Climate change could prompt Israel to resist Golan pullout

DAMASCUS - Climate change could spark "environmental wars" in the Middle East over already scarce water supplies and dissuade Israel from pulling out of the Golan Heights, according to a Danish-funded study released this week.

The report said Israeli concerns about "food security and reduced agricultural productivity could shift the strategic calculation on whether to withdraw" from the Golan Heights.

"The expectation of coming environmental wars might imply that the way to deal with shrinking resources is to increase military control over them," said the study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, an independent organization headquartered in Canada.

The Golan supplies 30 percent of the water for Lake Kinneret.

The report also said the rise in sea level a result of climate change threatened to contaminate Gaza's sole aquifer.

The coastal aquifer, which is shared by Israel, is the only source of fresh drinking water for Gaza. The report said its water quality was abysmal.

Israel also draws water from most aquifers shared with the West Bank and restricts Palestinian water use.

Climate change will diminish water resources across the Middle East, found the report, which was released this week at the Danish Institute in Old Damascus.

The study comes ahead of a major United Nations conference in Copenhagen in December that will discuss a new treaty to deal with climate.

"In a region already considered the world's most water scarce, climate models are predicting a hotter, drier and less predictable climate," it said. "Higher temperature and less rainfall will reduce the flow of rivers and streams, slow the rate at which aquifers recharge, progressively raise sea levels and make the entire region more arid."

The study, which focused on the Levant - Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories - raised the specter of water shortages and climate-induced crises hitting the economies of those areas by 2050.