Excellencies, distinguished guests, and friends
We meet a month after the latest IPCC report on the impacts of climate change, which sent a clear and worrying message.
Climate change isn’t a threat waiting around the corner. It is already upon us, causing dangerous disruption across the natural world and harming billions of people.
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region knows this from first-hand experience. We have already started seeing the impacts of climate change, through droughts and fires, disrupted growing seasons and fierce heatwaves. We will, unfortunately, see these impacts grow faster and hit harder than in other parts of the world.
However, we should not throw our hands up in despair. Let me remind you that the Glasgow Climate Pact kept 1.5 °C alive.
It is now up to us to take this chance and be part of the urgent global climate action we so desperately need.
Friends, we need to seize transformational opportunities for climate action.
High-impact sectors in the region – such as energy, cooling, cities, and buildings – hold the key to the radical transformation needed.
The MENA region is already a leader in renewable energy, with an installed capacity in the region predicted to double this decade and increased innovation and energy efficiency.
But we can do so much more to transition away from fossil fuels and ensure a just and sustainable energy transition for all.
We can look at our buildings and cities, particularly with an eye to keeping cool using natural solutions rather than doubling down on power-hungry mechanical cooling as our regions warms.
By transforming concrete jungles into urban forests, mandating green roofs and walls, and increasing tree canopy cover, we can make our cities cool and livable.
To give just one example, investing USD 100 million annually in urban trees would give 77 million people a 1°C reduction in maximum temperatures on hot days.
We can embrace the digital transformation to access and use real-time data on environmental change and promote behaviour change.
Digital technology has brought us together, no matter where we are in the world. It can solve many challenges we face if used wisely.
There are many other options for action.
We need to take every single one of them to slow and adapt to climate change.
Our region is one of the most vulnerable regions on the planet to the changing climate. We need to step up and protect ourselves.
We owe it to our children and future generations to act now.
Thank you
