The Ministry of Environment and Water is drawing up a green building code to reduce electricity and water usage, an audience of mayors and senior municipal officials heard yesterday. Dr Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, the Minister of Environment and Water, told the Global City 2009 conference in Abu Dhabi that a first draft of the document had already been completed, but he could not say when the final version would be ready.
The ministry needed to co-ordinate with Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which were developing their own building rules. Dr bin Fahad said a main objective of the new code would be to reduce the usage of electricity and water in buildings. "As part of the Federal Government we are setting the policies," said Dr bin Fahad, explaining that how it was implemented would be up to each individual emirate. Dubai is preparing its own green building code, which in its current version contains about 70 new regulations and aims to achieve reductions in electricity and water use of at least 20 and 15 per cent respectively.
It is not known when it will be complete, although it was supposed to have been out by the end of last year. However, a Dubai Municipality official said last week that the people behind the project were "working day and night to finish it". The Abu Dhabi Government is working on its own version - the Estidama Sustainability Guidelines. Developed by the Urban Planning Council, this will be a performance-rating system and will initially be voluntary for developers. Final details are expected to be unveiled later this year.
The conference session attended by Dr bin Fahad heard how cities around the world are tackling their greenhouse gas emissions. Sao Paulo, Brazil, is about to set a reduction target of 30 per cent by 2012; San Francisco, California, has a target of a 20 per cent cut on 1990 levels by 2012, and has already achieved six per cent. The commitment of cities followed similar pledges by countries. The Kyoto Protocol sets binding targets for 37 industrialised countries. The rest of the signatories, more than 140 governments - among them the UAE - are obliged only to report their emissions. The protocol expires in 2012 and a successor is expected to be hammered out in Copenhagen this year.
Dr bin Fahad said there were no plans for the UAE to commit itself to a target. Initiatives such as new building regulations, an upgrade of public transport networks and reliance on renewable and nuclear power were enough to address its climate change impact. "We believe the UAE is not a big polluter. We do not believe there is a necessity for the UAE to set such levels." While the UAE's climate change impact is relatively small - its release of greenhouse gases in 1994 contributed 0.5 per cent of global emissions at that time - it has among the highest emission rates per capita in the world.
vtodorova@thenational.ae
