Doha, September 23 (QNA) - Climate change and decades of mismanagement of the environment have become major issues at the top of the international community's agenda as it confronts a challenge that threatens human life, the environment and economies. It is no less dangerous than wars and conflicts, and responsibility for combating it rests not only with governments but also with individuals and institutions through more efficient energy use, reducing pollution and protecting the environment.

Against this backdrop, Qatar's role in supporting international efforts to combat climate change stands out, including efforts to reduce air pollutants and carbon dioxide emissions and increase reliance on renewable energy sources, particularly solar power. Qatar has also supported small developing countries and helped them address climate change and environmental challenges.

Qatar was among the early countries to join the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1996, the Kyoto Protocol in 2005 and the Paris Agreement in 2016, ratifying the agreement in 2017. It also hosted the 18th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP18, in 2012.

In September 2019, HH the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani announced a $100 million contribution to support small developing countries in addressing climate change and the environmental challenges they face. In 2021, the Cabinet approved the National Climate Change Plan, and Qatar launched its National Environment and Climate Change Strategy, reflecting the country's long-term sustainability goals and the urgent need to respond effectively to the global climate crisis.

According to the United Nations, climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. It is one of the most pressing issues of the present era, as changing weather patterns threaten food production and rising sea levels increase the risk of flooding. While some climate fluctuations occur naturally, human activity also plays a major role in driving climate change.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in 1992, is the principal international framework for negotiating climate action. It subsequently gave rise to other agreements, including the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. Countries that are parties to the convention meet annually to assess progress and negotiate climate policies.

The global roadmap began with the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the first major international treaty aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Its effectiveness, however, remained limited. Eighteen years later, the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015 as a new and more significant UN climate accord, with near-universal participation. Its goal is to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius, while pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees.

The Paris Agreement includes national commitments from all countries, known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, which outline how countries will reduce emissions and cooperate in adapting to the effects of climate change. The agreement also calls on countries to strengthen their commitments over time.

Although developing countries have contributed the least to global emissions, they bear some of the greatest impacts of climate change. This has deepened divisions between developed and developing countries over climate issues and how to address their effects. Developing countries stress their urgent need for substantial financing to adapt to the adverse effects of climate change, many of which are already becoming evident, including worsening heat waves and droughts, more frequent floods and storms, and rising sea levels. They also need assistance to invest in low-carbon energy rather than developing their economies through the burning of coal and oil.

At the UN climate conference known as COP29 in 2024, countries agreed on a new climate-finance goal under which developed countries would provide at least $300 billion a year to developing countries by 2035, up from the previous $100 billion annual goal. The agreement also called for all actors to work together to scale up climate finance for developing countries from public and private sources to at least $1.3 trillion annually by 2035.

The conference also reached an agreement on carbon markets, helping countries implement their climate plans more quickly and make progress toward halving global emissions during this decade.

In November 2025, the UN climate conference known as COP30, held in Brazil, concluded with an agreement calling for a threefold increase in adaptation finance for developing countries by 2035 to help protect their populations from worsening climate impacts, as well as stronger support for workers and communities during the transition to clean energy.

Participating countries agreed on a package of decisions aimed at accelerating implementation of the Paris Agreement and increasing climate finance, but they did not reach a binding agreement to phase out fossil fuels. Instead, countries backed a voluntary initiative to accelerate national climate action.

The final document also called for efforts to triple adaptation finance by 2035 and committed the parties to urgently advancing measures to mobilize at least USD 1.3 trillion a year by 2035 from public and private sources.

Against the backdrop of Qatar's efforts to combat climate change and its active role in this area, Qatar maintains a longstanding strategic relationship with the United Nations and other multilateral agreements and regularly participates in negotiating conferences and related meetings under the UN umbrella.

Qatar's policies to reduce air pollutants and carbon dioxide emissions and increase reliance on renewable energy sources clearly demonstrate the importance it attaches to the issue. This includes the greater use of environmentally friendly technologies in water desalination, as well as the use of natural gas as a lower-emissions fuel. Qatar was also among the early countries to join the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, and hosted COP18 in 2012.

Qatar is also a member of the International Renewable Energy Agency, or IRENA, which supports countries in their transition toward a sustainable energy future, and a founding member of the Global Green Growth Institute, or GGGI, which helps developing countries pursue sustainable development strategies.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar featured 70 sustainability-related projects, including green-building practices certified under the Global Sustainability Assessment System, or GSAS, in the design, construction and operation of all World Cup stadiums. More than 80 percent of waste generated during the tournament was recycled, while the remaining waste was sent to a waste-to-energy facility.

Qatar's National Climate Action Plan 2030 serves as a key road map aimed at reducing emissions by 25 percent from a business-as-usual baseline through more than 300 mitigation measures and 350 adaptation measures covering vital sectors including water, health, infrastructure, the economy and food security. The country has also adopted an important strategy for transitioning toward new and renewable forms of energy, particularly solar power.

Among the most prominent projects is the Al Kharsaah Solar Power Plant west of Doha, with a capacity of 800 megawatts and a site covering about 10 square kilometers, equipped with more than 1.8 million solar panels.

Qatar is also continuing to develop a major project in the Dukhan area with a planned capacity of 2,000 megawatts, which is expected to become one of the world's largest solar power plants. The project is expected to enter service before the end of the current decade and will add to the solar plants at Al Kharsaah, Mesaieed and Ras Laffan, raising Qatar's total solar-generation capacity to about 4,000 megawatts by 2030.

Qatar's climate efforts also include a project to use compressed natural gas, or CNG, as a transportation fuel, aimed at developing CNG as an alternative fuel, particularly for public transportation applications in Qatar. Hamad International Airport has also become the first airport in the region to achieve Level 3 (Optimization) of the Airport Carbon Accreditation program, overseen by Airports Council International.

Other national efforts include the successful development of two sustainable smart cities, Lusail City and Msheireb Downtown Doha, through the application of global environmental standards to strengthen environmental stewardship and research. Qatar is also committed to producing innovative environmental research and has invested in internationally recognized institutions such as Qatar Science & Technology Park and the Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI). In recent years, it has also launched major green projects in public transportation and infrastructure.

Qatar's increasing reliance on renewable energy, its local and international initiatives to reduce air pollutants and carbon dioxide emissions, and its continued support for developing countries in addressing climate change reflect the importance it attaches to confronting the phenomenon and its consequences.

Yet, despite the significance of these efforts - and those of the international community as a whole - meeting this challenge and preserving a habitable planet ultimately depends on a true test: fulfilling the commitments made by major powers to assist developing nations in coping with the negative impacts of climate change, achieving a global consensus on the gradual reduction of all forms of fossil fuels and gas emissions, and adopting supportive policies and technological innovations in the renewable energy sector. (QNA)