From Threat to Opportunity: Climate, National Security and Regional Cooperation in the Middle East
Panel Discussion to be moderated by: Nadav Bachar, Institute for Climate and Environmental Policy
Panelists to include:
- Prof. Dan Blumberg, Ben Gurion University of the Negev
- Dr. Lee Recht, Israeli Innovation Authority
- Ms. Tamar Zandberg, Head of the National Institute for Climate and Environmental Policy and Former Minister of the Environment in Israel
- Mr. Oded Gertman, MIND Israel
- Dr David Lehrer, Director of the Center for Applied Environmental Diplomacy at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies
Climate change is an accelerant of security risk for Israel and the wider Middle East. The region
is warming faster than the global average while precipitation declines and desertification
advances, undermining agriculture, water systems, and energy reliability. A systematic
assessment of the climate–security nexus shows how prolonged drought and resource stress
in Syria helped drive internal migration and destabilization, how Jordan faces extreme water
scarcity with rationed supply alongside sustained refugee pressures that strain social cohesion
and the economy, and how Egypt is exposed to a deepening water and economic crisis with
strategic implications for the Nile system, food security, and power generation. Environmental
degradation in the West Bank and Gaza already crosses borders through shared aquifers,
rivers, and the Mediterranean, with salinization, untreated wastewater, and flood risk
threatening public health. Taken together, climate change operates as a risk multiplier that
heightens social stress, migration, and violence while eroding the resilience of Israeli critical
systems.
Despite these risks, climate change also creates an opportunity – cooperation among countries
once separated by political tension may become feasible as shared resource stress intensifies.
Collaboration between Israel and the Palestinians, Jordan, and Egypt on water and energy is
increasingly likely as scarcity deepens; broader groupings that include arid Gulf states, and
even more distant partners such as Indonesia, may also emerge. As resource availability
declines, governments will be pushed toward practical, jointly managed solutions that build
cross-border infrastructure, expand mutual interdependence, and enhance regional stability.