SECTION 2:
WEST ASIA OVERVIEW

West Asia is experiencing severe climate change, such as sea-level rise, temperature change, and desertification (United Nations Environment Programme - World Conservation Monitoring Centre [UNEP-WCMC] 2016). Being largely covered with arid or semi-arid zones, the region faces increasing pressure on water resources, extreme weather, food security, and climateinduced natural risks. Air pollution and dust storms are also persistent and growing problems.

Water scarcity is the predominant issue in West Asia, expecting a 20% decrease in rainfall over the next 50 years (Andersen 2021). UNDESA defines water scarce as 1000 cubic meters per capita per year. Yet, The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan caps water consumption at 155 cubic meters per person per year
(including over 700,000 refugees) (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs [UNDESA] 2014).

With the growing energy consumption in the region, West Asia has witnessed growth in CO2 emissions, largely as a result of the energy fuel mix and efficiency of water and electrical use. As a response, all countries in West Asia have made their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the Paris Climate Agreement, with many focusing on emission reduction through renewable energy and clean development.

Technology can support mitigation by reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions, geoengineering techniques to stabilize or reduce global temperatures, and adaptation by developing people’s capacity and resilience to the adverse effects of climate change. 

A powerful tool in use in West Asia, is satellite data, which has the immense power to help decision-making processes around nature protection, restoration, and sustainable management. Spatial data identifies the areas where natural solutions can effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, encourage green economic growth, and preserve a global safety net. In its fight against pollution and climate change and confirmation of its commitment to the terms of the Paris Climate Agreement, UAE launched DMSat-1. This is a nanometric environmental satellite, which will compile and provide analytics on environmental data, air pollutants and greenhouse gases. This will enable the development of maps of the concentration and distribution of greenhouse gases, and seasonal changes. It has been developed by the Dubai Municipality in collaboration with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre. (Dubai Air Environment 2021).

West Asia countries are dealing with the effects of desert dust combined with anthropogenic emissions, primarily from historical and present waste practices as well as from the energy industry and transport sectors. Over the past 20 years, the rising amount of air pollutants in this area has led to an increase in early fatalities, threatening the health and future lives of their citizens (United Nations University [UNU] 2016). The effects of air pollution disproportionately affect women and young children from poor households who use dirty fuels and are exposed to high levels of indoor air pollution. Pregnant women are also at increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes following exposure to high pollution levels (World Health Organization [WHO] 2022).

Rapid and growing urbanization is a critical environmental issue for West Asia, with two-thirds of the population already living in cities as shown in Map 2 (Statista 2022).

The environment in West Asia, is impacted by urban expansion, pollution, and diminishing bio-capacity of ecosystems, and modification of habitats. This threatens biodiversity and causes further biodiversity degradation (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization [UNESCO], Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding [APCEIU] 2021).

Protected areas often offer one way to conserve essential biodiversity and safeguard ecosystem services. However, West Asia’s protected area networks are limited in coverage and management effectiveness.

The region’s last biodiversity state report also highlighted the lack of information and data available for biodiversity and ecosystem services. This factor limits robust evaluation of the region’s status and effective decisionmaking (UNEP-WCMC 2016).

Countries in West Asia have invested considerable effort in building capacity to support biodiversity conservation. The Global Biodiversity Outlook 4 Report shows urban expansion, intensive agriculture, and marginal land cultivation contribute to biodiversity decline. Wildlife crimes, including illegal hunting, are a continuing problem. At the same time, conservation work was hindered by the
unstable political situation in the region (UNEP-WCMC 2016). Increasing access to spatial data and tools, and improving capacity to use them, have been proven to help support nations to make more informed decisions on how and where to halt or reverse biodiversity loss around the world while also addressing climate
and development issues (Supples et al. 2022; Hansen et al. 2021; Maxwell et al. 2020; Runting et al. 2020). Although progress has been made to make spatial data from the West Asia region available, there is still much to gather and make available historical data and generate current information (Secretariat of the CBD, 2014).

A powerful tool in use in West Asia, is satellite data, which has the immense power to help decision-making processes around nature protection, restoration, and sustainable management. Spatial data identifies the areas where natural solutions can effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, encourage green economic growth, and preserve a global safety net. In its fight against pollution and climate change and confirmation of its commitment to the terms of the Paris Climate Agreement, UAE launched DMSat-1. This is a nanometric environmental satellite, which will compile and provide analytics on environmental data, air pollutants and greenhouse gases. This will enable the development of maps of the concentration and distribution of greenhouse gases, and seasonal changes. It has been developed by the Dubai Municipality in collaboration with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre. (Dubai Air Environment 2021).