KUWAIT CITY, May 30, (KUNA): Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said on Sunday its board of directors had worked out a new strategy on the management of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming and climate change.
The KPC board of directors, led by Minister of Oil and Minister of Information Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah, took such a step during its meeting on Thursday, the KPC said in a release.
“The phenomena of global warming and climate change have become key environmental issues in our present age,” it said.
The strategy provides for a complete stocktaking of all carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions in Kuwait, and determines the involvement of various economic sectors, including oil, power, water desalination and transport ones, in the creation of such emissions.
The oil sector shares over 35 percent of overall emissions in Kuwait, the KPC said, citing recent relevant figures.
As per the strategy, the KPC is to play a leading role at the regional level in the management of gas emissions that cause global warming and climate change, according to the release.
At the national level, the KPC shall work with other state agencies involved, including the Environment Public Authority, Ministry of Electricity and Water and Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), for working out a holistic stocktaking of all emissions and for adopting diverse activities to reduce emissions, save energy and expand low-carbon fuel usage.
Framework
This can be notched up through international cooperation and utilization of technological and financial support provided by flexible mechanism within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, it indicated.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to an average of five percent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.
KPC’s fresh blueprint also envisages a long-term plan of action purposed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and several programs, projects and initiatives to use carbon dioxide from the oil sector’s operations in enhanced oil production as a first stage, it added.
Surveys have already been carried out in order to make sure if oil areas are suitable for the purpose, the KPC said.
However, it maintained, the oil sector is carrying out several activities, programs and projects within the framework of its commitment towards environmental protection and air pollution reduction.
Over the last 10 years, over KD one billion ($3.5 billion) has been spent on capital projects targeting environmental projects and fulfillment of environmental criteria.
The fresh strategy is part of the KPC’s ceaseless efforts to preserve and protect environment and to improve its performance in order to imitate pioneering world companies working in this field as well as to contribute to international efforts to curb climate change, it said.
Such efforts are an advanced stage for the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol and UNFCCC, the KPC concluded.