Greening the Mediterranean? North Africa and Middle East’s Pathways to Environmental Policy
29 January 2025. From 12:00 | Conference | English | IEMed
Greening the Mediterranean? North Africa and Middle East’s Pathways to Environmental Policy
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are overwhelmingly mentioned as evidence of a looming climate peril. Nonetheless, countries in the region have long resisted the incorporation of environmental norms and ideas into the fabric of their state systems and international relations. Since the early 2000s, however, a ‘green’ turn has taken hold, with a significant acceleration, especially in Morocco and even in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) monarchies, after the crude oil prices dropped between 2014 and 2016. Still, less is known about how Arab regimes stand regarding environmental policy. This talk aims to offer an overview of North Africa and Middle East’s ‘greenisation’ process and reluctance to it, as a combined effect of increasing domestic awareness which stems from Arab regimes’ new ambitions, climate adaptation constraints and external pressure – namely, the EU’s environmental pivot. We will review recent developments in national and regional cooperation initiatives, reflecting on the new spaces for convergence and new sources of divergence that climate degradation foreshadows.
A lecture by Giulia Cimini, junior assistant professor and postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna. She received her PhD in International Studies from the University of Naples L’Orientale (2018) with a dissertation on The changing nature and role of political parties in post-2011 Tunisia and Morocco. Her research interests include political parties, security assistance and environmental governance in the Middle East and North Africa. Cimini is principal investigator of the project “Go Green: A Trans-Mediterranean Approach to Climate Change” (2023-24), in collaboration with the International University of Rabat, and was principal investigator of the project “Security for Whom?” (2019-23), funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. She authored Political Parties in Post-Uprising Tunisia and Morocco(ed., Routledge, 2023) and co-edited Political Islam Inside-Out (ed., Routledge, 2022). Cimini is also Associate Editor of the scientific journal Interdisciplinary Political Studies (IdPS).
Speakers
Giulia Cimini
Junior assistant professor and postdoctoral researcher Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna
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