Go Green

One of the many resolutions that one can make during the post-COVID era is to go green and let others go green, thanks to the retrospective effect that the pandemic can have on our lives.

At a time when the world is going gaga over environment-friendly initiatives, it’s time to know that taking a set of simple steps, following some precautions when dealing with environment and careful use of resources can take us miles forward in going green.

Among the various methods of going green, according to experts, promoting the utilisation of various renewable energy sources such as solar and wind energy in the country, as well as rationalising the consumption of other energies to reduce the levels of thermal emissions resulting from the use of fossil fuels and their derivatives are said to be easily doable.

“Adoption of various recycling processes in day-to-day life, making efforts to utilise the resources to the maximum, reducing waste and pushing towards recycling in a manner that ensures less reliance on raw materials are other seemingly easy ways of going green,” said Dr Abdullah bin Ali al Omari, President of the Environment Agency.

Promoting the utilisation of various renewable energy sources in the Sultanate, such as solar and wind energy, as well as rationalising the consumption of other energies to reduce the levels of thermal emissions resulting from the use of fossil fuels and their derivatives would be a milestone in the national efforts of going green.

Oman has already announced its move to go green without any plastic bags which are hard to biodegrade and ensure environment protection in accordance with the desired levels from January 2021.

“Oman Vision 2040 reflects Oman’s great ambition to support the environment in a national work methodology, the strategic objectives, and its performance indicators and elaborate measurements aim to set the people of Oman and its youth towards a new national entitlement, that is, ‘going green’,” adds Al Omari.

The environmental objectives of the Oman Vision 2040 and the ambitious goals are at par with the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, the most important of which is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, which would only be achieved through taking measures to reduce energy consumption, investing in alternative energy sources and expanding the green spaces.

Towards a national initiative of Going Green, Environmental Forum 2020 — under the title “The future of the environment in light of the priorities of Oman Vision 2040” — was conducted amid COVID-19 fears recently, which was an eye-opener for many and underlined the fact that Oman gave priority to environment protection.

A national development plan that meets the needs of the present without sacrificing the requirements of the future, a balancing act between development and the environment, between production and consumption, and between the environment’s ability to give and its ability to endure can only support the ambitious plans associated with the Vision 2040, according to environmentalists.

Further, environmentalists call for each and every individual, both citizens and expatriates, to look at ways of making use of the various renewable energy sources in the Sultanate and encouraging recycling operations, and the importance of achieving a balance between development and the environment, and between the environment’s ability to give and still bear resources for man to go green, in order to adopt the green economy.