Climate Change Could Affect Dubai Coast Radically

(Gulf News Report)
By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter- Published: October 25, 2008, 23:33
Dubai: Reinforcement measures around Dubai's coastline should be taken to avoid any damage from rising sea levels caused by climate change.
Regionally, Kuwait and the Nile Delta would be severely affected by sea levels rising by just one metre, said Raymond S. Bradley, director of the Climate System Research Centre and distinguished professor at the University of Massachusetts.
"You have to ask how will development be affected by sea-levels rising one to two metres here. The Deira side of Dubai's coastline is particularly low and lying close to sea level. So serious infrastructure needs to be thought out along the coast," he said.
Sustainability
Speaking on Saturday at the Green Dubai World Forum, held to commemorate the anniversary of the historic declaration on Green Dubai 2008, made on October 24 last year by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, Bradley pointed out how sustainable agriculture had been left out of the sustainability discussions going on in the UAE.
"The build-up of greenhouse gases can be seen everywhere," he said. The same pattern of tremendous rises in carbon dioxide can be seen in the Arctic poles or the middle of the Pacific Ocean, he added. Seasonal trends of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere can be tracked due to green plants absorbing carbon dioxide at different times of the year, said Bradley.
Developments
A minimum percentage of green areas including beaches and parks are being integrated in the design stage by Nakheel on their developments, said Chris O'Donnell, chief executive officer of Nakheel. However, no standards to include a minimum amount of solar panels or renewable energy technologies currently exist, O'Donnell told Gulf News.
"You need to be careful about having mandatory levels, or approaches to sustainability," he said, adding that some water efficiency technologies were being used while solar panels were built into shoreline apartments on The Palm Jumeirah.
Study: Warming gains pace
According to recent scientific research released by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), global warming is accelerating at a faster rate than climate change experts had previously predicted.
Latest studies shows the Arctic Ocean is losing sea ice up to 30 years ahead of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predictions. It is now predicted that the summer sea ice could completely disappear between 2013 and 2040 - something that hasn't occurred in more than a million years.
WWF's new report, 'Climate change: faster, stronger, sooner' combines new scientific data shows global warming is accelerating beyond IPCC's forecasts.
The number and intensity of extreme cyclones over the British Isles and the North Sea are projected to increase. Sea levels are expected to rise more than double the IPCC's maximum estimate of 0.59 metre by the end of the century.