This afternoon at 7 o’clock, Casa Árabe de Madrid presents the eighth session of the cycle Arab University Classroom, by Giulia Cimini, professor of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna, who will talk about how the Arab countries are giving a “green turn” in their environmental and economic policies. Free entry until capacity is full. Event in English, with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish.
The countries of the Middle East and North Africa, the so-called MENA region (as it stands in English), are always mentioned as evidence of an imminent climate threat. Despite this, countries in the region have long resisted incorporating environmental standards and ideas into their state systems and international relations.
Since the early 2000s, however, a “green” turn has been consolidated, with significant acceleration, especially in Morocco and even in the monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), following the drop in crude oil prices between 2014 and 2016. That said, little is known about the position of Arab regimes in environmental policy.
This conference will provide an overview of the “greening” process in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as the resistance to it, as a combined effect of the growing domestic awareness arising from the new ambitions of Arab regimes, limitations to climate adaptation and external pressures, namely the EU’s environmental pivot.
Organized in collaboration with the Master’s Degree in Continuing Education in International Cooperation (UCM), the session will be presented by Miguel Hernando de Larramendi, professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Castilla La Mancha and a professor in this master’s degree. Olivia Orozco, Education and Economics coordinator at Casa Árabe, will moderate the debate.
