Climate change could make Middle East 'uninhabitable', according to study
Temperature increases could increase the amount of people migrating to Europe, which is already in the midst of a migrant crisis, say researchers
Climate change could make sections of North Africa and the Middle East uninhabitable, according to a recent study.
Researchers at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia have found that the region – already incredibly hot in the summer – could become so warm that "human habitability is compromised."
The researchers found that even limiting global warming to lower than two degrees Celsius – agreed at the United Nations COP21 climate change summit in Paris last year – would do little to stop the region from overheating, with summer temperatures increasing more than two times faster than the average pace of global warming.
"In future, the climate in large parts of the Middle East and North Africa could change in such a manner that the very existence of its inhabitants is in jeopardy," Jos Lelieveld, director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and professor at the Cyprus Institute, said in a statement released this week.
The team looked at how Middle Eastern and North African temperatures will develop during the 21st century.
They found that by the middle of the century temperatures in these regions would not drop lower than 30 degrees Celsius at night during the warmest periods, with temperatures potentially hitting 46 degrees Celsius during the day.