Climate Policy and Politics in the Middle East - by Aisha Al-Sarihi & Michael Mason (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

The Middle East region is one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. This book assesses the extent to which there is political and economic space for Middle Eastern states to transition into a sustainable, just and climate resilient future.

The book offers a regional political economy perspective, comparing the hydrocarbon-rich Gulf States with those Arab states in the Mashreq (Levant) and Maghreb (North Africa) lacking matching resources to undertake investments in low-carbon growth and societal-wide climate change adaptation. While recent scholarship has focused on the impact of the energy sector on climate policy, this book covers other key issues including climate finance, food security, water security, Arab 'climate urbanism', and more immediate threats to human security such as conflict and political instability. It concludes that uneven economic development and major variations in governing capacity are more important determinants of climate mitigation and adaptation policy than exposure to the biophysical impacts of climate change. Through a comprehensive analysis of the Middle East, authors in the volume explore the challenges and opportunities to advance alternative development pathways in a post-oil era. The wide-ranging and perceptive chapters are written by leading scholars, featuring mostly researchers from the region.

Review Quotes

"Al Sarihi and Mason have put together a useful and illuminating volume to understand the diversity of the challenges and the wide scope of policy solutions facing climate policy in the Middle East. The chapter authors represent some of the best thinking on how to approach the risks of climate change across the region." --Karen E. Young, Senior Research Scholar, Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy, US

"The sociology and politics of climate change have so far received surprisingly little attention in Middle East scholarship. This edited volume by Aisha Al-Sarihi and Michael Mason broadens the debate, bringing together a wide range of voices to unpack the plurality of climate policy realities across the region." --Harry Verhoeven, Professor, Columbia University, USA

"This worthwhile and timely edited volume, bringing together top experts in the field, examines how environmental challenges shape regional climate dynamics across the Middle East. By analysing national strategies, resource conflicts, and cooperation efforts, the authors ask tough questions and pose the right answers to help understand the region's complex climate future and the implications." --Dr Sanam Vakil, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House, UK

About the Author

Aisha Al-Sarihi is a political scientist with over a decade of research expertise in the policy, politics and governance of climate change and energy transition. She is a non-resident fellow at Chatham House's Middle East and North Africa Programme, London, UK, the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington DC (AGSIW), US, and the Middle East Council on Global Affairs (MECGA), Qatar. She was a former Research Fellow at the Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore, Singapore.

Michael Mason is Professor of Environmental Geography at LSE, UK, where he served as Director of the Middle East Centre from 2018-2025. He is the author/editor of six books, including co-editor of The Untold Story of the Golan Heights (I.B. Tauris, 2023).