The Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar (AYCMQ), has launched the Middle East's first carbon footprint app in commemoration of Earth Day. Founded in Qatar, the organization and its initiative is supported by grant funding from the United States of America (USA) Embassy in Qatar. 

The app release goes hand-in-hand with the 'Household Carbon Footprint Initiative' that was launched last year. The event was attended by US Chargé d’Affaires Ian McCary, ministry officials, US Embassy staff and the AYCMQ team, including Neeshad Shafi, Executive Director, Dr. Sayeed Mohammed, Director and Project Lead of the initiative and Hessa Al Noaimi, Director of Strategic Partnerships.

Carbon footprint refers to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that is released into the atmosphere by the activities of an individual, organization, or community. 

Alternatively, offsetting refers to paying someone else to reduce their emissions or absorb CO2 to compensate for one's own emissions. Essentially, carbon offsets fund projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which in theory balance the carbon footprint.

One carbon offset credit corresponds to one metric ton of carbon dioxide, or another comparable amount of greenhouse gasses, removed from the atmosphere.

Using the footprint tracking app, a household's approximate footprint can be calculated once the information entered in the designated logs has been entered, such as the type of home, gas or electricity used for cooking, number of cars, etc.

In an interview with The Peninsula, Hessa Al Noaimi noted that AYCMQ had already trained 700 teachers and hundreds of students on how to use the app and hopes to reach 2,000 households soon.

“We are now looking at the second phase of the study, which is the community-based actions. The kids, at this point, would have already input their data into the survey app and would have received their instant results. This will tell them the biggest contributing factor to their carbon footprint. It could be flight, domestic travels like using cars, energy and water consumption,” she said. 

Hessa Al Noaimi pointed out that the results from the app will spark discussions in classrooms and inspire students to adopt sustainable practices.

“For the older students, we hope to encourage them to develop inventions and creations that look at sustainability, given the information they collect from their class,” said Al Noaimi.

She also added that the objective is to at least begin the process of climate education and to facilitate policy making in government.

“The report that will come out of this is not only going to benefit the people of Qatar in terms of teaching them about where we stand and our carbon status, but it will help the government make evidence-based policies,” she said.

"We believe that there is still a huge gap in the environmental field in Qatar and in terms of having the raw and local data to come up with policies that are fitting for our location and context. This is the gap we are trying to fill, which makes us unique. Ours is advocacy, policy, research and its community-based action,” she added.

The app is available on both AppStore and PlayStore. For more information, please visit AYCMQ's website.

--

Make sure to check out our social media to keep track of the latest content. 

Instagram - @qatarliving

Twitter - @qatarliving

Facebook - Qatar Living

YouTube - qatarlivingofficial

Source: The Peninsula

Image credit: aycmqatar