HH the Father Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani with HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah after formally inaugurating the Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Foundation for Energy and Sustainable Development in Doha last night. PICTURE: Thajudheen

By Pratap John
Chief Business Reporter


The Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Foundation for Energy and Sustainable Development was formally inaugurated by HH the Father Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in Doha last night.
HH the Father Emir also launched the inauguration industry report of the foundation, the first think-tank of its kind in the Middle East.
The Al Attiyah Foundation, which hosted 400 distinguished national and international guests from industry, academia and government at a launch ceremony, will look to advise states on how to tackle such critical challenges as energy efficiency.
The foundation has urged the governments of the region to tackle soaring domestic energy consumption trends.
It will aim to deliver useful counsel and share knowledge by providing information, research and analysis on energy and sustainable development, primarily related to the Arabian Gulf region.
The foundation will  host foremost experts from around the world who have played an active role in the advancement of the international energy industry.
Having previously served in some of the senior energy positions in government and industry, they shall thus bring to the table their proficiency, expertise and knowledge of the global energy industry.
“We want people to knock on our door with questions which we will aim to answer based on our vast experience,” said HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, the former deputy prime minister and minister of energy and industry.
“I would like to see the foundation become the leading think-tank in the region and one of the leading institutions in the world in the areas of energy and sustainable development,” he said.
The foundation is the Middle East’s first institution committed to the creation of knowledge and solutions critical to the future of the regional and international energy system.
Al-Attiyah is joined on the board of the foundation by a group of distinguished individuals from the past and present leadership of Qatar Petroleum, including Saad al-Kaabi, president and  CEO of Qatar Petroleum; HE Dr Ibrahim Ibrahim, economic adviser to HH the Emir;  Abdulaziz al-Malki, Qatar’s ambassador to Italy; Nasser al-Jaidah and Hamad Rashid al-Mohannadi, both board members of Qatar Petroleum.
“As the rest of the world is gradually turning towards greater energy efficiency in economic terms, much of the GCC is going the other way, using ever more energy to produce a unit of economic growth and becoming less competitive in the process,” Dr Ibrahim said in his keynote speech.
“If these long-term consumption trends continue, the Gulf states are forecast to be just a few decades away from relinquishing their long-held position as global energy suppliers,” he said.
In 1973, oil consumption in Arabia was less than 1% of global demand. Some 40 years later, the Gulf states, with just 0.5% of the world’s population, consumed 5% of its oil.
The primary energy consumption in the past decade has grown more than twice as fast as the world average of 2.5% a year.
The GCC region’s 2001 consumption of 220mn tonnes of oil equivalent nearly doubled by 2010 and is expected to nearly double again by 2020.    
The Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Foundation for Energy and Sustainable Development Foundation was established with the aim to preserve the legacy of more than 40 years’ service to Qatar, chiefly in the oil and gas industry, and to promote the ongoing work of its founder, Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah.