United Arab Emirates

LOCATED IN THEPersian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E., formerly the Trucial States) has a land area of 32,278 sq. mi. (83,600 sq. km.), with a population of 4,380,000 (2006 est.) and a population [Page 997]density of 139 people per sq. mi. (64 people per sq. km.). Its economy is heavily dependent on petroleum and natural gas, with the country enjoying a very high standard of living. With little natural freshwater and regular sand and dust storms, the U.A.E. has little arable land, with most of the food in the country being imported.

With a dry desert climate and great wealth, widespread use of private automobiles and air conditioning has resulted in heavy use of electricity, all of which comes from fossil fuels. This has resulted in the country having the third highest rate of per capita carbon dioxide emissions in the world—29.3 metric tons in 1990, falling to 16.9 metric tons in 1996, and then rising steadily to 37.8 metric tons per person by 2004. Some 67 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions have come from gaseous fuels, with 27 percent from liquid fuels, and 3 percent from gas flaring. In terms of the sector generating the carbon dioxide emissions, 43 percent comes from electricity production, 45 percent from manufacturing and construction, and 8 percent from transportation.

An effect of global warming and climate change in the U.A.E. has been the raising of the average temperature in the country, making the establishment of arable land even harder. It has also forced the country to invest heavily in desalination plants to provide the country with enough freshwater. There has been large-scale use of water to transform Dubai, and some environmentalists have been critical of the use of water for the maintenance of gardens and golf courses in the country. The rise in the temperature of the water in the Persian Gulf has also led to the bleaching of coral reefs and further depletion offish stock.

The U.A.E. government took part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992. The government accepted the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on January 26, 2005, with it entering into force on April 26, 2005.