climate change pushing Arab region to limits, says WMO

On Dec 4, 2025

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The Arab region was being pushed to its limits by intense heatwaves and severe droughts, the latest World Meteorological Organization report found, as it warms at twice the global average.

The study found extreme events last year affected 3.8mn people and led to more than 300 deaths, mainly from heatwaves and floods, in the first such report compiled by UN agencies including the League of Arab States.

The region covering 22 countries — stretching from the Arabian peninsula and the Levant to north Africa and Somalia in the south — experienced an average near-surface temperature rise of 1.08C above the 1991-2020 average and 1.94C above the 1961-1990 baseline.

WMO secretary-general Celeste Saulo said intense heatwaves, where temperatures have hit 50C in some Arab countries, were “pushing society to the limits”.

“Human health, ecosystems and economies can’t cope with extended spells of more than 50C — it is simply too hot to handle,” she said.

The frequency and severity of extreme weather and climate events had increased significantly in recent years, the WMO said, with an 83 per cent rise in recorded disasters between the 1980-1999 period and 2000-2019.

The research comes weeks after fierce resistance by the Arab group of 22 countries led by Saudi Arabia to climate action, including plans to wean economies off fossil fuels, at the UN COP30 climate summit.

The burning of fossil fuels is the chief cause of human-induced climate change but many oil producers in the region still rely heavily on the exports to fund their economies — despite some beginning to roll out solar and wind energy projects in their own countries.

Last year was the hottest on record globally, and this year is expected to be among the top three warmest despite the cooling effect of the naturally occurring La Niña cycle in the Pacific Ocean.

The WMO said this week that there was a 55 per cent chance of a weak La Niña affecting weather and climate patterns over the next three months.

Last month, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said the latest indications suggested La Niña was under way again, having initially occurred at the start of 2025 before returning to neutral conditions.

The WMO report warned that drought conditions in the Arab region had been worsening, particularly in western north Africa, after six consecutive failed rainy seasons. Fifteen of the world’s most water-scarce countries are located in the area.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates had been hit by extreme rainfall and flash floods that caused death and destruction.

Rola Dashti, executive secretary of the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, said declining rainfall “affects water scarcity and jeopardises food production” while “rising sea levels also threaten coastal cities”.

The region faces a multitude of different pressures, scientists say. Francesco Paparella, director of the Mubadala Arabian Center for Climate and Environmental Sciences at New York University Abu Dhabi, pointed out that the warming Gulf sea was also causing higher humidity.

This was leading to “higher heat stress for people living in the coastal cities of the Gulf” while increasing “the strength and precipitation of storms”.

However, “it’s technology that makes a place liveable or not liveable,” Paparella added. For Gulf nations, “it is very important to maintain a level of affluence, technology and energy availability that makes possible ubiquitous air cooling”.