Qatar spearheads climate action in Gulf

Doha, Qatar: Countries within the Middle East are implementing a wave of mitigation techniques to offset the effects of anthropogenic climate change o...

Doha, Qatar: Countries within the Middle East are implementing a wave of mitigation techniques to offset the effects of anthropogenic climate change on their population, the latest Al-Attiyah Foundation Sustainability Research paper titled Race to Climate Resilience: Front-Runners and Laggards in Advancing on Adaptation discovered.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries offer a unique lens through which to examine the intersection of high-income status and vulnerability to climate change. As nations recognised by the World Bank for their high-income status and boasting a combined GDP exceeding USD 3.5 trillion, the GCC countries, as leading oil producers and exporters, present an intriguing case study in managing climate change impacts in affluent regions.

Much of the Gulf region is already experiencing rising temperatures, unpredictable and extreme weather patterns, and water scarcity due to climate change that pose risks to human health and livelihoods and threaten economic stability. Record high temperatures have already been observed, reaching up to 53.9°C in Kuwait in 2016, an Asian record level; and early summer heat waves exceeding 50°C in Oman and the UAE.

Even if global warming is limited to an increase of 2°C compared to pre-industrial temperatures, temperatures in the Gulf region are expected to rise far beyond this, with some climate studies predicting an increase of up to 5°C by the end of the century.

The studies further indicate that this rise in temperatures will be accompanied by extreme weather events (such as heat waves) in an unprecedented scale, which will have severe impacts for health and well-being of around 56.4 million people living in the region. In the face of such challenges, Gulf countries have taken proactive measures.