Climate Adaptation in Lebanon: A Service Provided by the State, or by the Parallel Market?

Ranine Awwad

When temperatures soar, cities such as Barcelona and Paris open their libraries and public centers to residents, giving them a place to shelter from the heat. However, in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh in southern Lebanon, Kamal leaves the prefabricated house he was given after his home was destroyed and goes to sit under the trees. He no longer has the solar panels and the two batteries he used to rely on for electricity. “Now I’ve got nothing left – no electricity and no fan. I go outside and sit under the trees. You can’t stay inside a metal house,” he says.

Lebanon faces an exceptionally complex situation when it comes to climate adaptation. Rising climate pressures are intersected with the collapse of state institutions, a severe economic crisis and recurring wars, while a parallel market has taken over the provision of some basic services.

Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 2015 Paris Agreement, States have a legal obligation to plan for climate adaptation and take measures to address its impacts. Lebanon’s National Adaptation Plan for 2025–2035 sets out a framework for reducing climate risks across eight sectors, including water, agriculture, forests, biodiversity, urban infrastructure, public health, disaster risk reduction and tourism.

Yet, in a country where Électricité du Liban (EDL) supplies between zero and four hours of electricity a day, and water is regularly cut off from household taps, families turn to buying alternatives according to their financial means.

The Parallel Market has no interest in Climate Adaptation

The parallel market is turning the ability to adapt to climate change into a privilege for those who can afford it, rather than ensuring that protection from its impacts is a right guaranteed by the State for everyone.

Alia lives in Beirut and does not own an air conditioner. “I rely on a fan, but when the generator subscription cuts out at the peak of the heat, it feels like a punishment. A battery-powered fan doesn’t cool the same way, and it affects the quality of my sleep,” she says. On the national plan, she says: “Even if the State develops a climate adaptation plan, it can’t deliver it.” She adds: “Those who can afford to pay remain dependent on the options that generator owners decide to offer. Their priority is profit; while health, reducing pollution and adaptation come last.”

Installing solar panels is not a viable alternative to every household, as cost and limited space in urban areas constrain their ability to secure an alternative source of electricity. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes that poverty and inequality limit adaptive capacity, leaving the most vulnerable groups more exposed to risks.

The minimum wage in Lebanon is 28 million Lebanese pounds a month, equivalent to approximately US $312 (at an exchange rate of LBP 89,700 to the US dollar). However, data collected by the news website Daraj in September 2026, show that household generator subscriptions can consume more than half of the minimum wage, and in some cases exceed it entirely, without necessarily guaranteeing a continuous power supply. In the cases covered by data, generator rationing ranged from four to nine hours a day, while some better-off households were able to pay extra for an uninterrupted supply. Thus, the ability to cool homes during the heat becomes dependent on income, deepening the climate justice gap between those who can afford cooling and the electricity needed to run it, and those deprived of both.

The water sector reveals a similar gap between what adaptation plans propose and what residents have to secure for themselves. While the plan includes rehabilitating networks and reducing water losses, some households turn to water tankers to compensate shortfalls in public supply, bearing an additional cost that not all of them are equally able to pay.

The World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that an intermediate access to water corresponds to approximately 50 liters per person per day for domestic needs, including drinking, cooking and hygiene. As temperatures rise, the body requires more fluids to replace those lost through sweating. With public supply falling short, securing water depends on households’ ability to buy alternatives, and on the prices and service areas set by tanker owners. Consequently, the ability to cope with heat and water scarcity becomes contingent on income and the terms imposed by the parallel market, leaving households that cannot bear the cost with increasingly limited options.

Equality in adaptation

States responsibilities is not limited to drawing up climate adaptation plans. It also includes adopting measures that respect equality and non-discrimination, and address the barriers faced by the groups most exposed to climate risks. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights affirms that States must address discrimination and inequality when designing and implementing climate adaptation measures, and prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized groups. The Paris Agreement also emphasizes the need to take vulnerable groups into consideration in adaptation action. This makes reducing these disparities a responsibility of public policy, ensuring that protection does not depend on each household’s ability to purchase adaptation from the parallel market.

In October 2026, the National Human Rights Commission called for commitments to be translated into funded services and tangible improvements for the groups most exposed to climate risks. It called for an assessment of households’ access to basic services, their ability to afford them and the continuity of these services during climate events. It stresses that inability to pay must not prevent access to drinking water, shelter, emergency health care and life-saving warnings.

The National Adaptation Plan divides responsibilities among several entities: the Ministry of Environment leads coordination, monitoring and evaluation, while line ministries carry out implementation within their mandates, in cooperation with local authorities. However, the plan acknowledges fragmented institutional roles, weak coordination between ministries and the limited capacities of local authorities – factors that hinder the integration and implementation of climate adaptation in policies. It notes that weak inter-ministerial cooperation and the absence of dedicated local structures for climate action have slowed the integration of adaptation across different sectors.

Adapting to climate change requires a multisectoral approach that links health, housing, water, energy, urban planning and access to public spaces; otherwise, adaptation efforts risk becoming trapped in a vicious cycle. When homes become unbearably hot, parks and public spaces can become a refuge for residents. The World Health Organization recommends that residents have access to a public green space of at least half a hectare to one hectare, located within 300 meters’ in a straight-line distance from their homes. However, the estimated green space per capita in Beirut, is estimated at around 0.8 square meters. Alia fears that what remains of Beirut’s green spaces will be turned into car parks. “Mufti Hassan Khaled Park isn’t really a park any more, Sanayeh Garden is closed, and the other parks are relatively small,” she says.

“Climate shelters” have become part of urban planning in European cities. In Barcelona, more than 500 such shelters have been established. These include libraries, museums, community centers and parks equipped with cooling facilities and water supplies. They provide protection for people who lack the means to adapt in their own homes, including people who are ill and older persons.

With the COP31 Presidency describing the Antalya conference as the “COP of Implementation”, Lebanon’s priority is to secure funding for projects that advance climate justice and adopt a rights-based approach to climate adaptation. This should include improving water services, ensuring access to clean and affordable electricity, strengthening the capacity of homes to withstand heat, and providing early warning systems and safe public spaces accessible to all, while prioritizing the groups most exposed to climate risks and least able to afford alternative solutions.