Nicosia, October 11 (BNA) A conference on climate change will assure policy makers in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean that a shift from fossil fuels to renewables is urgently needed as greenhouse gas emissions help raise regional temperatures faster. than in many other inhabited parts of the world.
George Zetis, a scientist at the Cyprus Institute’s Climate and Atmospheric Research Center, said that although this “cannot happen overnight” due to the region’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels for energy production, governments need to make the change within the next two decades to avoid “Irreversible effects” such as desertification.
Zetis told the Associated Press Monday in an interview ahead of this week’s second international conference focused on the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, which together are recognized as a global center of a “climate change hotspot.”
The conference is organized by the Cypriot government and brings together 65 leading scholars, diplomats and policy makers from Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Greece to present the results of a two-year study compiled from the contributions of 220 experts and make policy recommendations to countries in the region, AP reports.
The conference will be addressed by former French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, European Union Environment Commissioner Virginius Sinkevicius, Jordanian Prince El Hassan bin Talal, head of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network Jeffrey Sachs, and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.
Zetis said regional governments should be vigilant and speed the transition to renewables because rapidly rising temperatures with less rainfall could mean extended heat waves that would increase the energy costs of greenhouse gas-emitting desalination plants and electricity-starved air-conditioning units.
Natural gas is a cleaner-burning fossil fuel that could serve as a transitional source of energy in the region until renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power are operating on a large scale, Zetis said.
A hotter area also means less moisture in the soil—a key element in keeping air temperatures cooler once the moisture evaporates.
The growth of cities in the Middle East and the eastern Mediterranean also means the loss of arable land that could hold this moisture. Temperatures in urban areas are on average two to four degrees Celsius higher than in outer cities, Zetis said.
Zetis said greenhouse gas emissions in the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East are close to those of the entire European Union. The scientists also urged policy makers to ensure that homes, buildings and new car engines are as energy efficient as possible.
Experts will also need to come up with strategies for how countries will need to adapt to a changing climate in order to deal with the higher expenditures that will result. Zetis also said that scientists are warning of possible mass migrations from countries in the Middle East with water scarcity and rising temperatures.
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