Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs jointly tackle climate change

Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs jointly tackle climate change

DW takes us to the hottest area to tell us how local people are putting their hands together for a better future for everyone at a time when realising that energy cooperation is a necessary step; it is about Israelis, Palestinians, and Arabs jointly tackling climate change.

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Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs jointly tackle climate change

Jennifer Holleis

A new US-led initiative brings together Palestinians, Israelis and Arab states to address climate change in the region. Building trust and funding joint projects remain challenges.

The Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region is one of the most vulnerable to climate change. It’s already being hit disproportionately by rising temperatureswater scarcity and desertification. And the outlook for the future is grim.

These are all compelling reasons for experts in the region to collaborate more, say the organizers of a conference on agriculture, water and food security. The conference, which was attended by experts from Israel, the occupied Palestinian territories and several Arabic and Muslim countries, aimed to develop practical programs to address regional challenges.

“So much can be done in this region by cooperating across borders,” said William Wechsler, senior director of the N7 Initiative which organized the conference held last week in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi. The initiative promotes collaboration between Israel and Arab and Muslim nations that have signed the Abraham Accords, a deal brokered in 2020 to normalize relations between Israel and several Arab countries, including Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

“For example, water can be made more available, food prices can be lowered, and people’s lives can be made more secure,” said Wechsler, listing the advantages of potential cooperations.

Wechsler believes agriculture is an ideal basis for climate change collaboration. Not only is it a field where progress can be made quickly, it could also have a big impact on people’s lives across the MENA region.

Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs jointly tackle climate change An Egyptian girl takes part in wheat harvest in Bamha village near al-Ayyat town in Giza province
Egypt seeks to address wheat shortages and inflation by implementing crops that need less water.Image: AFP

“If we miss the opportunity to address climate change now, the window of opportunity will eventually close,” Wechsler warned.

Although there are challenges to establishing governments and private sector cooperations, Wechsler believes those actively involved in tackling climate change and its effects are keen to work together.

“At the end of the day, scientists and engineers are practical people who are interested in solving problems, no matter where they are from,” Wechsler told DW.

Difficult to find funding for joint projects

For conference participant Faouzi Bekkaoui, the director of Morocco’s National Agricultural Research Institute, Israel has much to offer his country.

“Israeli expertise relates in particular to water usage efficiency, such as irrigation systems and developing more resilient crops and varieties,” he told DW.

Morocco is among the world’s most water-stressed countries, according to a World Bank 2022 report, and its agricultural sector is badly affected by the water shortage and climate change.

“Israel also made significant progress in biotechnology or genomics, and all these areas could be beneficial for Morocco, as well,” he said.

But funds for joint Moroccan-Israeli projects or academic exchanges are limited. Bekkaoui has now applied to the US-based Merck Foundation, which funds projects between Israel and the Arab countries that signed the Abraham Accords, for a grant.

The region lacks a tradition of cross-border academic cooperations.

“Most national research administrations … have limited pathways to grant research funding to foreign organizations,” said Youssef Wehbe, a researcher at the National Center of Meteorology in Abu Dhabi, in a recent podcast by the Middle East Institute.

Finding funding for cross-border projects to combat climate change is even more complex. During the World Climate Summit COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, richer nations agreed to provide adaptation funds worth $40 billion (€37.3 billion) annually for low- and middle-income countries from 2025 onwards.

But most of this finance is awarded in the form of loans for mitigation projects to reduce fossil fuel usage, such as installing solar panels or wind farms, which return a profit to lending nations, explained Wehbe.

In contrast, financing for adaptation schemes is low as they are “harder to fund and are less attractive to funding nations compared to the loan model, which returns a profit for these lending nations,” Wehbe said.

He calls for more globally oriented research programs targeting climate change “to solicit ideas from the international scientific community.”

Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs jointly tackle climate change Israeli center-pivot irrigation system spraying water in agricultural fields near the border with Jordan
Israeli irrigation technology could help other countries in the region, for example MoroccoImage: Menahem Kahana/AFP

Tackling climate change to reduce conflict

Agriculture and climate change expert Jamal Saghir, a professor at Canada’s McGill University and former World Bank director, also regards collaboration across borders as the best solution.

Regional cooperation is always a win-win situation and much better than national or bilateral projects,” he told DW. “Most of the Mideast countries are not doing enough yet and climate change is much faster.”

The Middle East is warming at twice the global average. This is expected to fuel competition and conflict over dwindling resources – making it essential for the region to tackle climate change and its consequences such as more migration and unrest.

However, Saghir believes the region can leapfrog these issues through technology. Here he seesIsrael and the Gulf countries in a position to take a lead.

“Israeli technology is leading in desalination and irrigation and the region would benefit a lot from these methods,” he said. The United Arab Emirates, beyond their thriving oil business, have also made significant investments in renewable energies, he pointed out.

“Joint collaboration will lead to new ideas in research and development, which can then be implemented by several countries,” he said. “What are they waiting for? This could happen now.”

Israelis, Palestinians, Arabs jointly tackle climate change Sudanese girls holding a sign reading
Cross-border regional cooperation could help address water shortages before it is too late, say the organizers of the summitImage: Albert Gonzalez Farran/UNAMID/AFP

Building a basis of trust

Tareq Abu Hamad, executive director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies in Israel, believes tackling climate change together with other scientists across the region could turn into “a great opportunity to build trust.”

“We live in a small region that is considered as a hotspot when it comes to climate change, and we do not have any other option than cooperating with each other to deal with these challenges,” he said.

Alex Plitsas, who is involved in the N7 Initiative, was struck by one scene at the conference that filled him with hope.

“The most extraordinary thing I witnessed … in Abu Dhabi was when a male Arab diplomat from a Gulf state wearing traditional thobe & donning a kaffiyeh sat with a female Israeli entrepreneur and I late at night,” he wrote on Twitter, “as they worked to figure out how to make people’s lives better.”

Edited by: Jon Shelton and Kate Hairsine

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Call for applications to finance projects in 7 Mediterranean countries

Call for applications to finance projects in 7 Mediterranean countries

Call for applications to finance projects in 7 Mediterranean countries

 

Green Economy: UfM launches call for applications to finance projects in 7 Mediterranean countries

The above image is of UfM

Call for applications to finance projects in 7 Mediterranean countries

(TAP) – On 16/03/2023, TUNIS/Tunisia. The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) launched a call for applications to finance projects aimed at promoting employment and entrepreneurship in the green economy sector. The aim is to support the environmental transition of the economies of 7 Mediterranean countries, including Tunisia.

 

According to information published Thursday by the UfM, this call for applications is intended for NGOs working to support vulnerable populations disproportionately affected by the consequences of climate change and by the evolution of the socio-economic context.

 

Eligible for this call for applications are non-profit NGOs active in the field of environmental transition of economies in an inclusive manner and with respect for social justice. These NGOs must be based in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritania, Palestine or Tunisia, with priority given to regional projects. The deadline for applications is May 29, 2023.

 

The selected candidates will benefit from financial support ranging from 150,000 to 300,000 euros (which represents a sum varying between 500,000 and 1 million dinars) per project, as well as from the UfM’s technical expertise, which will give them greater visibility.

 

Funded by the UfM with the support of the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), this initiative, in its first edition, launched in 2020, helped 18,000 people, mainly young people and women, from seven UfM member states (Greece, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco and Tunisia).

These projects address employment challenges in the areas of entrepreneurship, women’s empowerment, sustainable tourism, and education and research.

The green economy, as well as “green” jobs, are set to play a key role in the sustainable recovery of the Mediterranean region from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Sustainable Cities and their Digital Twins

Sustainable Cities and their Digital Twins

There is more and more belief that the key to sustainable cities may lie in increasingly sophisticated digital twins. Let us see what Anthropocene has published.

 


The key to sustainable cities may lie in increasingly sophisticated digital twins

Researchers offer the first rigorous analysis “In silico” equivalents of urban areas as a powerful tool for sustainable development
March 14, 2023

Dynamic computer models of cities known as ‘digital twins’ could help drive sustainable development across the world’s urban areas, an international team of authors argues in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Digital twins are more than just static models. They incorporate near-real-time data from sensors and other sources to produce “virtual replicas,” the authors explain—“in silico equivalents of real-world objects.”

The concept of digital twins first arose in manufacturing, and they are primarily used in product and process engineering. But the models have also been employed in fields ranging from personalized medicine to climate forecasting, at scales from the molecular to the planetary.

Many researchers have posited that digital twins will be a powerful tool for sustainability efforts. But nobody has taken a rigorous look at the benefits and pitfalls of urban digital twins. The new study takes on that task, paying particular attention to the potential for the modeling approach to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Digital twins have a variety of potential benefits in this realm, the researchers say. They can help cities allocate resources more efficiently—design more effective water grids, predict traffic congestion to guide transportation planning, simulate consumer behavior to recommend energy-saving measures, and so on.

In addition, “In silico models provide a virtual space where new clean technologies, which promise resource efficiency but may cause unintended harm, can be tested at a speed and scale that may otherwise be inhibited by the precautionary principle,” the researchers write. For example, they could help cities figure out how to incorporate renewable sources of energy into the grid without compromising reliability.

Digital twins could also help scientists and policymakers to collaborate across disciplines, agencies, levels of government, and geographic distances. And they could aid cities in monitoring and reporting progress on the Sustainable Development Goals or other sustainability aims.

Some of the authors of the paper have been involved in the development of a digital twin for Fishermans Bend, an urban renewal project in Melbourne, Australia. The model includes more than 1,400 layers of both historical and real-time data from public and private sources. More than 20 government agencies and municipalities are using the model to analyze how proposed buildings will affect sunlight falling on open space and vegetation, forecast tram traffic patterns, and address other planning questions.

Digital twin models are also being used in cities including Zurich, Singapore, and Shanghai to monitor noise and pollution and facilitate urban planning that takes into account population growth and climate change.

But there are pitfalls to the digital twin approach, too. Because they require so much data, advanced computing power, and technological know-how, digital twins have the potential to exacerbate digital divides, especially between high-income and lower-income countries.

What’s more, even the most complex model may fall short in representing the multifarious nature of a real-life city. The data necessary to underpin a successful digital twin may be unavailable, inaccessible, or incompatible with other sources. And the social-science aspects of digital twins are especially poorly understood.

Finally, models can be optimized for the wrong targets. There are inherent contradictions between different Sustainable Development Goals, and programmers have to take care about how outcomes and parameters are prioritized, the researchers say. For whom and by whom are these decisions made—and who’s left out of the process?

To avoid these pitfalls of digital twins—and reap the potential benefits, the researchers recommend that governments and international institutions get involved in bridging digital divides; leaving digital twin technology to the marketplace virtually guarantees that low-resource countries will be left behind.

They also call on those creating and implementing digital twins of cities to pay attention to social and ethical responsibility. “A central question that derives from these issues is: to what extent are those who may be affected by the decisions based on simulation models included in their design and deployment?” they write.

“Interestingly in such instances, digital twins themselves can raise awareness among planners and policymakers of socioeconomic inequalities, thereby becoming instruments of inclusion,” the researchers add.

Source: Tzachor A. et al. “Potential and limitations of digital twins to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.” Nature Sustainability 2022.

Image: ©ESRI

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MENA ‘injustices’ of climate change are highlighted by experts

MENA ‘injustices’ of climate change are highlighted by experts

MENA ‘injustices’ of climate change are highlighted by experts

 

Washington:  Climate change is already taking place, and as temperatures rise, oceans warm, sea levels rise, and already scarce freshwater resources in some areas decrease, its effects will only worsen. Conflict and migration will be exacerbated by this, especially in the Middle East and Africa’s poorest and most vulnerable countries.

This was one of the messages from attendees at a panel discussion on the topic of “Climate Injustice?,” which was held on Wednesday at the Middle East Institute in Washington. How less developed countries are bearing the brunt of climate change.

 

In comparison to wealthy, developed Western countries, many poorer nations contribute less to the carbon emissions that cause climate change, but they bear the brunt of its effects, according to Mohammed Mahmoud, director of the institute’s Climate and Water Program.

 

According to him, three main factors determine which nations are most likely to suffer from the effects of climate change both now and in the future.

First of all, as sea levels rise, countries with extensive coastlines and island nations run the risk of losing land mass and flooding. Additionally, the intrusion of saltwater could “compromise” their sources of fresh groundwater.

Second, even small increases in global temperatures can have a significant impact on countries with a high heat index, particularly those that are close to the equator and receive a lot of solar radiation.

The third and most crucial factor, according to Mahmoud, is the present scarcity of fresh water in some nations.

The distinction between these broad categories is made interesting by the fact that they are all found in the Middle East and North Africa region, the author continued. The likelihood of crises related to climate change increases as more of these problems are faced by nations in the region.

 

The panelists concurred that a country’s ability to effectively combat the impending threats of climate change is greatly influenced by its economic strength, or lack thereof.

Countries in East Africa, for instance, which are already dealing with the worst drought in decades and have fragile economies, will be less able to deal with the effects of climate change than, say, a Gulf country like Bahrain, which is water-stressed but much better equipped economically to deal with potential problems

Mahmoud stressed the importance of nations’ financial capacity to address climate change-related issues, including their ability to pay for the tools and technologies they require to address their particular issues. The right education and training must also be a part of the overall plan to lessen the effects of climate change, he continued.

Financial stability is crucial, but according to Ayat Soliman, the World Bank’s regional director for sustainable development for Eastern and Southern Africa, there is a certain amount of “injustice” in how various countries are impacted by the global issue of climate change.

She claimed that “we see climate charts are increasing in terms of its intensity” in Africa and the Middle East. She added that many parts of Africa, for instance, are going through their worst drought in years and that millions of people are going hungry.

Since some of the most vulnerable people in the world are being impacted by climate change in Africa, Soliman predicted that there will be a large-scale migration as a result. According to World Bank research, about 90 million people will be forced to leave their homes and find new residences over the course of the next 20 years as a result of the effects of climate change. The already pressing problem of food security in less developed countries will be exacerbated by this.

Soliman predicted that the majority of those packing up and moving will be the poor, the weak, and those who live in rural areas. Conflicts all over the world are and will continue to be caused by climate stress.

 

The president and co-founder of the Mediterranean Youth Climate Network, Hajar Khamlichi, stated that young people in the most severely affected areas have a crucial role to play in the successful implementation of international agreements that guide global action on climate change. As a result, it is crucial that they participate in the process and are heard, which is not always the case.

He added that this failure has an impact on national and international strategies to combat the effects of climate change. “The voice of young people is not heard in the Arab World,” he said.

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Sustainable development and climate change

Sustainable development and climate change

Sustainable development and climate change | By Naghmana A. Hashmi

Naghmana Alamgir Hashmi

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

SUSTAINABLE development has been defined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) as: “Forms of progress that meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.” The WBCSD continues: “Given the scale of world poverty today, the challenge of meeting present needs is urgent. But we must look ahead and do our utmost to ensure that what we do today for our ever-growing population does not compromise the environmental, social and human needs of our descendants”.

Climate change and sustainable development both play a role in shaping the human and environmental factors of the world. On the one hand, climate change influences key natural and human living conditions and thereby also the basis for social and economic development, while on the other hand, society’s priorities on sustainable development influence both the carbon emissions that are causing climate change and the vulnerability. Multiple linkages therefore, exist between climate change and sustainable development. Although these are starting to receive attention, the focus has typically been on examining sustainable development through a climate change lens, rather than vice versa. There has been little systematic examination of how these linkages may be fostered in practice. Governments, companies and members of the public can contribute to environmental sustainability.

The link between climate change and sustainable development stems from the fact that climate change is a constraint to development and sustainable development is a key to capacities for mitigation and adaptation. Maintaining environmental quality is essential for sustainable development. There is a dual relationship between sustainable development and climate change.       In 1987, the authors of “Our common future” argued that unless the world embraced and operationalized sustainable development, it would risk being overwhelmed by a series of interlocking crises related to population growth, urbanization, poverty and environmental degradation. Since then, many authors have argued that the world is on a worst case scenario trajectory. Since 1987, climate change has added a new stressor to the mix while shortening the time frame for transformation. In the context of accelerating change and converging stresses is the concept of sustainable development has become more compelling today.

There is an urgent need to reconcile development and climate change. The key to achieving this is to approach the problem from the development perspective, since that is where in most countries the priority lies. What is required therefore, is an integrated approach that recognizes the nexus between sustainable development and climate change particularly in the developing countries.

The focus should be on the main national development priorities, such as poverty reduction, disaster reduction, rural development, energy supply and transportation. Climate change and sustainable development should be addressed together as there are strong linkages between the two. These linkages provide for integrated policy development and the necessity to consider the risk of trade-offs. Integration may not only provide new opportunities, but also may be a prerequisite for successfully addressing both issues. Since the feasibility of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations is dependent on general socio-economic development paths, climate policy responses should be fully placed in the larger context of technological and socio-economic policy development rather than be viewed as an add-on to those broader policies.

Climate change should feature prominently within the environmental or economic policy agendas of developing countries as evidence shows that some of the most adverse effects of climate change is in developing countries, where populations are most vulnerable and least likely to easily adapt to climate change and that climate change will affect the potential for development in these countries. This was most dramatically, evident from the devastating floods that inundated one-third of Pakistan in 2022 bringing it to the point of economic collapse.

Some synergies already exist between climate change policies and the sustainable development agenda in developing countries, such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, transport and sustainable land-use policies. Despite limited attention from policy-makers to date, climate change policies could have significant ancillary benefits for the local environment. The reverse is also true as local and national policies to address congestion, air quality, access to energy services and energy diversity may also limit harmful emissions. Nevertheless there could be significant trade-offs associated with deeper levels of mitigation in some countries, for example, where developing countries are dependent on indigenous coal and may be required to switch to cleaner yet more expensive fuels to limit emissions.

The distributional impacts of such policies are an important determinant of their feasibility and need to be considered up-front. International community will need to recognize the diverse situations of developing countries with respect to their level of economic development, their vulnerability to climate change and their ability to adapt or mitigate. Recognition of how climate change is likely to influence other development priorities may be a first step toward building cost-effective strategies and integrated, institutional capacity in developing countries to respond to climate change.

Although climate change seems marginal compared to the pressing issues of poverty alleviation and economic development, it is becoming clear that the realization of development goals may be hampered by climate change. However, development can be shaped in such a way as to achieve its goals and at the same time reduce vulnerability to climate change, thereby facilitating sustainable development that realizes economic, social, local and global environmental goals. Climate change discussions should focus on development strategies with ancillary climate benefits and increase the capability of developing countries to implement these.

Climate policies can be more effective when consistently embedded within broader strategies designed to make national and regional development paths more sustainable. This occurs because the impact of climate variability and change, climate policy responses and associated socio-economic development will affect the ability of countries to achieve sustainable development goals. Conversely, the pursuit of those goals will in turn affect the opportunities for and success of, climate policies.

Recognizing the dual relationship between Sustainable Development and climate change points to a need for the exploration of policies that jointly address Sustainable Development and climate change. There is a need for the policymakers and development partners to adopt an effective approach to growth and development, one that eschews the damaging ways of the past, considers interlinkages among people, the planet and the global economy in policy making and seizes the opportunities new technological possibilities offer to promote strong, resilient, inclusive and sustainable growth.

Governments promote green technological innovation and diffusion, with support from the development partner community and provide a clear sense of direction and policy certainty to encourage firms to redirect innovation toward green technologies. While policy approaches to support climate policies and the energy transition may differ across countries, it is important to avoid policies, which result in lower trade in green goods and services, lower technological transfers and an inefficient allocation of resources. Development partners could also explore multicounty mechanisms to support technological breakthroughs in clean technologies for their diffusion to emerging markets and developing economies.

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