To: Dr Naqaa Abbas

From: Abdulla Al-Abdulla, Antonios Sichanis, Shouq Al-Musleh, Selina Haddad

Subject: Possible Topics to Pursue for ENGL210 Project 2
Date: April 6, 2023

Team 2 presents a memo explaining the different solutions presented by the team members, and selects a
final area to which the solution can lay within. After looking through multiple solutions that Qatar has
provided to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, three solutions stood out as the most executable. They
included electric vehicles, the Doha Metro, and applying air conditioners in open areas. These were
chosen with consideration of major circumstances, such as the FIFA World Cup, and summer heat. A
decision matrix was implemented, and the team members ranked each criterion for every solution. The
solutions were judged for a final selection of which solution was to be worked on.

Discussion on Solutions:

Topic 1: Electric Vehicles (EVs)

Using EVs is a practical technique to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by fossil-fuel
cars. In Qatar, this transition strategy has been implemented by including 25% of electric buses during the
World Cup (Ministry of Transport, 2022). Also, EV adoption is occurring on a global scale. Norway is
playing an important role in the adoption of EVs; the percentage of sales of electric vehicles has increased
dramatically during the past ten years, from 2.9% to 65% in 2021 and 79.3% in 2022 (Johnson, 2023).
There are several strategies to increase the number of EVs rather than fossil fuel-powered vehicles on
Qatar's roads. First, by expanding the number of charging stations for EVs in various locations and by
making them more affordable compared to fossil fuel cars in order to encourage people to purchase them.
Although EVs are generally useful, it is important to develop a special feature that makes EVs resist the
heat in Qatar due to the fact that heat reduces the battery life of EVs (Argue, 2020). Lastly, as shown in
Table 1, EVs are widely accepted in Qatar due to the enhanced privacy they offer, which is not possible in
other modes of public transportation.

Topic 2: The Doha Metro

The metro has been one of the leading solutions in Qatar. Factors, such as train frequency and proximity
to specific destinations, are some of the reasons taken into consideration to attract more people to the
Doha Metro. On the one hand, Moscow’s trains have an average interval of 2.5 minutes between trains
(The Trains and Stations of the Moscow Metro &Middot; Russia Travel Blog, 2012). Qatar, on the other
hand, has recently increased the time interval between trains to five minutes for its green line, which is
considered a constraint as it causes delays in transportation time. Additionally, Qatar has successfully
managed to place the metro stations in major locations, such as Msheireb, and Qatar National Library
(Doha Metro, 2022). The metro is quite functional throughout the seasons in Qatar as it operates
underground. Additionally, the metro is socially accepted as it is divided into appropriate sectors, which
follow the rules of religion and society. These standards align with the social sector of Qatar’s National
Vision (General Secretariat for Development Planning, 2008). Within the first two years of its launch
(2019 - 2021), the metro managed to safely transport 50M passengers (Doha Metro Transports 50mn
Passengers, 2022).
Topic 3: Air-Conditioned Spaces
Qatar's hot weather conditions restrain people from utilizing a different mode of transport other than
air-conditioned cars to go from one place to another. Walking and cycling in an air-conditioned space is
one of the solutions that Qatar came up with to reduce carbon emissions from cars. Qatar started
implementing installing air conditioning units in 2019 and they were added to a lot of places like markets,
sports stadiums, and walkways (Hardiman J., 2021). Having air-conditioning installed in places allows
people to walk around since it has a cooling place and. This helps a lot since Qatar is emitting a large
amount of carbon dioxide from cars, so encouraging people to walk will decrease carbon emissions. The
only downside to this solution is the type of energy used for these air conditioning spaces. Qatar produces
all of their power from fossil fuels (HuffPost, 2017).

Conclusion:
Different criteria were taken into consideration and all team members presented their research on each
solution. They placed their ratings on the matrix based on their opinions and rated on a scale from 1 to 5
(5 being the best). The decision matrix results show that “Electric Vehicles” is the most reasonable topic
in terms of its utilisation of sustainable energy, speed in implementation, and when it comes to being
implementable within the country, making it the best solution for the team. For an understanding of how
the ratings were for each solution, kindly refer to Table 1 below.

Table 1: Decision Matrix

 Works Cited

Ministry of Transport. (2022, December 1). E-Vehicle Transformation Strategy Enters New Stages.

https://mot.gov.qa/en/news-events/news/e-vehicle-transformation-strategy-enters-new-stages

Johnson, P. (2023, January 2). This is the Norway- nation hits record EV share in 2022 on its way to
ending gas car sales. Electrek.

https://electrek.co/2023/01/02/norway-hits-record-ev-share-in-2022

Argue, C. (2020, July 7). What 6,000 EV batteries tell us about EV battery health. Geotab.

https://www.geotab.com/blog/ev-battery-health/

Doha Metro Transports 50mn Passengers. (2022). https://hukoomi.gov.qa.

https://hukoomi.gov.qa/en/news/doha-metro-transports-50mn-passengers

The trains and stations of the Moscow Metro · Russia Travel Blog. (2012, August 25). The Trains
and Stations of the Moscow Metro &Middot; Russia Travel Blog.

https://russiatrek.org/blog/cities/the-trains-and-stations-of-the-moscow-metro/

Doha Metro. (2022, November 18). Doha Metro.

https://corp.qr.com.qa/English/Projects/Pages/DohaMetro.aspx

Hardiman, J. (2021, May 27). Qatar is getting so hot they're air conditioning outside. LADbible.
Retrieved April 6, 2023.

https://www.ladbible.com/news/news-qatar-is-getting-so-hot-theyre-air-conditioning-outside-202
10527

HuffPost. (2017, December 7). Surprising facts about Qatar's environmental impact. HuffPost. Retrieved
April 6, 2023.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/qatar-environmental-impact-climate_n_2213298