Global efforts to limit the effects of climate change are finally on the international agenda. Science is providing ample evidence of the devastating effects climate change is already causing around the world today.

It is time to act. The hbs has defined the global threat of climate change as one of its core issues in its national and international programs. Action to limit the effects of global warming caused by emissions of greenhouse gases need to focus on two areas: adaptation to already irreversible effects, such as reductions in arable land, desertification, sea level rise and mitigation of new threats to the global environment.

There is a growing awareness of climate change as a universal threat to human development that goes beyond the narrow concept of climate change as a limited environmental problem. Recent research and reports demonstrate the human impact of climate change: the loss of life, the increase of poverty and hunger, displacement and migration as well as increasing likelihood of conflict.

Also in the volatile political context of the Middle East, societies are beginning to see climate change as an issue that impacts them directly. Its effects are likely to aggravate existing environmental problems and controversies over access to limited resources. The scarcity of water is already a threat to stability and development; the uneven access to it constitutes a fact of environmental injustice. The combination of a fragile ecosystem, high population growth rates, poverty and closed political systems in a conflict prone regional setting creates a dangerous mixture that is likely to explode if no action is taken.

Given the urgent need to counteract the effects of climate change the concept of sustainable development is redefined. Development must take the additional threat of climate change into consideration.

Our work – our goals
Beyond the debate on the use of renewable energies, the quest of water and environmental rights, hbs programs, working jointly with its partners in the region, focus on mobilization and participation in processes of political decisions making with regard to international campaigns against climate change towards fair and just solutions.