Global Warming: One Of The World’s Richest Countries is Getting Too Hot To Live, Says Report
Dead birds on rooftops are already a common sight during brutal summer months, and stray cats are often reported to vets in serious condition due to dehydration. Even wild foxes are abandoning desert.
New Delhi: Global warming is a rising concern across the globe, and its effects are being seen. Even the world’s richest countries are struggling to mitigate the climate crisis.
Kuwait is one of the hottest countries on the planet, and it is becoming unlivable by the day, a Bloomberg report said. In 2016, the city had recorded the highest reading of 54 degrees Celsius on Earth in 76 years. Last year, the gulf country crossed the 50-degree mark in June, weeks before the actual peak weather.
Quoting the Environment Public Authority, the report said large parts of the country could become inhabitable in future as parts of Kuwait could get as much as 4.5 degrees hotter from 2071 to 2100, when compared with the historical average.
The increasing heat in Kuwait is having scary impacts on the wildlife, making it unlivable for them.
According to the report, dead birds on rooftops are already a common sight during brutal summer months as they are unable to find water and shelter, and stray cats are often reported to veterinarians in a serious condition due to exhaustion and dehydration.
Even wild foxes are abandoning the desert out of despair, as it doesn't bloom any more after rains.
"...most of them aren't making it through the seasons," Tamara Qabazard, a Kuwaiti zoo and wildlife veterinarian, was quoted as saying.
'Kuwait Lags In Its Climate Action'
Kuwait is OPEC’s number 4 oil-exporter, which makes it one of the richest countries in the world. And it has a population of just over 4.5 million. The Bloomberg report noted that it doesn't have the handicaps faced by many other countries that are struggling to cope with environmental challenges. The reason Kuwait is failing to cut greenhouse gases emissions is not resource crunch, but political inaction, the report said.
While neighbours and fellow oil-rich countries Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates said last year they are targeting net-zero emissions by 2060 and 2050, respectively, Kuwait has pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by just 7.4% by 2035.
This target falls way short of a 45% reduction target set by the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming by 1-degree Celcius by 2030.
"Compared with the rest of the Middle East, Kuwait lags in its climate action,” the report quoted Manal Shehabi, academic visitor at Oxford University who studies Gulf nations, was quoted as saying.
Fitch Ratings has revealed that the temperature changes in the 2040s and 2050s will have an increasingly negative impact on Kuwait’s creditworthiness.
Oil is abundant and cheap, and it is heavily burned to generate electricity and fuel the 2 million cars running on Kuwait roads, massively contributing to air pollution. The Bloomberg report said there has been little progress so far on plans to produce 15 per cent of Kuwait’s power from renewable sources by 2030.
“The political deadlock in Kuwait just sucks the oxygen out of the air…This is a very rich country, with a very small population, so it could be so much better,” Samia Alduaij, a Kuwaiti environmental consultant who works with the U.K.’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and UNDP, told the news agency.
According to the way things stand, Kuwait's plan is "nowhere near enough" to keep it livable, experts say.
The country would need to work on protection against rising sea levels, make cities greener, and focus on transport, which is a leading cause of carbon emissions, said Nadim Farajalla, director of the climate change and environment program at University of Beirut.
The Kuwait government, however, claimed its adaptation plan is "aligned with international policies".
"We clearly identify roles and responsibilities, and all the challenges in the country," Khaled Mahdi, secretary general of Kuwait's Supreme Council for Planning and Development, was quoted as saying. He, however, admitted that implementation is a "challenging issue".
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