Differences hamper Mena climate change fight: Jordan

Efforts to coordinate regional actions to fight climate change are hampered by political, economic and financial factors, as well as by varied ambitions, Jordan's minister for environment Muawieh Khalid Radaideh said at the first-ever Middle East and North Africa (Mena) Climate Week in Dubai.

"Regional cooperation is a challenge because different countries are in different political, economic, financial situations. Therefore they have different ambitions when it comes climate change", he said.

Most Mideast Gulf states, such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman, have announced National Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris agreement, or pledges to get to net zero, but other Mena states have been less ambitious.

The Mena Climate Week, organised in collaboration with the UN and the World Bank ahead of the UN climate conference Cop 27, is a regional platform to discuss progress on the implementation of the Paris agreement as well as decisions made in Glasgow last year.

The UAE aims to raise the contribution of clean energy in its domestic mix to 50pc by 2050 — 44pc of renewables and 6pc nuclear, with 38pc of gas and 12pc clean coal — from 25pc in 2017. The country also aims to reduce the carbon footprint of power generation by 70pc.

The UAE, which will host the UN Cop 28 climate conference in 2023, was the first Mideast Gulf country to announce a net zero target. But the country's minister of climate change and environment Mariam Almheiri said earlier this month that much more needed to be done in the fight against climate change. She said that the UAE will update its NDC and was hoping other countries will do the same.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter of crude, has pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2060.

By Elshan Aliyev