Meeting report & Background Document: Regional Expert Meeting for the Middle East and North Africa on Climate and Air Pollution

The meeting was organised by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), as part of the Supporting National Action and Planning on short-lived climate pollutants (SNAP) Initiative. UN Environment West Asia Office, the World Health Organisation (WHO), the League of the Arab States (LAS), and the Ministry of the Environment of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan co-organised the meeting with the support of the SNAP initiative Lead Partners (the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the International Union of Air Pollution Prevention and Environmental Protection Associations (IUAPPA) and the CCAC Secretariat.

The meeting took place in Amman, Jordan, on 22nd and 23 May 2017 and was attended by about 50 government officials from 16 countries across the MENA region, including Jordan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Qatar, Oman, Lebanon, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and UAE.  The Meeting Summary and the Background Document, that includes information on SLCP emission for each country in the region can be downloaded below. 

The aim of the meeting was to explore opportunities to improve health, air quality, and climate in the Arab countries of the Middle East and North Africa through reducing emissions of Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (SLCP).

Among the issues reviewed were:  
• The prospects for air pollution and climate change in the region up to 2030 in the absence of action on SLCPs;
• The potential contribution of SLCP mitigation to climate, health and food security, and more generally to economic development;
• Feasible mitigation technologies and strategies and opportunities for their implementation at national scale;
• The relationship of SLCP mitigation to broader regional air pollution and climate strategies and their benefit for the MENA region.

The main message coming from the meeting was that MENA is a region with much to gain from early action on SLCPs.  This allowed to strengthen collaboration with the Regional Offices of WHO and UN Environment and the League of Arab States.