AMMAN — The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its sixth assessment report
on the physical science basis of climate Change in August this year, describing
the anthropogenic influence on the current state of climate and how future
climate can affect different regions across the world.
اضافة اعلان
Regarding the
Middle East region, the report shows that climate change will impact
temperature and precipitation, bringing with it environmental and economic
risks.
Environmental
experts interviewed by
Jordan News agreed with the report, stressing
that multiple risks are associated with climate change, the effects of which,
they say, begin to manifest with rising temperatures or weather fluctuations,
which lead to drought, fires, and low food production.
Chairman of
Jordanian Environmental Union Omar Shoshan told
Jordan News that
“climate change is one of the most important issues since it poses an
existential threat at both human, and nature levels”.
“Climate change
strikes all over the world, not just the Middle East, and all organisms are
exposed to the impact of this change. However, we in the Mediterranean region,
specifically the Middle East, have experienced high temperatures and
unprecedented droughts,” he said.
He added that the
“extreme weather conditions in the region, such as the recent heat wave, might
be even more severe and longer in the future”.
“The world will
face natural, humanitarian, and economic disasters if this environmental
problem is not dealt with effectively,” he warned.
Hala Murad, a human
rights expert and head of Dibeen for Environmental Development, said that “what
was stated in the report was not shocking”, since the “Paris Agreement
indicated, more than seven years ago, that we should seek not to reach an
increase of 1.5° Celsius”, a goal that so far has not been reached.
Moreover, “the
Middle East has historically been hit by large droughts”, she said, stressing
that “this change adversely affects human life, behavior, and livelihood, and
has an impact on the economy and environment”, effects that are bound to be
“deeper and more harmful”.
Hussein Al-Kaswani,
regional director of a climate change project part of UN Habitat, said that the
UN study is conducted across an entire region using the same parameters, which
may not accurately reflect the situation by country, Jordan included.
Osama Abu Saleek,
an environmental researcher, warned that “if precautionary measures aimed at
mitigating (greenhouse gas) emissions are not taken, the temperature will
increase more and this poses a risk to the future generations and the region”.
“The risk lies in
the severity of climate change; very high temperatures lead to drought, fires,
and a lack of food production,” he pointed out.
Abu Saleek said that the warming of the Earth’s
atmosphere is melting parts of the Arctic and Antarctic ice, “causing floods in
some cities”.
As far as the
Middle East is concerned, he said, “it is one of the world’s most sunbathed
regions annually; it is considered one of the most exposed solar belt areas,
which means higher temperatures, and, as a result, more climatic problems”.
International
interest in reducing the impact of climate change started in the 1970s, he
said, rekindled repeatedly at conferences.
“Serious attempts
are being made to change legislation and enact global laws that reduce climate
change,” he said.
Reports, however,
seem to show that the efforts are less effective than desired.
By way of solution,
Abu Saleek suggests increasing the forest and vegetation areas, which “is a
real solution to the problem”, one that, he believes, “needs global efforts,
because the problem is global”.
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