At least 10% of the transport on the country's roads will be environment-friendly electric vehicles (green cars) by 2030 as part of an ambitious mission initiated between the Ministry of Energy and Industry and Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC).
The formal signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two ministries and Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) for realising this goal took place at the Kahramaa Awareness Park.
HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada, HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti and Kahramaa president and senior engineer Essa bin Hilal al-Kuwari were the signatories.
The whole exercise is seen as one of the major energy efficiency initiatives coming under the National Programme for Conservation of resources (Tarsheed).
The agreement, according to the officials of the two ministries, is in line with the goals of the Qatar National Vision 2030 and especially a major step in achieving sustainable development. It is also aimed at disseminating awareness as well as promoting the culture of sustainable transport, energy efficiency, and renewable energy, it is felt.
As per the agreement, the MoTC will guide the authorities concerned to launch electrical cars within their fleet of transport vehicles and buses as a strategic and eco-friendly option to reach the strategic goal of raising the numbers of the country's green vehicles by 2030.
It was informed at the signing ceremony by Dr al-Sada that his ministry would put in place the necessary infrastructure to provide the energies of different capacities for electrical vehicles in coming years. The minister also said the technical expertise of Kahramaa would also be effectively utilised.
Minister Al-Sulaiti said as part of Qatar's efforts to develop better transportation models and methods and reach this ambitious goal, his ministry would launch efforts to put in place eco-friendly global systems and employ an alternative clean energy to considerably reduce harmful emissions.
Al-Sulaiti also hoped the MoU would eventually help promoting the transport sector through vehicles that would reduce traditional energy consumption. "All projects of the ministry have identified environmental issues as their top priority for realising the goals and objectives of the QNV 2030"
The MoU would ensure a significant presence of the electric vehicles on the country's roads by the turn of the next decade (2030) would help to achieve sustainable development in the country, said Al-Sulaiti.
"The initiative is expected to help adopting a clean energy in transportation that would contribute to develop a healthy environment, enhance environmental indicators and reduce harmful carbon emissions by 2022 in accordance with the five-year National Sustainable Development Strategy 2017-2022," said Dr al-Sada.
The minister hoped the agreement would also encourage all institutions from governmental and private sectors to adopt the “Green Car Initiative” to reduce the carbon footprint of Qatar.
Dr al-Sada said his ministry would co-operate with the governmental agencies like Woqod and developers of private hotels and other establishments such as malls to build charging stations at different locations across the country.
