![]() Masdar is now also the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), an intergovernmental agency aiming to be the main driver to promote renewable energy deployment on a global scale. This initiative attracted renewable energy researchers and developers from across the globe. The United Arab Emirates is becoming one of the leaders in the development of renewable energies, establishing the Masdar Initiative 3 which aims at developing the first carbon-neutral, zero-waste city. Some oil-exporting Arab countries are starting to see this opportunity. At the same time, this will help them diversify their economy, and prolong the life of their oil, which will become even more valuable in the future. If the newly industrialized oil-exporting Arab countries invest their healthy revenues from oil trade into solar technology, they will not only help save life on the planet from climate change, but also ensure that their economies will benefits from exporting clean solar energy. Renewable energy brings a unique opportunity to the Arab region. The first to invest in developing CSP technology will benefit from selling the technology or the energy generated by it in the future, similar to what wind energy technology did for some European countries. The Arab region could therefore continue to play a key role in the energy sector in the future, and the strength of this role will be determined by the decisions it takes now. Although these initiatives are mainly aimed at providing solar energy to Europe, they can easily be expanded, and a super-smart electrical grid created to transport solar energy to African and West Asian countries. In July 2009, twelve major European companies signed a memorandum of understanding 2 in Munich to start the DESERTEC Initiative. In the future, solar power plants like these will be constructed all over the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, and several pilot projects have already started. The DESERTEC concept focuses mainly on one technology, concentrated solar thermal power (CSP), which uses huge mirrors to concentrate sunlight on one spot to create heat, which in turn produces steam to drive a turbine that generates electricity. This concept is not new, and there have already been reports and studies on how to make this happen, including foundations such as the DESERTEC Industrial Initiative, which aims to analyze and develop the "technical, economic, political, social and ecological framework for carbon-free power generation in the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East". If only around one per cent of Arabian deserts are used to produce solar energy, it can supply Europe, Africa and most of Asia with clean solar energy. The question for the region should be, "What is our role in the campaign for a low-carbon economy?"Īlthough the region is the main supplier of the world's oil, it still has one of the richest areas to generate renewable energy. Therefore, the overall transformation of our societies to a low-carbon economy needs to happen. Lebanon is currently battling with increased forest fires that are devastating its forests. Sea level rise will also threaten many low-lying countries and agricultural areas in the region, such as Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the Nile basin. Even the Arab region will suffer, especially with agriculture and water resources. ![]() The cost of climate change is too high to accept. This rapid transformation has of course raised tremendous concern in the oil-rich countries of the Arab region, whose economies are mainly dependent on oil trade. Small Island Developing States that are under the threat of rising sea levels are calling for a peak in emissions by the end of 2010, and to stabilize greenhouse gas concentration at 350 parts per million (ppm) CO 2 equivalent as fast as possible. ![]() When United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced that he will convene an unprecedented Climate Change Summit at UN Headquarters on 22 September 2009, he said that we have less than ten years to halt the rise in greenhouse gas emissions if we are to avoid catastrophic consequences for people and the planet. According to the "2009 World Economic and Social Survey: Promoting Development, Saving the Planet", 1 we need to transform our economy similar to a wartime setting. With the lead up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Governments are realizing the imminent threat of climate change, and that there is no choice but to act fast. When it comes to the subject of energy in the Middle East, we instinctively think of oil - the black gold that has been the source of stable and healthy economies in the region.
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