Serious about climate action in the GCC? So are we. Meet Hussien Al Kisswani
MENA received just 6.6% of global climate financing through 2023 – despite being one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions. Adaptation, the work of actually preparing communities, cities, and industries for what’s coming, is even more starved of funding: cumulative adaptation finance approved for MENA amounts to just 35% of what’s been committed to mitigation. The gap between ambition and delivery in this region isn’t just financial. It’s a capacity problem – a shortage of people who know the institutions, speak the policy language, and have already built programmes that last.
That’s exactly who we’ve brought on board.
We’re proud to welcome Hussien (Al Kisswani) Muhsen to Staterra as our new Environment and Climate Change Specialist.
Over the past year, Staterra has been putting serious weight behind climate change and sustainability, building out our dedicated services across Saudi Arabia and the GCC, winning mandates, and demonstrating that this region needs more than generalist environmental consultants.
Hussien’s appointment is the next move in that build. Not a reaction to demand – a step ahead of it.
18 years. Real results. Real region.
With an MSc in Environmental Science and Management from the University of Jordan and a BSc in Water and Environmental Management from Hashemite University, Hussien built his academic foundation in the region he would go on to work in. That matters. Over 18 years, his career has stayed rooted in West Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa, not parachuted in from elsewhere.
This isn’t theoretical expertise. Hussien led Jordan’s NDC 3.0 development process with UNDP, steering a country’s entire national climate commitment from inception to delivery. He developed the Local Climate Change Adaptation Plan for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq – a first for the region. He contributed directly to Abu Dhabi’s Environment Agency Strategy 2020-2025 and led the development of proposed Abu Dhabi’s Resilience Framework.
Through his work with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), Hussien participated in the development of the first NGO network in the MENA region – including the Gulf – active on climate change under the Climate Action Network (CAN). This meant coordinating and building the capacity of NGOs and climate experts across the region, and running a sustained programme of high-level sessions, roundtables, and workshops that brought policymakers and government decision-makers face to face with the latest climate science and policy recommendations.
Beyond the policy arena, he has also led workshops on the social and economic dimensions of decarbonisation with worker and industry groups in Morocco and Tunisia – practical experience in the human side of the energy transition that few consultants in this space can offer.
His work isn’t just strategic. It’s funded. Hussien has secured over $20 million in climate finance across his career – from the EU, AECID, NDC-PAF, the Global EbA Fund, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the Green Climate Fund (GCF), and the Adaptation Fund (AF). One programme alone, managing UN-Habitat’s regional Adaptation Fund project in Jordan and Lebanon, involved six grants and two UN-to-UN agreements totalling $9 million.
Where policy meets nature
One of Hussien’s most distinctive strengths is his ability to connect climate change and biodiversity – a space that’s increasingly central as ecosystem-based approaches (EbA) move to the front of global climate strategy.
He established the first climate change unit at Jordan’s Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), conducted the country’s first climate change impact assessment on biodiversity, and built EbA concepts into Jordan’s First National Climate Change Policy.
He developed adaptation plans for four pilot areas along the Jordan Rift Valley and led the biodiversity vulnerability assessments submitted to the UNFCCC in Jordan’s Third National Communication Report.
In a region where land degradation, water scarcity, and climate exposure are deeply intertwined, this combination of skills matters – and it maps directly onto the biodiversity and environmental stewardship priorities at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s climate commitments.
Urban resilience. Industrial transition. Regional scale.
Hussien’s project portfolio spans both the urban and industrial sides of climate action. He oversaw the preparation of climate-resilient, gender-mainstreamed urban master plans for municipalities in Jordan and Lebanon, and set up urban observatories for risk, climate vulnerability, and urban planning.
On the industrial side, he established the first two pilot Energy Efficiency Networks in Jordan’s industrial sector with the Jordan Chamber of Industry, and supported the Jordanian government in drafting the Climate Change Bylaw under the Environmental Protection Law 2017, with GIZ. As we examined in our analysis of how Saudi Arabia’s construction boom is shaping a sustainable future, this kind of industrial-urban climate integration is exactly what the Kingdom now demands.
What Hussien brings to you
At Staterra, our Climate Change & Sustainability services cover climate risk assessments, low-carbon transition strategies, circular economy design, biodiversity stewardship, and climate finance, built for Saudi and GCC realities. Hussien’s expertise strengthens every one of these:
NDC and national climate policy – direct experience leading national climate commitments in Jordan and Iraq, applicable across the region
Nature-based solutions and biodiversity assessment – increasingly required under Saudi Green Initiative targets and international EIA standards
Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) – a growing requirement in EIA and ESIA studies across the GCC
Multi-stakeholder coordination – UN agencies, governments, NGOs, and local communities, at both national and regional scale
Science-to-policy engagement – a proven track record of connecting government decision-makers with the latest climate science through high-level sessions, roundtables, and structured policy workshops
Regional civil society and capacity building – built the first climate-focused NGO network across MENA and the Gulf under the Climate Action Network (CAN), coordinating experts and organisations across the region
A word from Hussien
“Saudi Arabia has committed $186 billion and 77 active initiatives under the Saudi Green Initiative alone. That kind of ambition is real – but ambition doesn’t plant trees, restore ecosystems, or decarbonise supply chains. People do. I’ve spent 18 years building climate programmes that actually get implemented, with governments, with UN agencies, with communities. Joining Staterra means taking that work into a region that is finally investing at the scale the problem demands.”
Climate risk assessments, nature-based solutions, biodiversity integration, low-carbon development planning, climate finance – if any of these are on your agenda, you now have a direct line to 18 years of hands-on regional expertise.
Explore our full Climate Change & Sustainability services, or get in touch to talk about your next project.