It was very hot in Zahra, Kuwait Kuwait Last summer that birds were dead from the sky.
The sea horses died by boiling in the bay. Dead clams coated the rocks, with their shells cracked open as if they were steamed.
Kuwait reached a hot temperature of 53.2 °C (127.7 °F), making it one of the hottest places on Earth.
The extremes of climate change are posing a threat to existence all over the world. But the record-breaking heat waves that ravage Kuwait every season have become so severe that people are starting to find it unbearable.
By the turn of the century, scientists say living outside in Kuwait City could be life-threatening, not just for the birds. A recent study has linked climate change to 67 per cent of the heat-related deaths in the capital.
And yet, Kuwait is one of the world’s top oil producers and exporters, and a significant polluter per capita. Caught in political paralysis, it remained silent as the region’s petrostates joined a group of nations setting targets to eliminate emissions at home – though not curb oil exports – in Glasgow last fall. Before the Nations Climate Summit.
Instead, Kuwait’s prime minister made a year-old promise to cut emissions by 7.4% by 2035.
“We are in grave danger,” said environmental consultant Samia Alduez. The reaction is so sneaky it doesn’t make any sense.
To burnish its climate credentials and diversify its economies, Saudi Arabia pitches future car-free cities and Dubai plans to ban plastics and increase the emirate’s green parks.
While the relatively small populations of oil-rich Gulf Arab states mean their pledge to cut emissions is modest in the grand scheme of limiting global warming, they have symbolic significance.
Yet the government’s gear in Kuwait, a population of 4.3 million, seems to be stuck as ever – partly because of populist pressure in parliament, and partly because the same authorities that control Kuwait’s emissions have to spend almost all their time. Revenue comes from pumping oil.
“Government has money, information and manpower to make a difference,” said the MP Hamad al-MatariDirector of the Parliamentary Environment Committee. “It doesn’t care about environmental issues.”
According to the World Resources Institute, the country continues to burn oil for electricity and ranks among the top global carbon emitters per capita. As the asphalt melts on the highways, Kuwaitis bundle up in malls for bone-chilling air-conditioning. Renewables account for less than 1% of energy demand – far less than Kuwait’s target of 15% by 2030.
An hour’s drive outside the messy suburbs of Jahra, wind turbines and solar panels rise from clouds of sand – the fruit of Kuwait’s energy transition ambitions.
But nearly a decade after the government installed a solar field in the Western Desert, its empty parts shine like its silicon and metal.
Engineers said, at first, Shagaya Energy Park exceeded expectations. The first plant in the Persian Gulf to combine three different renewable energies – solar, wind and solar thermal – put Kuwait at the fore. The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research reported that the wind farm performed better, generating 20% more electricity than estimated in the first year.
But the optimism and momentum soon vanished. The government relinquished control of the project to attract private funding, an unprecedented move that raised a tangle of legal questions about how developers would sell electricity to the country’s sole electricity provider.
Rather than proceed with the successful hybrid energy model, investors devoted the rest of the park to the production of solar thermal power, the most expensive type. Years of delay and canceled tenders started. The fate of the project remains uncertain.
“People in charge took wrong decisions,” said Waleed Al-Nasari, Member of the Supreme Council of Kuwait for Environment and Planning and Development. “There was no one who took action or wanted to understand. Everyone says, ‘Let’s do what we have been doing for the last 70 years’.
Controversies have also affected the natural gas industry. While natural gas causes massive emissions of climate-warming gases, it burns more cleanly than coal and oil and could play a bigger role in a low-carbon future for Kuwait.
Kuwait’s 63 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, 1% of the world’s total, are largely untapped. The area shared with Saudi Arabia, known as the Neutral Zone, has been closed for years as the countries dispute over land use.
The elected parliament, which sees itself as the savior of Kuwait’s natural resources against foreign companies and corrupt businessmen, often hinders gas exploration. Lawmakers have long sought to challenge the government’s right to award lucrative energy contracts, summon oil ministers on suspicion of mismanagement and halt major projects.
The legislature likewise holds the mantra of preserving Kuwait’s grand welfare state, recognizing that the government lacks accountability. Kuwait has one of the cheapest electricity rates and petrol prices in the world.
When ministers suggest the government stop spending so much on subsidies, lawmakers fought – literally. The debate in the room can turn into a scuffle.
“This is one of the biggest challenges. It is seen as an inherent right for every Kuwaiti citizen,” said the urban development expert Sharifa Alshalfan,
He said Kuwaitis live idle, with home air-conditioners running for months off, with great subsidies even for the wealthiest.
“We don’t have a measure that cities around the world have taken to encourage individuals to change their behavior,” she said.
The stagnation has plunged the country into a historic financial crisis. Kuwait’s budget deficit exceeded $35.5 billion last year due to the fall in oil prices.
While Saudi Arabia and the UAE compete for shares of the rapidly growing renewable energy market, Kuwaiti environmentalists are playing the role of the city’s driver.
“Akshay makes so much financial sense,” said Ahmed Taher, an energy consultant promoting a new economic model that cuts Kuwait’s electricity subsidies by inviting homeowners to buy shares in a solar project. “The (government) needs to know how much more money Kuwait can save and how many more jobs it can have.”
But for now Kuwait keeps burning oil.
Layers of dense pollution are laid on the roads. The sewage goes into the steaming bay. The fish carcasses that wash up the shore emit a foul stench, which activists describe as a pungent expression of the country’s politics.
“When you walk along the bay, you sometimes want to vomit,” said the Kuwaiti environmental advocate. Bashar Al Hunediq, “The abusers are winning, and I get frustrated every day.”
The sea horses died by boiling in the bay. Dead clams coated the rocks, with their shells cracked open as if they were steamed.
Kuwait reached a hot temperature of 53.2 °C (127.7 °F), making it one of the hottest places on Earth.
The extremes of climate change are posing a threat to existence all over the world. But the record-breaking heat waves that ravage Kuwait every season have become so severe that people are starting to find it unbearable.
By the turn of the century, scientists say living outside in Kuwait City could be life-threatening, not just for the birds. A recent study has linked climate change to 67 per cent of the heat-related deaths in the capital.
And yet, Kuwait is one of the world’s top oil producers and exporters, and a significant polluter per capita. Caught in political paralysis, it remained silent as the region’s petrostates joined a group of nations setting targets to eliminate emissions at home – though not curb oil exports – in Glasgow last fall. Before the Nations Climate Summit.
Instead, Kuwait’s prime minister made a year-old promise to cut emissions by 7.4% by 2035.
“We are in grave danger,” said environmental consultant Samia Alduez. The reaction is so sneaky it doesn’t make any sense.
To burnish its climate credentials and diversify its economies, Saudi Arabia pitches future car-free cities and Dubai plans to ban plastics and increase the emirate’s green parks.
While the relatively small populations of oil-rich Gulf Arab states mean their pledge to cut emissions is modest in the grand scheme of limiting global warming, they have symbolic significance.
Yet the government’s gear in Kuwait, a population of 4.3 million, seems to be stuck as ever – partly because of populist pressure in parliament, and partly because the same authorities that control Kuwait’s emissions have to spend almost all their time. Revenue comes from pumping oil.
“Government has money, information and manpower to make a difference,” said the MP Hamad al-MatariDirector of the Parliamentary Environment Committee. “It doesn’t care about environmental issues.”
According to the World Resources Institute, the country continues to burn oil for electricity and ranks among the top global carbon emitters per capita. As the asphalt melts on the highways, Kuwaitis bundle up in malls for bone-chilling air-conditioning. Renewables account for less than 1% of energy demand – far less than Kuwait’s target of 15% by 2030.
An hour’s drive outside the messy suburbs of Jahra, wind turbines and solar panels rise from clouds of sand – the fruit of Kuwait’s energy transition ambitions.
But nearly a decade after the government installed a solar field in the Western Desert, its empty parts shine like its silicon and metal.
Engineers said, at first, Shagaya Energy Park exceeded expectations. The first plant in the Persian Gulf to combine three different renewable energies – solar, wind and solar thermal – put Kuwait at the fore. The Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research reported that the wind farm performed better, generating 20% more electricity than estimated in the first year.
But the optimism and momentum soon vanished. The government relinquished control of the project to attract private funding, an unprecedented move that raised a tangle of legal questions about how developers would sell electricity to the country’s sole electricity provider.
Rather than proceed with the successful hybrid energy model, investors devoted the rest of the park to the production of solar thermal power, the most expensive type. Years of delay and canceled tenders started. The fate of the project remains uncertain.
“People in charge took wrong decisions,” said Waleed Al-Nasari, Member of the Supreme Council of Kuwait for Environment and Planning and Development. “There was no one who took action or wanted to understand. Everyone says, ‘Let’s do what we have been doing for the last 70 years’.
Controversies have also affected the natural gas industry. While natural gas causes massive emissions of climate-warming gases, it burns more cleanly than coal and oil and could play a bigger role in a low-carbon future for Kuwait.
Kuwait’s 63 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, 1% of the world’s total, are largely untapped. The area shared with Saudi Arabia, known as the Neutral Zone, has been closed for years as the countries dispute over land use.
The elected parliament, which sees itself as the savior of Kuwait’s natural resources against foreign companies and corrupt businessmen, often hinders gas exploration. Lawmakers have long sought to challenge the government’s right to award lucrative energy contracts, summon oil ministers on suspicion of mismanagement and halt major projects.
The legislature likewise holds the mantra of preserving Kuwait’s grand welfare state, recognizing that the government lacks accountability. Kuwait has one of the cheapest electricity rates and petrol prices in the world.
When ministers suggest the government stop spending so much on subsidies, lawmakers fought – literally. The debate in the room can turn into a scuffle.
“This is one of the biggest challenges. It is seen as an inherent right for every Kuwaiti citizen,” said the urban development expert Sharifa Alshalfan,
He said Kuwaitis live idle, with home air-conditioners running for months off, with great subsidies even for the wealthiest.
“We don’t have a measure that cities around the world have taken to encourage individuals to change their behavior,” she said.
The stagnation has plunged the country into a historic financial crisis. Kuwait’s budget deficit exceeded $35.5 billion last year due to the fall in oil prices.
While Saudi Arabia and the UAE compete for shares of the rapidly growing renewable energy market, Kuwaiti environmentalists are playing the role of the city’s driver.
“Akshay makes so much financial sense,” said Ahmed Taher, an energy consultant promoting a new economic model that cuts Kuwait’s electricity subsidies by inviting homeowners to buy shares in a solar project. “The (government) needs to know how much more money Kuwait can save and how many more jobs it can have.”
But for now Kuwait keeps burning oil.
Layers of dense pollution are laid on the roads. The sewage goes into the steaming bay. The fish carcasses that wash up the shore emit a foul stench, which activists describe as a pungent expression of the country’s politics.
“When you walk along the bay, you sometimes want to vomit,” said the Kuwaiti environmental advocate. Bashar Al Hunediq, “The abusers are winning, and I get frustrated every day.”