Syria

LOCATED IN THE Middle East, the Syrian Arab Republic has a land area of 71,479 sq. mi. (185,180 sq. km.), with a population of 19,929,000 (2006 est.) and a population density of 267 people per sq. mi. (103 people per sq. km.). Some 28 percent of Syria is arable land, with a further 43 percent used as meadows or pasture, much of it for low-intensity grazing of sheep. Only a very small part of the country is woodland.

In terms of its per capita carbon dioxide emissions, Syria ranks 93rd in the world, with emissions of 2.8 metric tons per person in 1990, gradually falling to 2.7 metric tons per person by 2003, after which emissions experienced a significant rise to 3.72 metric tons per person in 2004. Fossil fuels make up 64.5 percent of electricity generation in the country, and hydropower contributes to the remainder, with dams located on the Euphrates River. In 1973, the Syrian government built the Tabaqah Dam on the Euphrates to create a new reservoir called Lake Assad to help with the [Page 946]irrigation of the region, and there have been other, smaller projects in recent years.

About 70 percent of the country's carbon dioxide emissions come from liquid fuels, with 19 percent from gaseous fuels, 7 percent from gas flaring, and 4 percent from the manufacture of cement. Solid fuels are not used in the country. By sector, 42 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions come from the generating of electricity, with 32 percent from manufacturing and construction, and 12 percent from transportation. In terms of the effects of global warming and climate change, Syria has experienced a higher average temperature, which has resulted in some level of desertification and the widespread alienation of marginal arable land as the country draws heavily on its water reserves. One positive benefit, although short term, has been that in the Jabal and Nusariyah mountains, parallel to the coastal plain, there has been a rise in temperature, which has led to the melting of the snows, helping with the irrigation of the heavily populated eastern slopes of the mountain range.

The Syrian government of Hafez al-Assad took part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, signed in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992. The government of his son Bashar al-Assad accepted the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on January 27, 2006, with it entering into force on April 27, 2006.