The livelihoods of over half a billion people in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are under threat from climate change, according to a new World Economic Forum (WEF) report. The report forecasts a four degrees Celsius rise in warming in the Middle East by 2050, an overwhelming difference from the agreed-upon one-and-a-half degrees Celsius limit in the 2015 Paris Agreement. According to the report research, temperatures in the region are rising at twice the global average rate. With around half of the world’s confirmed oil reserves, the MENA region currently contributes to approximately 30 percent of the world’s oil production. Despite the warning by climate emergency scientists and researchers, OPEC predicts an increase in global energy demand “under all scenarios — with primary global energy demand to 2035 doubling”. The report, “Closing the Climate Action Gap: Accelerating Decarbonization and the Energy Transition in MENA”, was published on October 18 and comes only weeks before the COP28 conference in Dubai. Posing a threat to the livelihoods of the 575 million people who live in the region, climate shocks such as rising temperatures and prolonged droughts, could have serious effects…
Livelihoods of Half a Billion Middle Easterners at Risk from Climate Change: WEF Report
November 1, 2023
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