What the region can learn from the UAE in fighting climate change

What the region can learn from the UAE in fighting climate change

The United Arab Emirates announced last week that the upcoming COP28 climate conference will be held at Expo City Dubai in November 2023 to find solutions to global threats posed by climate change. The UAE will be the second Arab country to receive the UN summit on climate change after Egypt, which will host COP27 in November this year. Climate change is undoubtedly the most critical global challenge facing our planet today. Scientific evidence has proved with certainty that global warming is a real and present danger and that unless pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are fulfilled, all living beings will face catastrophe within a few decades. The symbolism behind choosing two Middle Eastern countries as venues for such an important event cannot be missed. A study by the Brookings Institute published last year stated that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is among the most vulnerable places in the world to climate change. It pointed to UN conclusions about the devastating toll that climate change will have on the region’s water supplies and food production systems and its potential to create breeding grounds for violent extremism. The UN further predicted that no country would be spared, including