Recognising the right to urban climate justice in Kuwait

Abstract

In 2016, the Kuwait Mitribah weather station recorded a scorching 53.9 degrees Celsius, among the highest temperatures ever recorded on earth. Today, temperatures in Kuwait frequently exceed 50 degrees Celsius during the summer, accompanied by a host of extreme weather events such as severe droughts, dust storms, and floods. These climate challenges threaten and transform Kuwait’s social and ecological landscape. To address these pressing issues, this paper adopts an urban climate justice framework, emphasizing the right to the city, recognition justice, and advocating for a climate-just city. Through this lens, we examine how climate change disproportionately affects Kuwait’s structurally vulnerable populations, particularly the majority non-citizen groups: the Bidoon (stateless) and low-wage migrant workers. This paper highlights the necessity of including marginalized groups in climate change discussions along with climate adaptation and mitigation policies. By examining the everyday urban lives of Kuwait’s non-citizen residents – including their struggles with access to civil and political rights; poor housing and labor conditions; and inequitable access to basic urban services, such as water, electricity and transport − this paper demonstrates how these factors significantly increase their vulnerability to the detrimental impacts of climate change. In highlighting the vulnerabilities of low-income non-citizens and advocating a shift to a climate-just city approach, this analysis aims to guide decision-makers in Kuwait and beyond. The impact of climate change, we contend, offers an opportunity to re-open debate about the fundamental rights and concepts of citizenship, belonging, community and justice.