Adapting to climate change is not a new phenomenon for the Arab World. For thousands of years, the people in Arab countries have coped with the challenges of climate variability by adapting their survival strategies to
changes in rainfall and temperature. Their experience has contributed significantly to the global knowledge on climate change and adaptation.
But over the next century global climatic variability is predicted to increase, and Arab countries may well experience unprecedented extremes in climate. Temperatures may reach new highs, and in most places there may be a risk of less rainfall. Under these circumstances, Arab countries and their citizens will once again need to draw on their long experience of adapting to the environment to address the new challenges posed by climate change.
Arab countries have already experienced the effects of a changing climate; higher temperatures and extreme events such as drought and flash floods may well become the new norm.