Abhatoo - Centre Nationale de Documentation

Climate change is among humanity’s greatest challenges, and the Middle East and Central Asia (ME&CA) region is on the frontlines of its human, physical, and economic ramifications. Much of the region lies in already harsh climate zones, where global warming exacerbates desertification, water stress, and rising sea levels. This trend entails deep economic disruptions, endangers food security, and undermines public health—with ripple effects on poverty, inequality, displacement, and conflict. While recognition of these challenges is high in the ME&CA region, with nearly two-thirds of its population perceiving climate change as a global emergency (UNDP and others 2021), decisive and broad based action has yet to follow.
This paper is the first to highlight macro-critical climate adaptation challenges for the ME&CA region. Leveraging a newly assembled comprehensive data base on climate and macro-financial indicators, the paper derives novel climate risk profiles and empirical evidence to underpin its central message: adapting to
climate change—by boosting resilience to innate climate stresses—is a critical priority for ME&CA economies.
Concretely, the paper answers four questions: (1) What are the region’s key climate challenges? (2) How does climate change affect the region’s economies,development, and stability? (3) What public policies can boost climate resilience, including in the near term? (4) What are these policies’ implied financing needs, and what sources exist to meet them? The paper’s insights can help policymakers devise country-specific adaptation plans as part of wholistic climate strategies that also include mitigation and transition risk management.