Kuwait, among world’s hottest places, lags on climate action

By ISABEL DEBRE
Associated Press

JAHRA, Kuwait (AP) — Kuwait is ranked each year as among the hottest places on the planet. Last summer, birds dropped dead from the sky and shellfish baked to death in the bay. Yet Kuwait stayed silent as the rest of the region’s wealthy petrostates joined a chorus of nations setting climate goals ahead of last fall’s U.N. climate summit in Glasgow. As life in Kuwait rapidly becomes unbearable, the country continues to burn oil for electricity, generate more carbon emissions per capita than almost anywhere else and heavily subsidize power and petrol. Officials, advocates and experts blame a hamstrung government in denial and warn the country will soon pay a terrible price.