Fatima Al Kadhim is an Emirati working in the safety, health and environment field at Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority. She has graduated from the American University of Sharjah with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences.
Abstract
Climate change impacts everyone across the globe either directly or indirectly. To tackle the issues posed by the changing climate, individuals, governments and private organizations need to take action. One step towards addressing this challenge is reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) Emissions. This report explains the steps undertaken by Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (SEWA) to measure reduce and offset emissions for the year 2018, in order to achieve Climate Neutral Now (CNN) status which is an initiative of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The financial control approach has been used to define organizational boundaries for the GHG inventory for the SEWA head office and SEWA Zulal water factory. The results of the calculations show that the total emissions were 4548 tons of carbon dioxide (tCO2). Head Office emissions were 2186 tCO2 while the Zulal factory was 2359 tCO2. The measures are undertaken to reduce energy consumption which in turn reduced GHG emissions include boiler retrofit, hybrid forklifts, efficient lighting, efficient printers, efficient HVAC systems, and temperature control. Finally, the number of units canceled was 4550 tCO2 and an equivalent amount of Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) was purchased from UNFCCC approved Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project no. 2698 to offset unavoidable emissions.