Gulf cities such as Dubai are known for their scorching summers, but experts warn climate change could soon make parts of the fossil fuel-rich region unlivable for humans.
Daily temperatures in the coastal metropolis regularly top 40°C for several months of the year and are exacerbated by high humidity.
“I work from 9am until 4pm in this heat,” Pakistani scooter driver Sameer said, sweat dripping from his forehead.
Photo: AFP
“Sometimes, the company or people give us water to drink, and we get a break every three hours,” added Sameer, who works for a mobile delivery app and declined to provide his surname.
A new report this month by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) showed unequivocally that the climate is changing faster than previously feared, and because of human activity.
Even now, Dubai residents often leave for cooler climates during the hottest months, while many who stay spend their time scurrying between air-conditioned locations — or rely on delivery drivers for a panoply of services.
The United Arab Emirates is also one of the world’s most arid nations and for the past several years it has used aircraft for cloud seeding to artificially produce rain.
One expert has warned of the risks for the region as climate change progresses.
“In general, the level of heat stress will increase significantly,” said Elfatih Eltahir, a professor of hydrology and climate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
With higher temperatures and humidity toward the end of this century, some parts of the Gulf would experience periods of “heat stress conditions that will be incompatible with human survival,” he said.
“That will not happen all the time, they will be episodes that would happen once or twice every seven years,” he added.
The combination of heat and relative humidity has the potential to be deadly if the human body is unable to cool off through sweating.
Scientists have calculated that a healthy human adult in the shade with unlimited drinking water would die if so-called “wet-bulb” temperatures exceed 35°C for six hours.
It was long assumed this theoretical threshold would never be crossed, but US researchers reported last year on two locations — one in the United Arab Emirates, another in Pakistan — where the 35°C “wet-bulb” barrier was breached more than once, if only fleetingly.
Calls to reduce carbon emissions pose major economic challenges for oil-rich Gulf nations, from Saudi Arabia to Oman and Qatar.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the IPCC report “must sound a death knell” for coal, oil and gas, and that fossil fuels are destroying the planet, and some Gulf states have taken up greener rhetoric as they try to improve their environmental credentials and diversify their economies away from oil.
Tanzeed Alam, managing director of Dubai-based Earth Matters Consulting, said there was increasing interest in the environment and the impact of climate change in the United Arab Emirates.
“But we are yet to see the large, family-owned businesses really taking this issue to the core of their business models,” Alam said. “Businesses don’t often understand how they can cope with increased heat waves, storms, flooding and other physical impacts.”
He expressed hope that the UN report would act as a “wake-up call.”
The United Arab Emirates aims to increase its reliance on clean energy to 50 percent by 2050 and reduce its carbon footprint for power generation by 70 percent.
Abu Dhabi, one of seven emirates, is building the world’s largest single-site solar plant.
Once fully operational, the Al Dhafra solar project would have the capacity to power about 160,000 households, according to the WAM state news agency.
It is scheduled to commence operations next year.
In Bahrain, where average summer temperatures range between 35°C and 40°C, Mohammed Abdelaal’s company Silent Power uses solar technology to cool water tanks.
He said demand had increased in several Gulf nations this summer, adding that the region’s ample supply of sunlight facilitates the production of “clean, sustainable, low-cost energy.”
Bahrain is aiming for 10 percent renewable energy by 2035, according to state media, while neighboring Saudi Arabia — with ambitious plans to diversify its oil-reliant economy — in March unveiled a campaign to generate half of its energy from renewables by 2030.
In Kuwait, Khaled Jamal al-Falih expressed concern at what runaway climate change could mean for his nation.
“In Kuwait today, a person who needs to run an errand can’t do so until after six o’clock in the evening, and leaving the house means being in an air-conditioned car to go to an air-conditioned place,” he said.
Almost entirely dependent on fossil fuels, the nation has a 15 percent renewable energy target by 2030, according to state media.
Al-Falih said that his house runs solely on solar power, and urged the government to make “clear decisions” to combat climate change.
The idea of being able to escape the reality of global warming has “become impossible,” he said.
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