in the furnace of Ras-El-Khaïmah, one of the places in the world where global warming threatens human life

This is no longer just a bleak prospect, but a phenomenon already observed: two cities in the world, Jacobabad in Pakistan and Ras-El-Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, have already experienced temperatures going beyond the conditions on several occasions. survival. An illustration of global warming, a theme that will be widely discussed during the COP26 which is being held in Glasgow, Scotland until November 12.

franceinfo went to Ras-El-Khaimah, in the northeast of the United Arab Emirates. Populated by 115,000 inhabitants, the city displays a landscape of tall buildings, around which large 4X4s circulate. And in the air, very high summer temperatures, coming from the waters of the Persian Gulf.

“We are between sea and mountain, like in a tank, so it’s very hot, with a lot of humidity”, says Issa, a Frenchman who has lived there for two years.

“When you open the door, it’s like opening an oven. At maximum, it was 49 degrees in the shade in August. We didn’t venture outside, it was really too stifling heat. “

Issa, a resident

to franceinfo

In Ras-El-Khaïmah, the heat has even reached four times since 1995 the threshold considered deadly of 35 degrees Celsius of so-called wet temperature, according to a study published in 2020 in the scientific journal Science.

“This threshold is a combined level of heat and humidity, explains Colin Raymond, researcher at NASA, one of the authors of this study. Beyond this threshold, sweating no longer helps to cool the human body and it is estimated that we cannot survive in these conditions for more than three to six hours. “ So far, this threshold has been exceeded on shorter times, one to two hours. But the duration and the number of these episodes are likely to increase: the frequency of wet heat waves has already doubled in 40 years.

Some of the inhabitants of Ras-El-Khaïmah adapt quite well to these temperatures. “In the car, there is air conditioning, in the coffee-shop, there are swimming pools with air conditioning”, describes Walid, who works in an air-conditioned shopping center. “We sleep, we get up with the air conditioning. It is the smartest invention. We have no problem with hot weather“, he assures.

This is also what the head doctor of a clinic in Ras-El-Khaïmah affirms. “People here are used to it, he assures. They don’t go out during the hottest hours. “ The municipality did not respond to our requests for statistics on summer mortality.

The situation is more problematic for those who work outdoors, like Mohammed. This young Bangladeshi washes cars in a parking lot in full sun, his face streaming in this late October when it is “only” 36 ° C. “In June, July and August, it’s really too hot, he testifies. So between noon and 3 p.m., we are not allowed to work and the police impose fines. But despite that, it’s hard, we sweat a lot… Me, it gives me skin allergies and the drugs are too expensive. “ Mohammed shows us a patch of raw skin on the neck. He earns less than 300 euros per month for ten to twelve hours of work per day, housed in a building with defective air conditioning. “It can be 36-37 ° C there, he sighs. And there, it’s hard to sleep. Two or three times a night, I shower but the tap water is too hot so I put bottles of water in the freezer and mix the two. It’s really not easy. “

The country is a major contributor to global warming: the United Arab Emirates are the world’s seventh largest exporter of oil and the third largest emitter of CO2 per capita. A coal-fired power station has recently been commissioned. “Maybe there are warmer years than the others, but we can live here, there is no risk of climate change, assures Ibrahim, engineer in a gas power station. What would need to be done, however, is more walking: for each house, there may be five or more cars. It creates pollution and I don’t know if we will succeed in changing that. “ There are some incentives for the electric car, but in Ras-El-Khaïmah, only 1% of electricity production is of renewable origin.

In Dubai, touted as a “sustainable city”, it’s a little more: 10%. There, we are proud to show tourists one of the largest solar parks in the world, in the middle of the desert. Also in Dubai, in this green district irrigated by wastewater, we try to resist the heat. Here, no cars: they remain parked at the entrances, under solar panels. “The alleys are narrow to avoid the sun and we have cobblestones to capture the heat less, explains Karim Jisr, the sustainable development manager of this district. The pavement approaches 50 ° C in August when the asphalt approaches 68 to 69 ° C. It is a little cooler than in other districts in Dubai: it is a difference of 2 to 3 ° C. “

These initiatives are like the green tree that hides a much darker forest. According to the NGO Climate Action Tracker, the efforts of the United Arab Emirates are “highly insufficient” to respect the Paris Agreements. Symbol of this insufficiency: the covered ski resort of Dubai, kept at minus two degrees. With, at the top of the chairlift,… patio heaters. Less anecdotal, air conditioning in the United Arab Emirates accounts for 70% of electricity consumption. The author of the study published in Science alert on the survival of the population in the event of a breakdown.