Scientists urge speedy switch to renewables in Middle East

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS
Associated Press

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A climate change conference will underscore to policymakers in the Middle East and the east Mediterranean that the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources is needed urgently because greenhouse gas emissions are helping to drive up regional temperatures faster than in many other inhabited parts of the world. A scientist at the Cyprus Institute’s Climate and Atmosphere Research Center said Monday that although this “can’t happen overnight,” governments have to make the switch within the next two decades to avert potentially “irreversible effects” such as desertification. An international climate change conference this week brings together 65 top scientists, diplomats and policymakers from Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Iraq and Greece to present the results of a two-year study.