Climate Solidarity in Arab States: Legal Challenges and Emerging Solutions

Several of the sustainability challenges facing our world, such as the climate change emergency, cannot be addressed in isolation. International law has therefore increasingly underlined the importance of solidarity and cooperation between countries and key stakeholders to advance effective climate responses. Climate solidarity underscores the need for collective, cooperative, and collaborative action to advance climate mitigation and adaptation. The need for climate solidarity is particularly significant in the Arab region given the shared similarities in culture, language (Arabic), religion (Islam), geography, as well as in their contributions and vulnerabilities to climate change. However, despite the increased prominence of the climate solidarity discourse, a detailed case has yet to be developed on the legal and governance aspects of advancing climate solidarity in the closely connected countries of the Arab region. This article begins to fill that gap.

This article examines various legal and institutional barriers to climate solidarity in the region, such as an unclear regional framework on climate change, absent or inadequate domestic legal frameworks on climate change, divergent priorities and conflictive geopolitics, uneven access to climate technologies, institutional limitations, and resource constraints, in order to identify the ways in which an integrative legal framework on climate solidarity can help close these gaps. The study suggests that elaboration of a clear and comprehensive regional strategy on climate change, enhanced domestic legislation and rule linkage, development of common and shared principles of cooperation, as well technology, knowledge, expertise, and information sharing are significant steps towards advancing climate solidarity in the Arab region.