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Constructions, projects, “vision”… Behind the carbon neutrality touted by Fifa, the emirate communicates on its “sustainable” sites. However, its results and its daily emissions are far from testifying to an environmental transformation before the Football World Cup.
A wide pedestrian street paved in white like the buildings that surround it. A rail in the center sees a small purple and white electric tram passing every ten minutes, in the colors of the Qatari flag. A few planted young trees frame small bodies of water and fountains gushing out on the ground opposite café terraces and furniture stores gleaming with gilding or sportswear from international brands. Everything is as brand new as it is empty of passers-by. Because the temperature still rises to 40° in September in Qatar.
The Msheireb district, in the center of Doha, is one of the major urban projects developed on the occasion of the Football World Cup. It is presented as “the first inner-city regeneration project and one of the smartest cities on earth”, according to its promoters. Solar panels cover the roofs of buildings of less than ten floors, a modest height for the country. Ventilation and exposure to the sun would have been studied in the layout of buildings, hotels and small museums to walk in the shade. In fact, “the longest pedestrian street in Qatar”, as Sikkat Wadi Msheireb is touted, is only 700 meters long. It is also crossed by arteries where imposing white 4X4s circulate, sometimes resembling real war vehicles.
Fed up with energy mismanagement
The example of this district in the process of being finished illustrates the gap between the ecological concern shown by Qatar for the “first…