What are some likely scenarios for climate change in the UAE? What do scientific models predict will happen to temperature, humidity, precipitation and sea levels? How is the UAE prioritising the likelihood of these various scenarios and preparing for them simultaneously? What are the challenges in planning for such a wide range of predicted climatological conditions and how is the process of policy-making itself being rethought in consequence? What adaptation policies are currently being proposed by the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE)? What might a climate change-ready UAE look like and what needs to happen for climate change readiness to be enhanced?

Join Art Jameel’s  Writer/Researcher in Residence Nadia Christidi for a conversation with Assistant Expert Qais Al Suweidi and Climate Change Analyst Muwaffaq Alkhedery from MOCCAE. The conversation will provide an overview of climate change predictions and adaptation policies in the UAE but will also explore the implications of the UAE’s already extreme climatological conditions on its usefulness for imagining and studying climate futures; the UAE’s long history of engineering habitability and competitive advantage in developing adaptation technologies; and the Emirati government’s plans to leverage that advantage to ‘turn climate change challenges into opportunities.’

Qais Al Suwaidi is Assistant Expert in the Climate Change Department at MOCCAE and has been a lead on climate change policy since joining the ministry in 2016. Qais holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government and a BA from the University of Melbourne.

Muwaffaq Alkhedery is a Climate Change Analyst in the Climate Change Department at MOCCAE. Muwaffaq holds a BSc in Oceanography and Meteorology from the University of Plymouth and an MSc in Environmental Modelling from University College London.

Nadia Christidi was the Art Jameel Researcher and Writer in Residence (2019). Nadia is a PhD candidate in the anthropology of science and technology at MIT. She studies how cities that face water supply challenges which will be impacted by climate change are imagining, planning, and preparing for the future of water.