Influences of CO2 Emissions on Temperature Change and Global Warming in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Global warming and CO 2 emissions have been a great concern and serious threat to human beings. Even though the problem is clear and well-known, there are still debates among the scientists in the causes of such changes. On the other hand, numbers of studies indicated that there is a good relationship between global warming and CO 2 emissions. The extensive use of non-renewable energy resources such as oil is one of the main factors to cause these changes. After discovering oil around 1960, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) face very fast economical development accompanied with population growth. These bring tremendous demand on energy in different sectors such as industry, commercial and residential. Oil was a main source to generate energy to respond to these great demands. This study presents the relationship between CO 2 emission and temperature change in the UAE with respect to the global warming. The CO 2 emissions of UAE in last 48 years are averaged about 33.6 metric tons per capita. This clearly shows that an average of UAE's CO 2 emission in last 48 years is about 8 times higher than the world average CO 2 emissions of 4.1 metric tons per capita. In the UAE, the mean highest and the lowest temperature were recorded 28.7 (in 1998) and 26.5 (in 1992) o C respectively during the last 18 years. The mean rainfall data exhibit more scattering than the mean temperature data. During the last 10 years, even though the mean average temperature data indicates stabilization of around 28.4 o C, the mean average rainfall data shows considerable decrement from 12.8 to 4.61 mm compare to the previous years. If this trend continues for decades, the area will have less and less rain and will be hotter. Accordingly, it is fact that increases in CO 2 concentration in the atmosphere causes temperature increase and contributes in global warming.