BAHRAIN must start charging higher prices for petrol and utilities such as electricity and water if the country is to improve its efforts to cut carbon emissions, according to experts who attended a high-profile environmental event.
British Ambassador Jamie Bowden headed an impressive line-up of speakers at the event organised by the Bahrain Businessmen's Association, which sought to explore ways in which local business could take steps to tackle climate change.
The dangers of the global phenomenon were presented in stark terms to an audience of industry leaders at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel and Spa, with hard-hitting clips from former US vice-president Al Gore's Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth showing Manhattan disappearing under rising seas and testimony from London-based experts via video-link.
Chief among the things Bahrain should do to cut its own carbon emissions is increase the price paid by the average resident for energy, two experts at the event agreed.
Hidd Power Company executive managing director David Hadfield was one of those in favour of changes to the way in which Bahrainis pay for their power.
"As an individual living in Bahrain there are some things we need to take very seriously," he said.
"When I moved here I moved into an apartment where you didn't pay for electricity, air-conditioning or water - it was all included.
"For the people in the room here involved in the property market: that business model leads to waste.
"We need to really concentrate on how we consume energy, how we consume water and how we run our air-conditioners.
The cost of petrol should also be placed under the microscope, he added.
"The economics of consumption are distorted through the gas prices and the petrol prices in the market today," he said.
"I think it is going to take a lot of pressure in the kingdom to look at these issues seriously and decide how we are going to move these in the right direction and keep the kind of social balances which are very important to the community here.
His remarks echoed those of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Middle East energy adviser Rob Sherwin.
"A challenge in oil producing and exporting countries is that there tend to be sufficiently subsidised fuel prices, but there aren't many incentives for people - individuals or companies - to use energy in a more efficient way," he said.
"The more the prices that people pay can reflect the prices on the market, the more likely that people will use energy sensibly."
Mr Bowden confirmed to the GDN that he expected an announcement in the near future about a high-profile Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the UK and Bahrain on environmental co-operation, and opened the event by underlining the global challenges of climate change.
"The argument of the fundamental importance of climate change and the impact it can have has been well made and generally, but not always, it has won out around the world," he said.
"It can have such a sweeping effect on every aspect of our lives.
"On the environment in which we live, on our jobs, on our safety, on our security and even on our lives.
"In the case of Bahrain, I am not aware and I don't know if anyone has assessed yet the implications of a significant rise in sea level.
"I am sure as a generally low-lying small island it would be significant.
"So the challenge is huge and the solution has to be a partnership - a partnership of government, of citizens, of science and of business - and it is that aspect we are looking at: the business and economic dimensions of climate change."
Joining the debate via video link from London was a member of the team who authored last year's high-profile Stern Report - a study commissioned by the UK government into the economic effects of climate change.
An economist in the UK government's Environment Department, Hannah Wanjie, laid out the very real risks of failing to reduce carbon emissions.
"The impacts of climate change are expected to deepen and become more difficult as temperature increases relative to pre-industrial levels and the risks intensify as those temperatures rise," she said.
"If we continue on the path we are on at the moment - which is a path of increasing global greenhouse gas emissions - we run very, very high risks including a potential average temperature rise of five degrees celsius.
"That could transform the world's physical geography.
"Those effects are also inequitable - the studies show that poorer countries will be hit hardest and earliest."
She told the gathered business leaders in Bahrain that at present, carbon levels are currently at 430 parts per million (ppm) and rising at a rate of two ppm a year.
Critical levels of 450ppm and 550ppm are not far away as emissions show little sign of slowing, she added.
"Reducing emissions will cost - but that depends on when we start cutting emissions, how we do it and how much technology costs change over time," she said.
"If we try to stabilise emissions at 550ppm that will cost the countries of the world one per cent of GDP - compare that with the 5pc or 10pc cost of GDP if we do nothing about climate change.
"It tells us that there is a case for action on climate change.
"It tells us that the costs of inaction are far greater than the costs of action."
Ms Wanjie revealed the Stern Report's authors had conceived a "three-legged" plan to fight the rise of carbon emissions.
She named the three main targets as: a global price for carbon using different mechanisms such as emissions trading, taxation and regulation; the introduction of new technologies to reduce costs in the long-term; and a common understanding of the scale of the problem which moves beyond "sticks and carrots" and persuades people to take action.
Mr Sherwin also made the case to the Bahraini businessmen that it was good business sense to play an active part in new developments and revealed that in the US, there are now more people employed in the renewable energy industry than there are in the coal industry.
"Ten or 15 years ago it was very common for energy use in a company to be something devolved to a relatively low level of the organisation and something that senior management didn't pay much attention to," he said.
"Of course, with energy costs rising globally and the focus on climate change this is an area where senior management focus can really make a difference.
"In 2005/2006 worldwide investment in renewable energy was $38 billion (BD14.06bn) - this is a real business and growing and I expect there are companies represented here tonight that are making already significant investment and real money from this business."
The business opportunities for those firms that go the extra mile to be environmentally sound were also underlined by Bahrain-based American environmentalist Eva Khattab, who has been holding screenings of An Inconvenient Truth around the country.
"That movie changed my life and made me reconsider the decisions I make on a day-to-day basis," she said. "Why should you, Bahrain's businessmen, care about what I am doing?
"Because I represent the female consumer.
"I don't know the numbers for the rest of the world, but I do know that American women represent the third largest group of purchasers in the world.
"Our purchasing power exceeds the Japanese economy and in the US we make 85pc of all household purchasing decisions and influence another 10pc of the decisions - and I have to imagine it is similar in other industrialised nations.
"Me and many people like me believe that we can each make a difference in terms of carbon emissions and we are educating women specifically about the environment.
"Our discussion is going beyond recycling grocery bags and plastic bottles - we are teaching women to vote with their dollars and their dinars.
"We are teaching them about which household goods, food, and clothing support a healthier environment and to reduce their carbon emissions by changing their cars and reducing their air travel."
Bahrain Businessmen's Association chairman Khalid Almoayed stressed that the local business community was ready to accept its responsibilities and praised the anticipated MoU between the UK and Bahrain.
"Friends of ecology are always concerned that there is not enough ecological regulatory policy in place in Bahrain and we would like to highlight the priorities towards establishing this goal," he said.
"We would like to emphasise that environmental measures do not impede progress - people have doubts about choosing the environmental route and fear it might cause problems for their business achievement.
"I think that our parliament and our government must take the issue of the environment and the economy more seriously."
