Wmo report: 480 million people in arab region face “unsurvivable heat” and mass displacement risk

A stark new warning from the World Meteorological Organization reveals that nearly half a billion people across North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula are confronting an escalating climate emergency that threatens their very survival. The WMO’s latest State of the Climate report, released Thursday, paints a dire picture for 480 million residents in 22 Arab countries who face increasingly extreme heat—some reaching levels that human bodies simply cannot withstand.

The report highlights how accelerating global warming is pushing the region’s essential life-support systems to their breaking points. Agricultural lands that have fed communities for generations, along with critical water sources including reservoirs and underground aquifers, are being devastated by human-caused climate change. This environmental collapse is creating a cascade of threats: severe droughts are destroying crops, leading to food shortages and famine conditions that could force massive population movements.

The implications extend far beyond individual suffering. As temperatures soar to potentially lethal levels and water becomes increasingly scarce, entire communities may be forced to abandon their homes, creating climate refugees on an unprecedented scale. The WMO’s findings underscore how the Arab region, despite contributing relatively little to global greenhouse gas emissions, is bearing some of the most severe consequences of the climate crisis.

This report serves as an urgent reminder that climate change is not a distant threat—it’s a present reality that is already reshaping lives across one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions, with implications that will ripple across international borders.