Carbon baseline numbers in by year’s end

A bid to measure the amount of carbon emissions produced by Dubai’s biggest industrial, government and energy entities should have its first set of hard statistics collected by the end of the year, say officials. With hard numbers in hand, officials with the Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence (DCCE) can then monitor, review and verify CO2 statistics to create a carbon baseline inventory giving authorities an accurate snapshot of how much carbon is being released throughout the emirate. Preliminary targets have set carbon emission limits per year in Dubai at five million tonnes. “Today, we’re checking the baseline,” said Waleed Al Ahmad Salman, chairman of the DCCE, in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. “We need to know what Dubai is producing in each sector. Each entity will keep a record of their emissions and then we will build a strategy with a target.”Bodies such as the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), Dubal (Dubai Aluminium), and Enoc are working with the DCCE toward a “holistic approach” to Dubai’s carbon problem. Once identified, carbon emissions will be cut through a variety of programmes ranging from using new desalination pumps and waste heat recovery to newer technology in aluminium production.The UAE ranks within the top third countries globally for its footprint given that the country depends heavily on electricity to not only power homes and industry but also to power desalination plants to keep its desert cities quenched. To help reduce dependence on carbon-producing plants, leaders have rolled out the Dubai Integrated Energy Strategy 2030 to cut demand by 30 per cent, said Salman. “We’re trying to build a platform to meet 30 per cent in energy reduction by 2030,” he said. “We’re looking not to expand capacity but looking to make plants more efficient and clean.” Part of the strategy to slash greenhouse gases is working to educate the public consumer on alternative ways of reducing electricity in the home, he said. “We’re putting in a huge effort to reduce demand. If we can change this behaviour, we can reduce the amount of energy we use, Salman said. Several projects by DCCE now in the planning stages will target consumers such as an exchange programme that offers energy-saving Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) light bulbs that use 50 per cent less energy. Ivano Iannelli, CEO of DCCE, said once the greenhouse data is collected by year’s end, the DCCE will share the information with its entity partners to help them make decisions on how best to cut CO2 production. “We’re looking at sources of the raw data. We’re transferring knowledge to empower entities and government to work with us,” Iannelli told Gulf News. “We’re trying to add intelligence to these numbers.” The DCCE was officially launched January 18, 2011 under the Supreme Council of Energy.from gulfnews.com