A sustainable development path for Qatar
Published in Sustainability Voices on August 22, 2022 https://sustainabilityvoices.co.uk/a-sustainable-development-path-for-qatar/ With less than six months to go until Qatar makes history by becoming the first Arab country to host the FIFA World Cup, the Gulf state is increasingly under the spotlight. Its efforts to deliver a World Cup that sets new benchmarks for social, economic, and environmental standards run the risk of being overshadowed by a cacophony of criticism that often relies on standards and frameworks that fail to accurately portray the progress being made. On sustainability, for example, widely quoted international metrics place Qatar among the world’s worst offenders. A commonly used ecological footprint measurement considers Qatar as having one of the largest “biocapacity deficits” in the world, meaning that it is using its renewable natural resources beyond their regenerative capacity. The country is also condemned for having the highest greenhouse gas emissions per...