UAE beats Americans’ environmental harm

By Jim Krane

updated 7:06 p.m. ET Jan. 15, 2007

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - When it comes to squandering the earth's natural resources, residents of this desert land of chilled swimming pools, monster 4x4s and air-conditioned malls are on a par with even the ravenous consumption of Americans, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

The average person in the Emirates puts more demand on the global ecosystem than any other, giving the country the world's largest per-capita "ecological footprint," WWF data shows. The United States runs second.

But the oil-rich Emirates is considered a developing country, and even as a signatory to the United Nations' Kyoto protocol on global warming, is not required to cut emissions. The United States is not bound by Kyoto.

Officials: Report is flawed, outdated
Even so, the Emirates government has been embarrassed by the WWF report, which it says is flawed. The federal environment agency is devising strategies to cut emissions, including a public campaign that may offer economic incentives to those who turn down their air conditioning, Saad al-Numairy, an adviser to agency, said Monday.

"We have an action plan," al-Numairy said. "But we are a multicultural country with 180 nationalities. It's not going to be easy."

Energy consumption in the Emirates runs high for many of the same reasons found in the United States: a feeling that the good life requires huge air-conditioned houses and cars, and a disdain for public transportation.

Making matters worse are Dubai's audacious developments, including artificial resort islands that have destroyed coral reefs and an indoor ski slope that still creates snow when it is 120 degrees outside.

"Of all the places to make artificial snow, this has to be the most absurd," said Jonathan Loh, a British biologist who co-authored the WWF report.

Nearby Kuwait, another scorching-hot Persian Gulf oil producer, ranked fifth in the WWF report that emerged in October. Finland was third and Canada fourth.

Environmental officials here say the Emirates ranking is based on outdated information, since the WWF report relies on 2003 data that estimates the country's population at 3 million when it is closer to 5 million.

"It's a fact of life that the UAE will always have a large ecological footprint because of where we are," said Habiba al-Marashi, who chairs the Emirates Environmental Group. "But to be classified as the worst, that hurts. We don't think the report is on solid ground."

Loh acknowledged that factoring in more accurate population figures might put UAE in second place just behind the United States, but "it's still going to show that the UAE is right on the top of the scale."

Full damage not tallied
The country's full damage is not tallied because the WWF study ignores aircraft emissions, Loh said. The UAE emirate of Dubai claims one of the world's busiest airports.

The WWF rankings are measured in "global hectares" — the area of biologically productive land and sea needed to provide the resources consumed by an average person. The Emirates' ecological footprint measured 11.9 global hectares per person, compared to 9.6 hectares per person for the United States and a global average of 2.2 hectares a person.

The country took the top spot because its energy consumption is high and emissions are spread among a small population, Loh said.

The country's landscape offers little help. Undulating sand dunes and jagged mountains of bare rock offer precious little greenery to soak up carbon emissions.

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