It’s official. That smoggy haze out the window isn’t sand; it’s exactly what you originally thought it was, smog.
A damning July report by the World Bank assessing ‘global development indicators’, has demonstrated that the UAE is very much failing in terms of its measurement for environmental pollution.
To be precise, it topped the charts, and not in a good way. The UAE, on average, has the most polluted air of any country in the world. For the empirically minded among you, this shouldn’t come as much of a shock. Pollution is pretty much a given for any city that is A) heavily dependent on automotive transport and B) a hub for international aviation and the complementary emissions that come with it.
In the magazine’s last word this month, Dr Richard Brown of MAN Truck & Bus, highlights the issue of emissions from the perspective of regulation, and contrasts the situation with countries where Euro V technology has been adopted.
Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, the UAE has also made the snap announcement that it will be deregulating fuel prices come August. Beyond the government’s obvious desire to reduce its generous subsidy for diesel and petrol — an indulgence that currently stands at the terrifyingly exorbitant figure of $3.5bn a year, this places a range of economic issues at stake.
However, before the conversation jumps the gun, it’s important to point out that the Ministry of energy’s “new pricing policy” is frustratingly opaque. The only key pledge is that prices will be “reviewed” in line with average interational fuel prices.
For perspective, a litre of petrol in the UAE sells for $0.47, while international prices range from roughly $0.7 in less economically developed nations to $1.6 or higher in economically developed nations.
So deregulation could mean more or less anything depending on the whims of the “fuel price committee”, which appears to be less independent third-party commitee, as the name might in other contexts suggest, and more industry lobby group. Two particular members — Abdullah Salem Al Daheri, CEO of Adnoc Distribution; and Saif Humaid Al Falasi, CEO of ENOC — might, arguably, have substantially more interest than most in presiding over a rise in fuel prices.
Obviously, the negative fallout of too rapid a rise for the transport and logisitics sector is difficult to fathom without any precise figures, but a side point worth considering is the fact that Saudi Arabia still has a petrol price of $0.15 — a third of the UAE figure — and other GCC prices remain simlarly deflated. This raises the dread spector of the UAE rendering itself less competitive in comparison to its immediate neighbours.
It is a difficult quandary between the UAE’s collective lung health and a business model that relies so heavily on cheap fuel.
Mystery aside, while elevating fuel prices might aid with the pollution situations by discouraging small businesses and consumers, it is correct of Dr Richard Brown to point out that legislation to improve engine technology would go further.
Meanwhile, the UAE’s perennial ‘frenemies’ across the water are cheerily pronouncing their plans to begin the commercial manufacture of hybrid and electric cars for Iran’s similarly smog-blighted cities within the next three years. It will be interesting to see whether the resurgence of the Middle East’s largest automotive manfucturing country provokes a response.
A quirk of the UAE’s hybrid-electric efforts is that, despite a profusion of charging stations, there has been little regulation of the sector, so for now, the future is as murky as the past.
Fuelling the future: Pollution and petrol pricing
Pollution, petrol pricing and Persian production — a plethora of painful Ps to ponder
It’s official. That smoggy haze out the window isn’t sand; it’s exactly what you originally thought it was, smog.
A damning July report by the World Bank assessing ‘global development indicators’, has demonstrated that the UAE is very much failing in terms of its measurement for environmental pollution.
To be precise, it topped the charts, and not in a good way. The UAE, on average, has the most polluted air of any country in the world. For the empirically minded among you, this shouldn’t come as much of a shock. Pollution is pretty much a given for any city that is A) heavily dependent on automotive transport and B) a hub for international aviation and the complementary emissions that come with it.
In the magazine’s last word this month, Dr Richard Brown of MAN Truck & Bus, highlights the issue of emissions from the perspective of regulation, and contrasts the situation with countries where Euro V technology has been adopted.
Perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not, the UAE has also made the snap announcement that it will be deregulating fuel prices come August. Beyond the government’s obvious desire to reduce its generous subsidy for diesel and petrol — an indulgence that currently stands at the terrifyingly exorbitant figure of $3.5bn a year, this places a range of economic issues at stake.
However, before the conversation jumps the gun, it’s important to point out that the Ministry of energy’s “new pricing policy” is frustratingly opaque. The only key pledge is that prices will be “reviewed” in line with average interational fuel prices.
For perspective, a litre of petrol in the UAE sells for $0.47, while international prices range from roughly $0.7 in less economically developed nations to $1.6 or higher in economically developed nations.
So deregulation could mean more or less anything depending on the whims of the “fuel price committee”, which appears to be less independent third-party commitee, as the name might in other contexts suggest, and more industry lobby group. Two particular members — Abdullah Salem Al Daheri, CEO of Adnoc Distribution; and Saif Humaid Al Falasi, CEO of ENOC — might, arguably, have substantially more interest than most in presiding over a rise in fuel prices.
Obviously, the negative fallout of too rapid a rise for the transport and logisitics sector is difficult to fathom without any precise figures, but a side point worth considering is the fact that Saudi Arabia still has a petrol price of $0.15 — a third of the UAE figure — and other GCC prices remain simlarly deflated. This raises the dread spector of the UAE rendering itself less competitive in comparison to its immediate neighbours.
It is a difficult quandary between the UAE’s collective lung health and a business model that relies so heavily on cheap fuel.
Mystery aside, while elevating fuel prices might aid with the pollution situations by discouraging small businesses and consumers, it is correct of Dr Richard Brown to point out that legislation to improve engine technology would go further.
Meanwhile, the UAE’s perennial ‘frenemies’ across the water are cheerily pronouncing their plans to begin the commercial manufacture of hybrid and electric cars for Iran’s similarly smog-blighted cities within the next three years. It will be interesting to see whether the resurgence of the Middle East’s largest automotive manfucturing country provokes a response.
A quirk of the UAE’s hybrid-electric efforts is that, despite a profusion of charging stations, there has been little regulation of the sector, so for now, the future is as murky as the past.
UAE: ENOC eyes expansion after fuel deregulation