Resources

Since 2005, several global processes have called for an integrated approach to climate change adaptation (CCA) and disaster risk reduction (DRR).

The Arab region lacks sustainable natural resource management, mostly in the areas of energy efficiency and its overwhelming reliance on fossil fuels for virtually all its energy needs.

The American University of Beirut Solid Waste Management Task Force has published a manual entitled Guide to Municipal Solid Waste Management. The manual gives an overview of the waste management situation in the country (past, current, and potential solutions) along with some helpful tips on how to transition to more sustainable practices.

In the absence of a clear national plan for Integrated Waste Management (IWM), and due to various political and governmental issues, Lebanon has had to face a serious waste crisis in 2015.  The paper scrutinizes events leading up to the 17th of July 2015, and the impact of its aftermath on Lebanon’s environment, infrastructure, health and landscape. Parallels are drawn throughout the paper to a similar crisis faced by residents of Campania, Italy.

This paper thoroughly analyzes Lebanon’s “waste profile” and benchmarks it against a spectrum of countries to further understand global trends in...

Research Report | April 2015
In this paper, we analyze the susceptibility of agricultural outputs to future climate change in Lebanon, and the extent to which it propagates to the economic system as a whole. We use a methodological framework in which physical and economic models are integrated for assessing the higher-order economic impacts of projected climate changes. By using this integrated modeling approach, we are able to quantify the broader economic impacts in the country by considering not only the temporal dimension but also the regional disaggregation of the results. Our estimates...

Working Paper | March 2015
Sustainable Transportation and Mega Sporting Events in Arab Countries: the Case of Qatar by Robert Wittkuhn and Danyel Reiche
​Qatar has successfully developed into a hub for mega sporting events; the most prestigious of them will be the FIFA World Cup in 2022. Qatar promotes it as the “first completely carbon-neutral” and “most compact” World Cup. Such statements emphasize a very small impact of transport on the event’s carbon footprint; but they also raise questions about the understanding and applicability of carbon neutrality. As motive for hosting mega events...

Working Paper | February 2015
Commuters’ Behavior towards Upgraded Bus Services in Greater Beirut: Role of Itinerary and Implications for Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Social Welfare and Transport Policy by Ali Chalak, Hani Al-Naghi, Alexandra Irani, and Maya Abou-Zeid
Climate change is one of the most critical environmental challenges facing the world today. The transportation sector alone contributes to 22% of carbon emissions, of which 80% are contributed by road transportation. In this paper, we investigate the potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and social welfare gains...

Working Paper | February 2015
Economic Impacts of Adopting a Sustainable Transport System in Beirut by Mazen Omran, Johnny Ojeil, and Youssef Fawaz
​The work carried out in this paper demonstrates the economic benefit of a sustainable transport system. It compared a scenario with and without such system, and calculated loss time as a result of being held up in congestion during key peak hours mainly due to relying entirely on the private car. The work demonstrates that in addition to reducing congestion levels a sustainable transport system will generate benefits related to travel time...

Working Paper | February 2015
Getting to Campus: Sustainable Public Transportation and Relocating the American University in Cairo by Richard Tutwiler, Hagar Eldidi, Yumna Kassim, and Andrew Petrovich
​Cairo is one of the most congested cities in the world, and public transportation is one of its greatest challenges. Government strategies to alleviate congestion have stressed horizontal expansion into the surrounding desert areas and the construction of more and ever larger motorways. This paper uses the experience of the American University in Cairo, which physically relocated in 2008 from...

Working Paper | February 2015
Harnessing Motorists' Potential Demand for Hybrid-Electric Vehicles in Lebanon: Policy Options, CO2 Emissions Reduction and Welfare Gains by Alexandra Irani and Ali Chalak
Public concern over deteriorating air quality and the associated local and global impacts has grown significantly in the past decade. Air quality degradation is linked first and foremost to the transportation sector in the Arab region with about 90% of total emissions of carbon monoxide resulting from transportation activities. In Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, current levels of ozone and smog...

Working Paper | February 2015
Sustainable Transportation in the Arab World: International Benchmarking on Sustainable Transport Policies and their Impacts by Issam Kaysi and Farid Chaaban
​The world’s transport sector still suffers from unsustainable trends that lead to increased levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There have been efforts, in the Arab world, as well as the rest of the world, to tackle the issue. Work done in the US and Europe exceeds that of the Arab world, and their efforts have been successful, and have thus succeeded in reducing GHG emissions. In the Arab world, most...

ترتّب المواطنة على الفرد/ المواطن مجموعة من الحقوق والواجبات التي تطبّق على الجميع، دون أي تمييز قائم على الاختلافات في القومية أو الجنس أو الجهة أو الموقع الاجتماعي أو الدين… وتحدد المواطنة شكل العلاقات التي يقيمها المواطن مع الدولة، والمجتمع، والفضاء المشترك. وفي هذا الجانب الأخير من العلاقات، تبرز أهمية التنمية المستدامة كقضية مواطنية بامتياز. في هذا الكتيب، تحاول الباحثة الإحاطة بمفهوم التنمية المستدامة، وبعلاقته مع المواطنة، وتفصّل العديد من القضايا البيئية الهامة، ثم تبيّن لنا ما يجب علينا، كمواطنين، فعله حيالها، لنحقق مواطنيتنا، من خلال التزامنا بالحق في البيئة السليمة للجميع....

This working paper analyzes the susceptibility of agricultural outputs to future climate change in Lebanon, and the extent to which it propagates to the economic system as a whole. A methodological framework in which physical and economic models are integrated for assessing the higher-order economic impacts of projected climate changes is used. The researchers then quantify the broader economic impacts in the country considering not only the temporal dimension but also the regional disaggregation of the results. The results show that there are potential high costs and risks associated with a...

Policy Brief | August 2014
Commuters’ Behavior towards Upgraded Bus Services in Greater Beirut: Role of Itinerary and Implications for Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Social Welfare and Transport Policy by Ali Chalak, Hani Al-Naghi,Alexandra Irani, and Maya Abou-Zeid
​Potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and social welfare gains can be achieved from upgrading the bus service in the Greater Beirut Area through a bundle of realistic bus service improvements in the short term. Such improvements will need to be comprehensive in scope and include both improvements in bus level of service...

Potential greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction and social welfare gains can be achieved from upgrading the bus service in the Greater Beirut Area through a bundle of realistic bus service improvements in the short term. Such improvements will need to be comprehensive in scope and include both improvements in bus level of service attributes (access/egress time, headway, in-vehicle travel time, and number of transfers) and the provision of amenities, including air-conditioning and Wi-Fi. Moreover, such a service needs to be cheaply priced to achieve reasonably high levels of switching...

The current congestion levels in the Beirut Central District (BCD) are not acceptable. These levels are expected to get worse with further development proposed in the BCD and New Waterfront District. Beirut will not be able to economically compete with other cities as it is lacking a comprehensive multi-modal transport system. One way to improve this situation is by introducing a more sustainable transportation system. In addition to reducing congestion levels a sustainable transport system will generate benefits related to: travel time, fewer accidents, a decrease in operational costs of...

Policy Brief | August 2014
Economic Impacts of Adopting a Sustainable Transport System in Beirut by Mazen Omran, Johnny Ojeil, and Youssef Fawaz
​The current congestion levels in the Beirut Central District (BCD) are not acceptable. These levels are expected to get worse with further development proposed in the BCD and New Waterfront District. Beirut will not be able to economically compete with other cities as it is lacking a comprehensive multi-modal transport system. One way to improve this situation is by introducing a more sustainable transportation system. In addition to reducing...

Policy Brief | August 2014
The Experience of AUC and the Need for Public Transportation for New Cairo, Egypt by Richard Tutwiler, Hagar Eldidi, Yumna Kassim, and Andrew Petrovich
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IFI’s Climate Change and Environment in the Arab World Program, launched in 2008, has been tracking and framing climate change international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - in particular to what pertains to Lebanon and Arab countries. Key members of the program have attended nearly all the Conferences of the Parties (COP) as part of the official Lebanese delegation since COP 15 in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009. From this exposure, it has become apparent that literature on the history of the involvement of key Arab countries in the past 20...

Walking, it has been said, is the ultimate form of sustainable public transportation. Beirut, however, is one of the most pedestrian unfriendly cities in the world. Many streets do not even have sidewalks, and where they exist, they are often broken, or obstructed, or hazardous when wet. In 2010, two units at AUB, the Neighborhood Initiative and the Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service, joined forces to design Beirut’s first barrier-free walkway on Jeanne d’Arc Street, a major thoroughfare in the university’s neighborhood. For more information check out IFI's Sustainable...