COP Comes to MENA: Examining Climate Change in the Region

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) will take place in the MENA region for the next two years, setting the course for future climate adaptation, mitigation, and response. Rising temperatures, drought, and extreme weather events in MENA threaten to have severe, direct impacts on daily life for people across the region, including their existential access to food, water, and livelihood. At this pivotal moment, MENA advocates have a unique opportunity to shed light on the dire challenges facing one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to climate change and to put forward a vision of what transparent, just, and accountable climate policy should look like.

On Thursday, August 25, 2022, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) hosted a conversation with Malak Altaeb (TIMEP), Sarine Karajerjian (ARI), Sammy Kayed (Environment Academy), and Zeina Moneer, moderated by Reuters Levant Bureau Chief Maya Gebeily with opening remarks by TIMEP’s Achref Chibani about the top climate change issues affecting MENA. What are the biggest challenges facing the region in terms of climate change; what political, social, and economic impact do these issues have, including for vulnerable communities; and what should be on the COP 27 agenda? How are organizations, initiatives, and activists on the ground advocating for new strategies, interventions, and policies to adapt to and mitigate climate challenges? And what will it mean to hold COP 27 in a country where civil society advocates and citizens do not have the space to organize and express themselves freely, amid the continued commission of serious and ongoing human rights abuses?

This event occurred to mark the launch of “COP Comes to MENA: Examining Climate Change in the Region,” a new TIMEP project which is creating a platform for experts, advocates, and those most impacted to drive the climate policy agenda and center the most pressing climate issues and just interventions in the global climate conversation at COP 27, 28, and beyond.

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