Environmental challenges are creating new priorities for countries in the Middle East and the Mediterranean and increasing cross-border cooperation – including between Israel and Arab countries. Such cooperation can assist in tackling climate change through a regional and global lens, can foster regional stability, maintain and expand circles of peace and normalization, and increase prosperity and economic development.
This trend, together with progress in Israel-Arab relations following the Abraham Accords, creates new opportunities for regional environmental cooperation between Israel and its neighbors. However, these opportunities’ full potential cannot be realized prior to a breakthrough toward Israeli-Palestinian peace. Moreover, the composition and policies of Israel’s current government pose additional challenges to Israel-Arab relations and have led existing cooperation to slow down. Nevertheless, and despite being limited in scope, regional cooperative endeavors are taking place and efforts to sustain them are underway.
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