The MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region has the second-highest concentration of gas flaring in the world, after Russia and the Caspian region.

The rapid industrialization and urbanization has resulted in the UAE having the highest per capita carbon dioxide emission rates in the world.

ADNOC and Masdar have launched the Middle East's first carbon capture use and storage project, awarding a US$122.5 million contract to build the facility

Fast paced construction activities, oil production, power plants, tourism etc are making air quality poorer. Recently the World Health Organization problem has listed the Middle Eastern countries as being most polluted.

The United Arab Emirates has been named as the most polluted country when looking at the volume of small particulate matter in the air, according to the latest report compiled by The World Bank. UAE had the world's highest exposure to its newly introduced PM 2.5 criteria, which measures tiny airborne pollutants smaller than 2.5 microns. The UAE's PM 2.5 level stood at 80 micrograms per cubic meter, more than China (73 micrograms) and India (32 micrograms).

WHO guideline says this should be less than 10. The fine particles of sand, dust and chemicals can deeply penetrate into the respiratory tract and also cause health problems and premature death. The data also showed that in many parts of the world, there is drastic increase in air pollution and has become the main environmental threat to health.

In 2010, almost 84 per cent of the world's population lived in areas where PM 2.5 exceeded the WHO guideline of 10. Pollution caused by high PM 2.5 levels also resulted in more than 3.2 million premature deaths globally.

COUNTRIES WITH THE HIGHEST AIR POLLUTION LEVELS IN THE MIDDLE EAST (2015)

1. United Arab Emirates

Mean annual exposure to PM 2.5: 80 micrograms per cubic meter

2. Qatar

Mean annual exposure to PM 2.5: 69 micrograms per cubic meter

3. Saudi Arabia

Mean annual exposure to PM 2.5: 62 micrograms per cubic meter

4. Kuwait

Mean annual exposure to PM 2.5: 50 micrograms per cubic meter

5. Bahrain

Mean annual exposure to PM 2.5: 49 micrograms per cubic meter

The above report from WHO has been described by the UAE authorities as incorrect citing the windy conditions in desert areas compounding the results of the study. I too agree with this view that UAE indeed has far better air quality than many other countries and WHO is soon expected to disclose the basis of their assessment to enable correcting the same.

Strange but true that the recent war prevailing in some of the ME countries had caused the industries to go idle and this in turn has vastly reduced air pollution.

Starting in 1991, many legislations like the Federal Law No. 12 of 2006 regulated the air quality. Ambient Air Quality Monitoring (AAQM) was started with six monitoring stations. Recently this was expanded to fourteen monitoring stations.

The AAQM network continuously monitored the criteria pollutants such as Carbon Monoxide (CO), Particulate Matter (PM10/PM25), Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and Ozone (O3) and results are evaluated based on air quality standards and the set goals. The results are being interpreted in a manner that is easily understood by the general public using air quality index such as clean air, light, significant and heavy pollution and high dust with reference to general health effects and safety warnings. With the exclusion of dust, DM-ED likewise consistently achieved its annual target of clean air days for the past years.

At the public level, UAE has also banned smoking of all tobacco products in all public buildings, including restaurants, cafes, and office buildings. More important is effort from every building owner and/or household to properly clean their Air conditioning ducts in the Middle East where the summer weather is extreme and breathing of air through air conditioners is a common practice.