Manama: Bahrain's oil and environment minister told AFP that the island nation, which is already battling extreme heat, is attempting to protect itself from a new environmental threat: rising seas that could swallow up some of its coast.

By widening beaches, building taller sea walls and elevating land by the end of the year, the tiny Gulf state will start constructing its coastal defences against sea levels that have started rising. Bahrain's oil and environment minister and special envoy for climate affairs, Mohamed bin Mubarak bin Daina, stated in an interview that Bahrain is "vulnerable."

In his office in Manama, the capital, he declared, "The main threat is a silent threat, which is the sea level rise.

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The majority of the country, including its international airport, would be submerged by an extreme rise of five metres (16.4 feet), according to official estimates.
According to Sabah Aljenaid, an assistant professor at the Arabian Gulf University in Manama, even a rise of 0.5 to two metres could submerge five to 18 percent of Bahrain's total area.

Among the Gulf region's numerous resource-rich nations, Bahrain is the only island nation. The majority of its residents and important buildings are situated in low-lying coastal regions that are only five metres above the water.

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As ice sheets and glaciers melt due to global warming, other islands throughout the world face a similar threat from rising sea levels.

Since 1976, Bahraini authorities have already noted an annual increase in sea levels of 1.6 to 3.4 millimetres, according to bin Daina.

However, the minister claimed that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations predicted that sea levels could rise by at least 0.5 metres by the year 2050. The estimate is considered conservative by some experts.

Rising sea levels make flooding worse, put coastlines in danger, and risk contaminating Bahrain's already limited groundwater resources with salty seawater.
Sea level rise is therefore one of Bahrain's top priorities, according to bin Daina.

Either we widen the beaches, build a rock wall in certain places, or reclaim land that was once above the shoreline.

According to the minister, it is a "detailed plan" that will be funded by the government and finished in "under 10 years." Bahrain, one of the Gulf Arab states with the highest climate vulnerability according to the University of Notre Dame's Global Adaptation Initiative, also has to deal with dangerous heat in one of the hottest places on Earth.

By the end of the century, experts predict that extreme temperatures brought on by accelerated climate change will make parts of the Gulf uninhabitable.
The heat is already evident in Bahrain.

As temperatures topped 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 degrees Fahrenheit) this month, forcing air conditioners into overdrive, it twice broke its record for energy consumption.

The amount of megawatts consumed by electricity in previous years was less than this year, so temperatures are rising, according to bin Daina.
Bahrain, a small-scale oil producer, intends to contribute to the fight against climate change by scaling up renewable energy to meet 10% of its needs by 2035 and reducing emissions by 30% by that time.

Over the next 12 years, it also hopes to double the area that is covered in vegetation and quadruple the number of mangroves, which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

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Bin Daina stated that he does not perceive any conflict in his dual responsibilities as the oil and environment ministers, which are frequently combined in the hydrocarbon-rich Gulf states.

The oil ministry oversees Kuwait's environment agency, and Sultan Al Jaber, the head of the UAE's state-owned oil company ADNOC, will preside over the UN's upcoming COP28 climate talks in Dubai.

"Having one person looking at both oil and the environment at the same time, shows how serious Bahrain is about" addressing climate change, claimed bin Daina.

The minister "can enforce all environmental regulations over the oil industry," he asserted, denying the possibility that climate concerns might be overridden by hydrocarbon interests.