The Al Basama Al Beeiya (Ecological Footprint) Initiative group has called upon UAE's Supreme Petroleum Council (SPC) to support their’s oil and gas industry-related data requirements. 

The Al Basama Al Beeiya (Ecological Footprint) initiative is the UAE's national effort to ensure a sustainable future by measuring and understanding the impact of our way of living on earth.

The team recently met officials from the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) department at the SPC and briefed them on the ecological footprint initiative and highlighted the importance of oil and gas-related information in contributing to the calculation of the UAE's national footprint account.

The team also asked SPC to share data related to the exports and consumption of petroleum resources in Abu Dhabi.

"This and other non-oil and gas trade data will be used to verify the statistics that are globally available. The data will eventually be used to recalculate the UAE’s energy Footprint which according to the Living Planet Report 2006 estimates has the largest bearing on the nation’s Ecological Footprint," said Razan Al Mubarak, managing director of Emirates Wildlife Society-World Wide Fund for Nature, the Al Basama Al Beeiya's NGO partner.

“As the governing body for major oil policy decisions, the SPC is a key stakeholder in the project," he added.

Since the project was launched in October 2007, the Al Basama Al Beeiya team has been engaged in a series of meetings with local and federal government authorities to brief them about the project and gain active support in the vital task of gathering data on population and energy, the most influential parameters of the UAE's Ecological Footprint.

The Al Basama Al Beeiya project team has already met officials from the ministry of labour, ministry of interior, ministry of energy, ministry of economy and the ministry of federal national council affairs, the general secretariat of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, the executive affairs authority, Masdar, Dolphin energy, the DTCM, Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, the Federal Customs Authority and Ras Al Khaimah Environmental Protection and Development Authority.

Meetings with the Crescent Petroleum Company, Sharjah, Dubal and Dugas for energy-related data are in the pipeline.-TradeArabia News Service