Wednesday 26 January at 4pm Paris time.

The discussion will be held in English, with Arabic interpretation available on Zoom only.

You can register to attend by following this link. You will receive a Zoom confirmation email should your registration be successful. Alternatively, you can watch the event live on our Facebook page.

Overview:

The Middle East and North Africa is regularly described as one of the most vulnerable regions to the effects of climate change. Recent years have already shown the impact of environmental degradation on political and social unrest as severe droughts often led to loss of livelihood, internal displacement and food insecurity. Yet, climate change is still relegated to a secondary priority as the region contends with what it perceives as more immediate issues like wars and economic crisis. Meanwhile, governance structures remain ill-prepared to tackle climate change with bad governance and policies often exacerbating environmental impacts.

This webinar will discuss possible consequences of climate change in the region and the policies and decisions needed to tackle the issue. It will first focus on the findings of a recent report by the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) that assessed the risks of climate change on the region and developed an index to capture the vulnerability, preparedness and mitigation potential of the region’s different countries. The discussion will then examine more closely the impact of climate change on Egypt and Iraq, two countries projected to be amongst the most vulnerable countries in MENA to climate change’s effects. Set to host the 27th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of Parties (COP27), Egypt is at a critical junction where the implementation of environmental policies can help the country withstand the impacts of climate change. In Iraq, the impact of climate-induced changed, bad governance and conflicts is already felt throughout the country, most notably in the South, where water pollution and scarcity has contributed to the emergence of the 2019 contestation movement.