The Kuwait Fund plays multiple roles and implements important practices to protect the environment. The Fund has placed great emphasis on projects that support the transition to clean energy, and the environmental sector has become one of its top priorities in the current phase, in light of a global trend and a desire to solve climate change problems.

Climate change is one of the challenges facing the international community today, and finding solutions has become a priority for all countries in the world, due to its negative dimensions and its threat not only to the environment but to all aspects of life, starting with changes in weather patterns and threatening food production, through rising sea levels and catastrophic floods, to our increasing exploitation of the earth's natural resources, which threatens climate stability and leads to the extinction of many living things. Therefore, the matter requires concerted efforts to address this problem and work together to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, launched by the United Nations in recent years, to improve the conditions of the world and its people within the next 15 years.

One of the most prominent projects that the Fund has contributed to financing in the field of the environment and its preservation, and reducing harmful gas emissions, is the project Improved Resilience against Transboundary Sand and Dust Storms in Kuwait and Southern Iraq. The Fund financed the project in cooperation with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the State of Kuwait with a grant of KWD 4 million, equivalent to about USD 12.8 million, with the aim of reducing the occurrence of sand and dust storms originating from a number of governorates in Southern Iraq, which directly affect Kuwait and the countries of the region. The project aims to address the causes that lead to the formation of dust storms in order to provide a safe and clean environment for the affected populations in the present and future.

Abdulaziz Al-Sumait, Engineering First Specialist at the Kuwait Fund, emphasized the importance of this project as it is the first of its kind and added: “The State of Kuwait is considered the biggest beneficiary of the project in terms of health and economic aspects, as this phenomenon causes many diseases due to the type of soil carried by these storms, and the Kuwaiti economy is negatively impacted by the dust storms on oil facilities, power generation stations, and the encroachment of dust on roads. Al-Sumait added that we expect this project to contribute to improving living conditions in the State of Kuwait and the region as a whole.

Ameera Al-Hasan, Head of UN-Habitat’s Country Programme in Kuwait, and UN-Habitat’s representative with the Gulf Cooperation Council, added that this project is the first of its kind in the Middle East. The project ensures the cooperation of multiple partners, each of whom believes in the importance of implementing it correctly and improving its effectiveness in the future in terms of combating the effects of climate change on a global level, as it affects both urban and coastal populations in terms of economic and health impacts. The project of Improved Resilience against Transboundary Sand and Dust Storms in Kuwait and Southern Iraq will be implemented with full funding from the Kuwait Fund through a total budget of KWD 4 million.

The project is expected to contribute to reducing more than 40% of the dust crossing into Kuwait by treating and stabilizing the soil in two sources of sandstorms in the governorates of Dhi Qar and Muthanna in the Republic of Iraq, located about 250 kilometers north of the Kuwaiti border, which directly affect Kuwait.

According to a recent study on cross-border sand and dust storms in the State of Kuwait, which extend to include Bahrain and Qatar, the existence of eight wind paths that stir up dust in the country has been confirmed, amounting to 60 tons per square kilometer, which causes health, environmental, and economic problems, with losses estimated at about KWD 190 million annually (about USD 618 million).