Middle East and North Africa’s Proposed Solutions to Climate Change

According to Sir Charles Nicholson, BP’s Group Advisor on the Environment, “the world cannot ignore the impact of climate change and action should be taken now to address the issue. (ameinfo.com)”

Sir Charles cited the “increasing shift to using cleaner fuels such as natural gas, which in power generation produces 24 percent less carbon than oil and 41 percent less than coal” as the steps that BP is taking in the Middle East to reduce its burden on the environment.

In 1998 BP “set itself the target of reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels by the year 2010. In (actuality), BP met the target by the end of 2001, nine years ahead of plan, and produced remarkable savings.”

BP introduced the method of Internal Emissions Trading System, in essence, “each of the company's 120 business units was given a greenhouse gas emissions allowance. If it exceeded this limit the unit had to either buy additional allowance from another unit or seek lower cost ways of staying within target.” BP hoped that this would provide incentive to its participants to reduce their carbon footprint while still expanding their business.
BP is exploring the method of CO­² capture and storage. The largest project of this nature is Algeria with Sonatrach; (BP) is developing one of the world's largest CO² storage projects to store the CO² that will be separated from large quantities of natural gas produced by the companies for the European market.

In Yemen, the World Bank is “supporting the identification and implementation of coping strategies for adaptation to climate change for highland farmers who rely on rain-fed agriculture. These strategies include the conservation and utilization of biodiversity important to agriculture (particularly the local land races and their wild relatives) and associated local traditional knowledge. The hope is to “emphasize the conservation of agro biodiversity and developing a range of coping mechanisms using predictive climate modeling. (web.worldbank.org)