The Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA) is grappling with the climate crisis, marked by increasing temperatures, rising sea levels, water resource mismanagement, desertification, extreme heatwaves, and more frequent droughts and flash floods. The region is warming faster than the global average and several countries are experiencing acute water stress and agricultural collapse. The region is the most water-stressed in the world, with less than 10% of the global average water availability per personVisite the website here. This water stress is worsened by climate change, which increases drought, especially affecting surface water systems.
Climate change is intensifying already fragile socio-economic systems in the MENA region, where it intersects with protracted conflicts, displacement, authoritarian governance, economic inequality, and weak public services. These overlapping crises disproportionately affect the most marginalized—displaced populations, smallholder farmers, informal workers, and women in conflict-affected areas.
Ongoing conflicts and occupation are key drivers of climate injustice in MENA. Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territory has significant environmental impacts, including destruction of land and infrastructure, contamination of natural resources, and long-term ecological damage, as well as denying Palestinians’ access to land, water and other natural resources. Protracted conflicts across the region, such as in Yemen, are sustained by investments and arms sales from actors in the Global North, whose militarization policies contribute to instability, further undermining local resilience and limiting the capacity of affected countries to adapt to climate change. Despite bearing a greater share of the burden of displacement and economic instability, women remain underrepresented in climate decision-making, with gender considerations often neglected in regional climate planning.
The extractive development model based on fossil fuels has entrenched energy inequity and ecological degradation. The region, particularly in the GCC, is also a home to huge fossil fuel production and supply, also enabled by continued investments from countries in the Global North. Several countries are seen as blockers to more progressive climate commitments at the international level, as wealthier, oil producing countries dominate regional climate narratives, whereas vulnerable communities face climate impacts without resources or recognition, or are isolated in climate dialogues with limited opportunities for regional collaboration.
In MENA Oxfam strives for climate justice in a way that is feminist, equal, and free from conflict, promoting human rights, and expanding civic space. This requires a locally led and owned and systematic approach which considers the fragile context and intersecting inequalities. We support equitable socio-economic transformation, inclusive and accountable climate governance, and climate adaptation and resilience measures which protect those who are highly vulnerable and most exposed to the climate crisis.
Despite many challenges, the MENA region is witnessing growing movements and policy openings for climate justice. Youth and feminist activists are mobilizing around water justice, food sovereignty, and the right to a healthy environment. Social movements are demanding systemic change, and greater accountability in mitigating and responding to the climate crisis.
At the policy level, the countries in the region are adopting climate strategies and are updating their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), creating entry points for engagement. Oxfam’s recent report which assessed civil society participation in the preparation of NDCs in the MENA region clearly showed that there remains a lot of work to be done to make these plans inclusive and adequate to address the climate challenge.
Regional forums such as the League of Arab States, Union for the Mediterranean, and COP-hosting roles (e.g. Egypt COP27, UAE COP28) have also elevated climate change to the regional agenda, though there is much to do to translate ongoing efforts into feminist and justice-oriented action. Women in MENA have brought the issues of de-militarization and the impact of conflict on climate change to the global agenda, and there are opportunities to build on this.
There is also a growing opportunity to invest in community-led adaptation, support civil society’s role in climate decision-making, and shape the regional narrative toward intersectional and rights-based solutions particularly in the fragile context as well as linking climate justice to health rights. Cross-regional initiatives provide opportunities to drive change at scale.
1) Strengthening Movements and Activism
Civic space is severely constrained across much of MENA. Activists, particularly environmental defenders, women’s rights advocates, and youth leaders, often operate under threat of surveillance, criminalization, or exile. Despite these threats, movements continue to organize and resist.
Oxfam partners with women’s rights and feminist organizations, youth-led groups, climate activists, and civil society networks to build collective power, share strategies, and provide protection and capacity support. We focus on amplifying the voices of climate justice actors and bringing feminist and grassroots voices into the public narrative, by supporting advocacy, facilitating collaboration, and strengthening their presence in national and regional dialogues. We partner with the Arab Feminist NGOs Network which works on feminist climate justice and represents MENA women in the Women and Gender Constituency of the UNFCCC. We have supported Local Conferences of Youth (LCOY), including the first ever in the OPT, organized by the Arab Youth Green Voices Network.
Our priority is on capacity building to empower youth, women, and girls to actively participate in advocating for climate justice and gender-responsive policies. This includes providing guidance to CSOs, facilitating convenings, and expanding access to knowledge and tools to ensure that their work aligns with the principles of climate justice. Strengthening cross-border solidarity and movement infrastructure, particularly for displaced and stateless people impacted by climate change, remains a key focus of our work in the region.
2) Mobilizing Climate Finance for Fair Climate Action
Climate finance in MENA is marked by severe inequality. Climate finance needs are growing, for example, North African countries alone require an estimated $280 billion by 2030 to meet their climate change mitigation and adaptation needs, with an annual financing gap of $10 to $30 billionVisite the website here. However, the region receives a disproportionately low share of international climate finance despite facing significant climate risks. While the region has made efforts to access international climate funds for mitigation and adaptation projects, the overall funding received remains limited. A large portion of the approved financing comes in the form of loans rather than grants, and the distribution is uneven, with a few countries receiving most of the funds.
Within the region, wealthy countries mobilize large-scale infrastructure investments, while fragile and low-income countries struggle to access basic adaptation support. Conflict-affected countries such as Yemen are systemically underfunded, and some, for example the OPT, are blocked from accessing funding from certain sources due to political status. Funding that is available often bypasses local actors, lacks transparency, and reinforces top-down development models rather than promoting community-led approaches and grassroots initiatives led by CSOs.
We aim to overcome this challenge by advocating for grants-based, locally accessible finance and supporting civil society engagement in national climate finance mechanisms. Our efforts also include tracking and analyzing climate finance flows and gaps, with a particular focus on gender-transformative and conflict-sensitive programming. In addition, we advocate for redistributive fiscal policies and promote just climate finance narratives at regional dialogues and multilateral platforms.
Opportunities lie in influencing how donor funds are structured particularly in the fragile context and ensuring that communities particularly women, youth, and displaced people can access and shape finance for resilience and recovery.
3) Supporting Local Adaptation to Build Resilience
Local adaptation measures, such as climate-resilient agriculture and sustainable water management systems are essential for strengthening the resilience of communities in the MENA region, where escalating climate impacts, water scarcity, and land degradation threaten livelihoods, food security, and long-term development. Across the region communities are developing their own adaptation strategies often rooted in traditional knowledge and social solidarity. Oxfam works with these communities to build their resilience to the impacts of climate change by helping them to access water resources, adopt climate-smart and sustainable agriculture practices to enable food security, and diversify their livelihoods. Examples of these initiatives supported in the OPT include the introduction of climate-resilient crops, small-scale affordable farming techniques such as hydroponic units, advanced irrigation and ecological farming practices. Model farm demonstration sites are a highly successful methodology to showcase climate change adaptation and mitigation practices at the local level.
4) Advancing a Just Energy Transition
MENA’s energy transition is shaped by entrenched fossil fuel economies, external geopolitical interests, and significant inequality in energy access. There is a growing recognition of the need to expand renewable energy, but projects often prioritize export or elite consumption. Political unrest and economic fragility undermine governance and severely limit the region’s ability to implement sustainable energy solutions.
In conflict zones, infrastructure destruction, resource restrictions, and systemic violence exacerbate energy insecurity, leaving millions without reliable access to electricity. Governance issues also impede progress toward effective energy transitions in several countries. Compounding these challenges is the region’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels. As a major exporter and a key player in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), many MENA countries depend on fossil fuel revenues while grappling with the urgent need to transition to cleaner energy. While there has been significant investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives, fossil fuel exports remain a cornerstone of many economies in the region.
A just energy transition in MENA requires moving toward a green economy in a way that upholds fairness and social equity, particularly for workers and communities dependent on fossil fuels. It requires tackling the risks of job displacement, offering reskilling and alternative livelihood opportunities, and supporting inclusive economic diversification. Central to this transition is the recognition that climate, social, and economic issues in the region are deeply interconnected.
Oxfam addresses these intersections with a focus on energy poverty, which disproportionately affects women and other vulnerable groups. Together with the Arab Feminist NGOs Network Oxfam has supported capacity-building and networking on climate and gender issues, including through the network’s JET working group within this network focuses on energy access, the informal sector, and the economic impact of the energy transition on women. Oxfam has organized gatherings to explore climate-gender-energy links, helping elevate feminist perspectives from MENA at COP27 and beyond. Workshops further advanced feminist knowledge on just energy transitions, encouraging inclusive dialogue.
These initiatives promote equitable partnerships, challenge dominant narratives, and amplify diverse voices within the Just Energy Transition (JET) discourse. Oxfam’s efforts aim to drive meaningful action from national and regional stakeholders, including the League of Arab States, Ministries of Energy, and Gulf countries, ensuring that renewable energy targets are accompanied by systemic changes to enable a just transition.