Miniaturized MEMS FTIR spectrometers are one of most important candidates for portable environmental sensing due to their compacted and low cost, while leveraging the optical sensing advantages. Spectroscopy-based gas sensing is usually carried out in the mid-infrared taking advantage of the large absorption cross section, where the challenge is the bulky and expensive detector system standing as an obstacle against portability and low cost. In this work, the feasibility of environmental sensing using near-infrared MEMS spectrometer is studied with the aid of computer simulations and experimental measurements. The considered gases in the study are H2O vapor and CO2. The study was carried out considering gas light-gas interaction lengths of 20 cm, 1 m, 6 m and 12 m. The correct detection possibility of CO2 absorption spectrum in the presence of relatively high concentration H2O was studied versus the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) using principle component regression taking into account the effect of the limited spectrometer resolution. The results indicates that a 40-dB SNR can result in a 5.4% error in the CO2 concentration prediction with 1 m interaction length compared to 1.8% in case of 6 m interaction length. An experimental optical setup was constructed and the absorption spectrum was recorded for different light-air interaction lengths.