The second annual conference, organized by TRENDS Research and Advisory in partnership with the Atlantic Council, was held in Washington, D.C., on 28-29 September 2022. The conference, titled “Sustainable Security of the Middle East: Climate Change, Challenges, and Prospects,” spanned two days and featured the participation of ministers as well as around 30 political, academic, environmental, and climate experts from various countries around the world.
The first day of the conference commenced with three main sessions, the first of which was titled “National Security, Climate Change, and the Middle East: Current Challenges and Future Prospects”. This session shed light on the perspective of climate change and national security in the Middle East. The discussion was moderated by Reena Ninan, Non-resident Senior Fellow, Adrienne Arsht, Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, Atlantic Council. The session was opened by Dr. Aisha Al-Sarihi, a research fellow at the Middle East Institute, National University of Singapore, who spoke on “Ways in which Climate Change Manifests in the Middle East and its Impacts on the Stability of the Region”.
The conference was inaugurated by H.E. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, who emphasized the very real risks of climate change in the Middle East. He highlighted how the region has endured centuries of water challenges and extreme temperatures, and how global warming is likely to have severe consequences in the near future. With the added factor of population growth and the need to support new populations, the challenges ahead become even more urgent and significant.
In his keynote address, H.E. Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change, described the conference as an ideal platform for addressing the day’s theme of finding smart solutions to major climate challenges. He emphasized that the global community is facing profound effects of climate change, making it imperative to seek innovative solutions.
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