**4. Conclusion and recommendations**

With temperatures in drylands currently twice the global average, there is an urgent need for adaptation to mitigate climate change. The level of downside climate impacts is directly correlated with the level of development. Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on extreme poverty by 2030, affecting communities already coping with livelihood limitations and inequalities, resulting in increased resource competition and conflict.

The recent 2017 Arab climate change assessment report underlined the droughts in Syria of 1998–2000 and 2007–2010, impacting substantial economic losses and the displacement of more than 1 million people [40]. Therefore, seeking alternative sources of subsistence and income, and building the resilience of the communities will enable them to adapt to the impact of climate change, and to deal with shocks, such as security conflicts, to improve their livelihoods opportunities and assists [9].

Despite the challenges that faced this research, the recommendations have been structured into the level of transboundary management, national efforts, and communities' behaviors and equity. The interaction of these levels will contribute to avoid further degradation and help in post-conflict recovery plans:

**Complementary assessment of the transboundary water management** for the Yarmouk basin is a must to improve the regional understanding of climate change

impacts on transboundary water basins [40]. Particularly after 10 years of crisis and leakage of joint treaties between Jordan and Syria, so as to investigate on the way to optimize its infrastructure for saving energy costs and reduction in carbon emissions [37].

**Initiating the joint projects between communities that live on the transboundary in Jordan and Syria,** such as implementing joint projects to support the water demand and legal use according to international water law, which could promote peace building and hence effective climate change mitigation policies.

**Bridging the gap between humanitarian aids and early recovery stages in Syria** will support the communities' resilience and inclusiveness. Considering future projections of climatic impact on livelihoods assets, in terms of environmental resources, will foster the understanding of vulnerability and capacity to design DO NO HARM social and environmental interventions' components that deal with current and future risks to prevent food insecurity. It will encourage communities to reduce cutting the trees and using sustainable practices to avoid further land degradation.

**Investment in renewable energy as a source of reducing vulnerability, and improving the local economy** through supporting the renewable energy subsidies. This can be done by promoting the public and private cooperation, in order to decrease installation costs of solar panels. A country like Syria needs to re-build the trust between the government and communities, post 10 years of conflict; building such solar panel initiatives as proved in this case study can assist the country in entering the global carbon markets, and support its re-construction, respectively. Moreover, environmental agencies can help both Jordan and Syria to apply different schemes of payment of water ecosystem services "PES," which stand for incentives offered to stewards of ecosystem services [50] including public and private scheme that can be legally bound by a specific legal framework of transboundary basin.

**Recognizing the link between climate change adaptation and mitigation under security conflict** could entirely reduce the human impact on carbon emissions. During the conflict, prioritizing the climate change adaptation activities to build the communities' resilience will improve the country's mitigation targets in the long run. The case presented by this research showed the improvement in income and coping mechanisms for communities, which used solar panels to reduce fuel cost, to pump irrigation water and feed their families from planting small yards; this adaptation technique impacted positively on saving energy out of the electrical grid and reduced carbon emissions.

**Ensuring gender equality and women economic empowerment** could achieve resilient livelihoods. Dealing with women as "agents of change" [51] based on their skills, capacities, and opportunities to engage with such initiatives could strengthen their role in households and communities, in more economically productive parts, therefore, securing their food to absorb the shocks.

**Improving the communities' adaptation of climate smart technologies** could help in reducing CO2 emissions. The recent publication by The Center for Behavior & the Environment [52] showed that dealing with solar energy resources can support a decrease of 24.6–40.3 GtCo2- eq in 2020–2030. This means that although in Syria the conflict increased the carbon pollutions [53], the government should focus on building the knowledge and skills for communities in adapting to climate smart technologies, to support achieving the primary renewable energy targets or updating the country's target.

**Strengthening governance of the energy sector** could support the government in identifying how much electricity can be generated to feed into the grid is thought to improve the policy with international practices, to support trading the carbon, thus using the revenue for country re-construction and resilience activities.

*Transformation Action to Combat Desertification: A Direct Carbon Saving Mechanism… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101462*

**Approaching the post-conflict from the lens of complementarity** between humanitarian and development activities presents a transforming action toward peace and turning environment into an asset for food security. Hence, there is an urgent need to promote innovative, integrated approaches, shift paradigms, and share the best practices to build back better and to reduce the impact of conflict on desertification.
