A report produced by the Emirates Wildlife Society in association with World Wide Fund, EWS-WWF, has revealed a comprehensive summary detailing the projected risks and impacts of climate change in the UAE.
The report titled, "UAE Climate Change Risks and Resilience: An overview of climate change risks to 12 key sectors," demonstrates how climate change can affect various sectors such as food, energy and water. The report aims to improve awareness and understanding of the risks posed by climate change among public and private sector decision-makers and policymakers.
A key highlight of the report includes a projected increase in average temperatures of two degrees Celsius by the year 2050, along with humidity, which is likely to increase by up to 10 percent. According to these projections, the resulting increased demand for cooling from buildings and industry are likely to create an energy demand-supply gap over time, hamper energy security, increase costs to end-users and produce additional greenhouse gas emissions.
Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, WWF's Global Climate and Energy Practice Leader, said, "The well-being of societies, the growth and diversification of economies, and the preservation of the natural world, are at great risk from climate change. The latest findings in this report confirm that unconstrained carbon emissions have wide-reaching ramifications, and pose a sobering risk to nearly every sector of the economy, business and society."
Laila Mostafa Abdullatif, Deputy Director-General at EWS-WWF, explained, "The UAE is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change as are all countries around the world, its effects are already being felt, and are set to increase if we don’t act further. If these impacts and risks are left unmanaged, it could be more challenging and costly to achieve the UAE’s national strategies and plans. We encourage all private sector champions, public sector policymakers and civil society leaders to share the responsibility, and play a part in developing and implementing adaptation strategies to boost resiliency and safeguard the economy, society and environment, as outlined in the report."
The Emirates Wildlife Society is a national environmental non-governmental organisation established in 2001 under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler's Representative in the Al Dhafra Region and Chairman of the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, EAD.
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