Energy and Population have been identified as the priority sectors for data research aimed at measuring and understanding the UAE's ecological footprint. The data is being collected under the Al Basama Al Beeiya (Ecological Footprint) Initiative launched by the UAE in October 2007.
The Ecological Footprint is a sustainability indicator that measures the use of natural resources by the population of a country. According to the Living Planet Report 2006, the UAE has the highest ecological footprint in the world at 11.9 gha (global hectares) per person. However, a review and analysis of the sources of the data used to calculate the UAE’s ecological footprint has indicated that there is a considerable gap between the knowledge and data that existed in the international records and the ground data collected by local organiSations. The Al Basama Al Beeiya initiative will not only close that gap, but will provide the country's leadership and government with reliable and much needed information that will then be used as a policy-guiding tool.
Speaking for Al Basama Al Beeiya, Razan Al Mubarak, managing director of EWS-WWF said, "Energy and population are the most important components of the footprint scale. It is estimated that energy consumption alone contributes 76.1 per cent to UAE's Ecological Footprint as per the Living Planet Report 2006. As the national Ecological Footprint is measured by the impact of human consumption on a country’s resources, it is essential to weigh the UAE's population factors early on."
Al Mubarak said the Al Basama Al Beeiya project team is currently initiating contacts with key players in the population and energy sectors of UAE to seek their support and obtain vital data. Al Basama Al Beeiya research teams will collate and analyse the data according to uniform and proven standards.
Al Basama Al Beeiya was launched on 18th October 2007 as a major UAE national effort to ensure a sustainable future by measuring and understanding the country's ecological footprint. The four core partners in the initiative are: UAE Ministry of Environment and Water (MoEW), the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI), the Emirates Wildlife Society – World Wide Fund for Nature (EWS-WWF) and the Global Footprint Network (GFN), an international non-profit organization that promotes the Ecological Footprint as sustainability metric worldwide. The initiative involves multiple stakeholders across the UAE. .
To source and verify footprint-related data from the energy and population sectors, the Al Basama Al Beeiya team has met with several government ministries and authorities including the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Federal National Council Affairs. In addition, the team has also met with the General Secretariat of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and the Executive Affairs Authority to seek their support for the project and its data collection efforts. The team will continue to meet with other public and private sector organizations to seek their cooperation.
"The data collection analysis exercise is very complex. For example, the population measure to assess UAE's ecological footprint needs to take into account not only the resident population, but temporary residents (tourists and business visitors) as well as those transiting through the country because every individual is a consumer of resources. In the case of energy, we need to source and analyse data related to production, import, export and domestic consumption of energy resources."
Following the launch of the Al Basama Al Beeiya Initiative, a technical workshop was organized for over 150 attendees from government, municipalities, corporate organisations, and NGOs, as well as researchers from educational institutions and staff from foreign embassies. The workshop conducted by Dr Mathis Wackernagel, Executive Director of the Global Footprint Network and co-creator of the Ecological Footprint methodology, was meant to engage multiple stakeholders from across the country who would need to be directly involved in the development and success of the initiative.
Commending the UAE for being only the third country in the world after Switzerland and Japan to undertake such a detailed national Footprint calculation program, Dr Mathis said that support from across multiple sectors and strong backing from the government were critical to the success of the initiative.
Dr Mathis added, “Governments are realizing that ecological assets are becoming ever more significant for a country's well-being and for maintaining its competitiveness. Ecological Footprint accounting is being viewed as a way to secure people’s quality of life for years to come.”
Al Basama Al Beeiya will involve data collection, quantitative and qualitative analysis, re-assessment of UAE data currently used nationally and internationally, and research into the methodology of measuring the ecological footprint taking into consideration the country's climatic and regional resonance. Once the calculation of the UAE's footprint and analysis of the footprint are completed, Al Basama Al Beeiya will make policy recommendations in two areas: natural resource use and data management.
