On 18 January 2024, ICLEI’s Nuha Eltinay, Senior Expert for Resilience and Climate Adaptation, was selected as a V60 Champion, an award from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) for Sustainability Champions in the Middle East. The Award highlighted the achievements of women in the field of sustainability and climate action in the Middle East.
According to a recent World Bank report, in North Africa, there could be up to 19.3 million internal climate migrants by 2050, accounting for 9% of the sub-regions total projected population (World Bank, 2022). Being one of the most vulnerable regions to prolonged droughts and increased water scarcity, achieving the Global Goal on Adaptation (GGA) and Net Zero in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region is key in shifting the global energy transition market towards renewables, and mitigating the impact of climate change, conflict and displacement in MENA's fragile settings.
On the importance of achieving these goals, Eltinay contributed, “Considering its high reliance on fossil fuels, and the lack of the technical and financial capacities for cities and businesses at the local level, the diversification of energy resources will help create an enabling environment for green investments in decarbonisation hydrocarbon production, and provide better access to youth employment opportunities. As we saw highlighted at COP28, there is a need to transition away from fossil fuels but recognise that all levels of government must accelerate this transition towards renewable energy and energy efficiency in order to best prepare for the impacts of climate change.”
Her engagement in these different projects and initiatives, such as CLIMATEFIT and Pathways2Resilience, have helped build her capacity in understanding climate change institutional governance challenges and complexities in the MENA region, while developing in-depth knowledge measuring urban resilience vulnerabilities at the local level. This experience has also complimented her PhD knowledge in this area which is accumulated in her recent book, “Urban Resilience and Climate Change in the MENA Region”, scheduled to be published later this month.
Congratulations Nuha Eltinay on this achievement! To learn more about ICLEI’s work in Resilience and Climate Adaptation, click here.