The Arabia CSR Workshop 2010 held its first workshop of the year on the 18th of February at the Center of Excellence, DIFC. With the central question of the day being whether Carbon Emissions Offsetting and Trading is a failure or represents the future, both advocates and sceptics were heard.
Mr. Nick Main, Deloitte, provided an overview of the Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. He gave an insight into the current carbon trading schemes on the global scale. Mrs. Maha Abdul Majeed, Shell, presented a case study on the ways in which Shell Middle East assists regional companies in minimizing carbon emissions.
Deutsche Bank Representative, Mr. Kirk Miller, outlined the advances that were made in Deutsche Bank’s efforts to radically reduce their carbon emissions in their offices. Mr. Hans Bolscher, next,focused on current strategies and players in the carbon emissions offsetting and trading fields.
Mr. Philip Moss from MASDAR, stated that the GCC has a lot of potential to reduce its carbon footprint and went on to outline the ways in which Masdar assists companies in doing this. DEWA Representative, Mr. Bert Kleinveld outlined the aims of the recently launched Dubai Carbon Centre of Excellence and reiterated DEWA’s aim of transforming Dubai into the lowest carbon economy in the region. The last speaker for the day, Mr. Svend Soyland from the Bellona Foundation in Norway, provided an NGO perspective to the carbon offsetting issue.
The day was also marked by panel discussions and Q&A sessions.
