COP18 (04/12/12) – Mohamed Jaidah, Chief Development Officer, Jaidah Group describes Qatar today as the EU when it was going through the industrial revolution.

He says that everything is moving but whereas in the Industrial Revolution there was a lot of waste, in Qatar today they are trying to be aware and more efficient and to reduce their waste.

He explains the impacts that could be felt in Qatar from climate change, with a hot, humid and dusty climate, but he says that there are also opportunities for solar energy because of this. He stresses that he does not look at the glass half empty but the glass half full and then build on that.

He talks about his organisation’s new building which has the highest standards for construction. He says Qatar is lucky that it is a country under construction and that they are able to use the newest technologies to monitor and reduce energy and waste.

He says that in Qatar oil and gas are very cheap and that consumption of energy is not taxed. He says that the government can not incentivise people to bring their consumption down by bringing down taxes, like in other countries. Alternatively he says the country is leading an education programme and stresses that you must educate people before demanding behaviour change.