Unsustainability

Earlier this semester, Dr. Mari Luomi, one of the 2011-2012 CIRS Post Doctoral Fellows, gave the inaugural CIRS Monthly Dialogue Lecture of the semester, titled “Natural Resources and Environmental Unsustainability in Qatar and the GCC.”

Luomi started off by noting that her research was directed towards proposing a new framework in which to place the relationship between sustainability, political economy and development in the GCC. Her definition of the term sustainability is “the use of natural resources in a way that allows for welfare for humans and the environment, presently and in the future.”

Her main argument was that the “Gulf monarchies’ dependence on fossil fuels, on fossil fuel revenues, and on social contracts based on these revenues produces unsustainability.” Undoubtedly, there is significant pressure on the region to diversify its economy while also creating an economic, social and environmental sustainable culture. However, the very culture of the GCC itself and the fact that the political set up is in fact a rentier one, is an integral factor that leads to long-term unsustainability.

Dr. Luomi notes that “if we step back and look at the broader challenges that the GCC states are currently facing to the ‘business-as-usual’ ways of conducting their development” it would be counter-productive to continue with the current model. “We must not forget,” Luomi said, “that we are living in a harsh but, at the same time, very fragile environment.” She also sheds light on the fact that “the GCC produces 2.5% of global carbon emissions,” a great indicator of unsustainability.  In Qatar, “we are looking at a society and economy that has the highest per capita emissions in the world,” Luomi said. However, she praises the Qatari government’s efforts in solving this problem by regarding “environmental development” as one of the main pillars of their 2030 plan.

To sum up her lecture, Luomi highlights the simultaneous privileges and responsibilities we as the citizens and residents of Qatar have. There is “illusion of plenty” that is not in accordance with a sustainable future. “Here,” she said, “economically, we have the possibility to continue consuming business-as-usual, but the moral question is, if we can, should we?”

Dr Mari Luomi is a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the CIRS for the academic year 2011-2012. She holds a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from Durham University, UK. She has previously worked in various positions for the Middle East Project and the Programme in the International Politics of Natural Resources and the Environment of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.

Written by Donia