Research & Commentary Results

In the Middle East and North Africa, water is a scarce resource with uneven distribution, resulting in geo-environmental problems at the national level and conflicts between countries that share access to key rivers and water resources that straddle state borders. The stress on the region’s limited water resources is exacerbated by an increasing reliance on groundwater. In such context, monitoring precipitation — the sole renewable water source — is essential yet also challenging. But space-based monitoring can provide a promising technological solution.

The results of the seventh wave survey from Arab Barometer shed light on regional perspectives on issues of climate change, water resources, and the environment. Here are five key takeaways gleaned from the survey results.

Who are the cyber threat actors experts have identified in Iran?

With the acute impacts of US-Chinese global tech decoupling becoming clearer, MENA is slowly emerging as an important region to watch. Economic and geopolitical ties with the West have long dictated the shape of the region’s digital environment, but more recent great power competition and Middle Eastern countries’ pursuit of economic and technological sovereignty have slowly deconstructed these dynamics.

Disregarding the fundamental desire for economic opportunity carries real risk to stability and peace. If we imagine different possible futures for economically disadvantaged communities in MENA and elsewhere, one difference between conflict futures and peaceful, stable ones may be the degree to which entrepreneurial capability is afforded the conditions in which to thrive.

A review of “The Metaverse: And how it will revolutionize everything” by Matthew Ball. Published by Liveright, July 2022. 

A decline in average annual precipitation, rise in temperatures, and dire water shortages are leading drivers of climate-induced internal migration in Iran. This long-term trend was further exacerbated in 2022 by more intense heat waves, resulting in a spike in seasonal migration.

This year’s Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week focused on both adaptation strategies and mitigation actions. Judging by the solid foundation established at this conference, and building on the efforts the UAE launched in previous years, the upcoming COP28, which will be hosted in Dubai, appears to have all the ingredients to bring together relevant stakeholders and deliver on its promises.

Read MEI’s weekly briefing featuring expert analysis of key regional developments for the week ahead.

Expert regional analysis by MEI scholars and contributors.

Gulf states are collectively investing billions of dollars in developing renewable energy. Yet climate change patterns in neighboring regions, combined with rising average temperatures, could eventually trigger more serious climate migration problems for the Gulf countries themselves.

The latest U.N. IPCC report details the alarming changes that Mediterranean countries will experience in the coming decades due to climate change, highlighting three critical areas — warming and droughts, declining ecosystems, as well as socioeconomic and public health risks.

Ten of the most important or far-reaching events and trends that dominated the MENA region in 2022.

With COP27 concluded, we asked experts from across MEI, some of whom attended the meeting, to offer their perspectives on the developments that came out of the conference and what it means moving forward, especially for the Middle East and North Africa. 

Many big polluters around the world, including in the Middle East and North Africa, use “greenwashing” to cover up their environmentally detrimental practices by claiming they are sustainable, eco-friendly, and low carbon in an effort to deceive people about climate action. This creates the false impression that everything has changed without actually changing anything at all.