CLIMATE change could impact the region and increase the risk of conflicts over shrinking natural resources, warned Bahrain’s environment chief.
Supreme Council for Environment (SCE) chief executive Dr Mohammed Bin Daina called on all countries to address the crisis – failing which they could witness disputes over water, agricultural land, food, forests and fisheries.
Last month, UN secretary general António Guterres said that a major decline in precipitation and a rise in extreme weather events in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) was harming water and food security. Mena is among the world’s most water-stressed and climate vulnerable regions.
Dr Bin Daina, who is also His Majesty King Hamad’s Special Envoy for Climate Affairs, was speaking yesterday at the second International Conference on Climate Change in the Mediterranean and the Middle East: Challenges and Solutions, held in Cyprus.
The two-day event in hybrid format which concluded yesterday gathered policymakers, experts and decision-makers who discussed ways to form a regional climate action plan for the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East (EMME) region.
“Climate change does not directly cause conflict. But it can increase the risk of conflict by exacerbating existing social, economic and environmental challenges, when countries and people are forced to share the scarce resources. For example in our region it will be water, agriculture land to secure food, forests and fisheries,” said Dr Bin Daina.
“The region has already suffered from migration due to political tension, climate change impact may cause more migration that could possibly change the demographics in the region.”
Explaining the disproportional contribution of Greenhouse Gas emissions per capita by different countries, Dr Bin Daina pointed out that ‘developed countries are the ones who carry the historical responsibility of consuming the global carbon budget in the world’.
He urged developed nations to “take the lead”, as they contributed more towards “emissions” which is impacting all countries alike.
“Both developed and developing countries should resolve this crisis – we need to work together, but somebody should be the champion and take the lead.
“We believe the developed countries should take the lead on reducing emissions,” he said.
The damages of climate change have reached a point where there is no going back and the target should be to decarbonise the planet using scientific methods.
“It is not enough to diversify energy and capture the carbon – we should look at ways to reduce the amount of carbon in the planet today.
“As a small developing island, we understand that we need to adopt to the situations and we have developed the model for sea level rise.”
The GDN previously reported that Bahrain’s beaches have the infrastructure to tackle half a metre rise in sea level by 2050, which according to studies is expected to leave around 10 per cent of the country’s total land area submerged.
He also noted the lack of finance crippling developing countries.
Bahrain is developing an investment plan to tackle this, he said.
The GDN reported that the country identified 50 projects – 10 of which will be adapted into a private-public-partnership project, which will focus on eco-friendly schemes in general to adapt to climate change, as in the food sector, water recycling, public transport, etc.
He added that the three important aspects to resolve the crisis are technology transfer, capacity building for countries in need and securing the finance to execute projects.
Dr Bin Daina said Bahrain and Cyprus being small countries can play a catalytic role in the efforts to mitigate the climate change crisis.
“Both small islands are vulnerable to climate change impacts such as sea level rise and a lot of efforts can be made to increase the resilience of the coastal areas and sectors such as biodiversity, agriculture, urban development and water.”
Bahrain is set to take part in the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) slated to be held in the Scottish city of Glasgow next November.
raji@gdn.com.bh
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