Pollution in the Middle East

(The Media Express)

With the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference concluding as of November 12th, many world leaders have acknowledged the severity of climate change and the necessity for action against it. While it is a promising sign that nations are recognizing the need for lower greenhouse gas emissions, there are some regions of the world that are suffering the consequences of climate change much more severely than others.

Air pollution in the Middle East is becoming an increasingly alarming issue. In Tehran, around 4,000 casualties are a result of air pollution. Other effects of climate change are also evident. In Saudi Arabia, the average temperatures have increased by 2%, and the maximum temperatures by 2.5% just since the 1980s. The rapid increase in average temperatures in Qatar, which has the highest per capita carbon emissions in the world, has led to the country beginning to air condition the outdoors. Qatar has air conditioned soccer stadiums, sidewalks, and outdoor malls, all of which keep the outdoors bearable during the miserable heat. However, this plays into a vicious "catch-22" cycle that may doom the region and the people in it, as high carbon emissions contribute to increased temperatures, and increased temperatures create the need for air conditioning, which in return creates more carbon dioxide emissions. 

The Middle East is warming at twice the rate as any other region in the world, and the air quality is in a dire state. Citizens have already suffered the consequences from the poor air quality. Across the region, civilians are plagued by increased incidences of various cancers, increased respiratory diseases, and increased hospital admissions due to cardiac diseases and strokes. Additionally, the extreme weather that the region faces is more incentive to turn to a greener economy. Dust storms, cyclones, and insufferable heat are becoming worse and neither the region nor its inhabitants can continue that way. If no action is taken, the health and well-being of citizens will continue to decline and the region will have such severe pollution and extreme weather that it will be uninhabitable. 

A glimpse of hope among angst that the region saw, along with many others, in the battle for cleaner air was due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2020 study conducted by the Atlantic Council showed that the air quality improved by as much as seventeen points on the Air Quality Index in Saudi Arabia. Across the fifty most polluted cities in the world, the study showed that there was an average of a twelve-point AQI reduction across the cities. While human activity alone, such as transportation, does play a role in environmental pollution, it is much smaller in comparison to the enormous amounts of pollution from industries. In order to see further and more notable improvements, industries that participate in high oil and gas extraction need to be significantly reduced. 

A commonality across countries in this region is the corruption seen within their governments and political elites. For example, the Iranian government is very large. From oil and gas to a variety of other industries, such as health, food, banking, and more, the government can be seen in almost every aspect of life. Restrictions on civil liberties, for example, lead to organizations who have the potential to provide information leading to the detection and enforcement of anti-bribery actions, such as investigators, independent accountants, media, and more, not being formed. Without these entities, institutions that have the responsibility of enforcing the laws are not well prepared to deal with complex corruption issues because they are infested with principles like nepotism and cronyism. Ultimately, governments in the Middle East are heavily dependent on their oil reserves in order to keep their countries surviving, and they often have corrupt governments with interests in keeping a steady flow of income. Their systems are built on the dependence for oil revenue, but the interests of citizens are having a tolerable, liveable climate. 

The Middle East can no longer continue their dependence on fossil fuels and oil for their economic prosperity. Resolutions to fossil fuels include renewable energy, such as hydroelectric, wind, and solar power. This region has the means to carry out these renewable energy options, as they have access to capital, abundant sun, and spare ground. The European Union, United States, New Zealand, and more are already promising efforts to achieve net-zero or climate-neutral emissions by 2050, so the dependence on oil is going to be lowered by then anyway, resulting in the Middle East losing oil revenue. Other countries have proposed efforts towards a less polluted world, and the Middle East will only see negative outcomes if they refuse to adjust to the changing fossil fuel industry. Regardless of whether or not political elites in the Middle East want to forfeit their extreme control over their economies, change will be coming.