. This initiative is supported by 78 percent of Ecuadorian citizens. Ecuador is seeking support for the Yasuní-ITT Trust Fund, established in 2010.
Two indigenous communities living in isolation reside in Yasuní National Park to preserve their ancient cultures and traditions; they are the Tagaeri and Taromenane, both of the Waorani ethnicity, explained an official of the Yasuní-ITT Initiative.
From Ecuador to Saudi Arabia, the exhibition gives a glimpse of initiatives linked to sustainability. Some of them are being taken in Qatar, such as one by Qatargas, which has invested $1bn in an environmental project, the largest of its kind in the world, which aims to recover gas currently flared during Liquefied Natural Gas ship loading at the Ras Laffan port.
A Qatargas official said the project will enable boil-off gas to be collected from LNG ships and compressed at a central facility. The compressed gas will then be sent to the LNG producers to be consumed as fuel or converted back into LNG.
Saudi Arabia has brought to the expo the prototype of a vehicle that captures CO2. Dr Mohammed Al Juaied explained recently at a side event of the UN climate change conference that studies show that the truck is capable of capturing an average of 10 percent of its CO2 emissions.
The technology reduces emissions by separating and storing CO2 from the exhaust stream while avoiding impacting the engine design or performance.
Qatar has also taken the opportunity provided by the Qatar Sustainability Expo to show off, for the first time in the Middle East, the emission-free electric car, which can accelerate from 0 to 100 kph in just 3.6 seconds and travel up to 300km per charge.
It has an adjoining carport which supplies solar power to charge the car’s batteries, allowing it to offer “super car performance without super car emissions”. In addition, the solar carport can be configured to supply solar power for a wide range of solar solutions for homes and businesses.
Away from gas and oil-related projects is the small booth of ‘Suicide Penguin’, representing a penguin hanging with a rope around its neck. With this installation, Taiwanese eco-artist Vincent J F Huang wants to give a voice to animals affected by climate change. These ‘animal delegates’ cannot defend themselves or be heard.
The selected animal delegates are Mr and Mrs Antarctic Penguin, Mr Arctic Polar Bear and Mr Tuvalu Marine Turtle, which are participating in the climate conference. In a letter to their “human friends”, they hope their exhibit at Qatar Sustainability Expo can “draw more attention and care from you, my dear human friends”.
