When Did Your Country Start Getting Warmer?

Karim Elgendy

Since the start of the industrial age at the end of the 19th century, global surface temperatures have been on the rise due to increased carbon emissions. It is estimated that the earth’s surface temperature has already increased by an average of 0.9° C since then with obvious impacts on the global climate patterns.

The pattern of such warming has varied between different regions. Even within certain regions, sub-regional variations can be detected. In the Middle East and North Africa region, for example, there are sub-regional variations in how countries have warmed between 1880 and 2019, which correlate with their proximity to the Mediterranean Sea or the Persian/Arabian Gulf.

Continue reading When Did Your Country Start Getting Warmer?

Sea Level Rise in the Gulf

Karim Elgendy

As the last ice age ended, the earth’s climate began to warm up, glaciers and ice sheets started to melt, and sea levels rose globally. With sea levels rising, seawater (once again) flooded into the Gulf (also known as the Persian Gulf or Arabia Gulf), whose sea floor was exposed for millennia and covered in sand dunes (except for lakes and the Tigris-Euphrates river meandering across it towards the Arabian sea).

Continue reading Sea Level Rise in the Gulf

Climate Change in the Middle East and North Africa : Carbon Intensity

emissions-infographics-banner21 copy

Karim Elgendy

Following the  UNFCCC’s 23rd Conference of Parties in Bonn (COP23), Carboun has released a visual guide to climate change in the Middle East and North Africa region. The visual guide comprises two infographics covering carbon emissions in the Middle East and North Africa and climate change impact. The aim of this infographic is to explain carbon emissions from the Middle East and North Africa  and the Arab World regions in the global context, especially the relationship between total emissions, per capita emissions, and emissions per unit of GDP. This infographic is the second of two representing the visual guide to climate change in the Middle East and North Africa region. The first part can be viewed here. The guide, which was researched and designed by Karim Elgendy, was based on raw data provided by a variety of sources and datasets (all of which are listed on the infographics). It represents an update of a previous visual guide published in 2011, which also aimed to contextualize regional carbon trends. Copyrights for all infographics are reserved for Carboun. No republishing or reproduction of this infographic or part thereof is allowed in digital, print, or other formsts without prior written consent from Carboun.

Continue reading Climate Change in the Middle East and North Africa : Carbon Intensity

Climate Change in the Middle East and North Africa : Carbon Emissions

emissions-infographics-banner21

Karim Elgendy

Following the  UNFCCC’s 23rd Conference of Parties in Bonn (COP23), Carboun has released a visual guide to climate change in the Middle East and North Africa region. The visual guide comprises two infographics covering carbon emissions in the Middle East and North Africa and climate change impact. The aim of this infographic is to explain carbon emissions from the Middle East and North Africa region in the global context, especially how they relate to economic development, climate change, and climate committments under the Paris Agreement. This infographic is the first of two representing the visual guide to climate change in the Middle East and North Africa region. The second partcan be viewed here.The guide, which was researched and designed by Karim Elgendy, was based on raw data provided by a variety of sources and datasets (all of which are listed on the infographics). It represents an update of a previous visual guide published in 2011, which also aimed to contextualize regional carbon trends. Copyrights for all infographics are reserved for Carboun. No republishing or reproduction of this infographic or part thereof is allowed in digital, print, or other formsts without prior written consent from Carboun.

Continue reading Climate Change in the Middle East and North Africa : Carbon Emissions

Carbon Footprint of Electricity in the Middle East

Guy El Khoury

Despite the increasing global interest in renewable energy sources, electricity generation remains largely dependent on fossil fuels with approximately 70% of the world’s electricity currently being generated using coal, natural gas, and petroleum products. Coal, the most carbon intensive of the fossil fuels, accounts for the largest share of electricity generated globally, with 40% of all electricity generated.

Such reliance on fossil fuels is coupled with a relatively low conversion efficiency from fossil fuels to electricity, which averages 35%. The remaining 65% of the energy contained in fuels used is in effect wasted, lost as heat in power plant turbines and generators.

In this context, it is not surprising to learn that electricity generation stands as the top contributor to global Carbon emissions. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), electricity generation currently accounts for approximately 50% of global carbon emissions.

In the Middle East and North Africa region, electricity and heat production are responsible for 41% of total carbon emissions according to IEA data from 2009. And while not representing a consumption sector, electricity generation ranked well higher than any individual sector, including transportation, which comes second and accounts for 25% of the region’s total carbon emissions.  Yet carbon emissions from electricity generation is not equal across the region. In fact, the top 5 contributors to carbon emissions from electricity generation – namely Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Kuwait, and Iraq – together represent 70% of the region’s electricity generation carbon emissions, according to 2009 data by the IEA, a share that represents approximately 30% of the region’s total carbon emissions.

Continue reading Carbon Footprint of Electricity in the Middle East

An Introduction to Climate Change

Wissam Yassine

UPDATED – Climate change refers to the current changes in the Earth’s climate patterns due to the increase in greenhouse gases emitted by human activities. The driving force behind this pattern is an increase in the Earth’s surface and water temperature. In fact, over the last 130 years, the global average temperature of the planet rose by 0.8 °C.  However, the impacts of this temperature increase on climate patterns in different regions varied widely (Figure 1).

National scientific bodies in all major countries agree that the cause behind global warming and climate change is the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activities such as burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and growing livestock. Climate models have been created to forecast the expected increase in the average global temperatures over the coming years based on current and expected emission levels. These models show that the global average temperatures are expected to rise by up to 6 °C by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise as they have in recent decades.

Continue reading An Introduction to Climate Change

Sustainable Development and the Built Environment in the Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities

Karim Elgendy

In the western context, notions of sustainable development often refer to the need to adjust existing economic models in order to maintain better balances between economic growth and social needs, while protecting local ecologies and reducing the negative impact of growth on the global environment.

In the developing world, however, sustainable development takes on a rather different meaning. With the agendas of developing nations focused on addressing basic developmental challenges such as economic growth, water scarcity, food security, and health, other environmental and social aspects are considered secondary at best and for the most part a luxury that a developing nation cannot afford.

The Environment and the Middle East – Pathways to Sustainability – Volume 1.

In the absence of functioning economic models in the developing world, sustainable development here is not about adjustments to maintain balances. Instead, it is about using this economical tabula rasa to build the foundations of a new economic model in which sustainability and the environment are integral. One of these economical foundations is the built environment.

The built environment of our cities plays a major role in shaping the way we live and work, and given its relatively long lifespan its impact is long lasting. Our buildings determine how much energy we use to maintain thermal comfort while our infrastructures determine how much energy we need for transportation. It is estimated that 40% of carbon emissions worldwide is produced from the occupation of buildings with at least a portion of transportation’s 20% share being a consequence of the way our cities are planned.

Our built environment also influences our impact on the local environment as well as our collective health and wellbeing. Thus, as the cities of the developing world continue to grow, they continue to make decisions about the direction their development takes.

In the Middle East, the role of the built environment is becoming more pronounced as the region continues to experience rapid population increases and urbanization. Increased urban densities together with the rise of consumerism, have not only led to an increase in environmental degradation locally, but they have also meant that the region’s traditionally low energy use — and consequently carbon emissions– are set to rise and to play a larger role in global climate change.

But embracing sustainable development in the Middle East faces many challenges which prevent it from becoming part of the region’s development framework and its building industry practices.

Continue reading Sustainable Development and the Built Environment in the Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities