Despite UAE's high temperatures, residents among least worried about extreme heat

Nearly seven in 10 adults in the UAE say they are not worried about the air they breathe, according to the latest World Risk Poll. The survey found that 68 per cent of UAE respondents expressed no concern about air pollution causing them serious harm.

A similarly low level of concern emerged when UAE residents were asked about severe prolonged weather events such as heatwaves and droughts. Just 20 per cent said they were very worried about being harmed by such events, while another 27 per cent were somewhat worried.

In general, Gulf countries also emerged among those least worried about extreme heat. While many of the countries with the lowest levels of concern have colder climates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE also featured among the least worried, despite having some of the highest average annual temperatures globally.

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The report said this could partly reflect greater adaptation to extreme heat and the normalisation of high temperatures as part of everyday life. It pointed to infrastructure across much of the Gulf that reduces direct exposure, including air conditioning and reliance on desalinated water rather than rain-fed agriculture.

It also noted relatively low perceptions of climate risk in the region, with the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain among five countries where 29 per cent or more of adults said climate change posed no threat to their country over the next 20 years.

These findings are featured in the 2026 Lloyd’s Register Foundation report, The Quiet Hazards: How Everyday Risk Shapes Daily Life, published in partnership with Gallup, which examines how people across 140 countries think about different risks in their lives. The nationally representative World Risk Poll is based on more than 143,000 interviews conducted across 140 countries and territories in 2025, and is the fourth edition of the study.

Globally, concern about air pollution was almost evenly split. Just over half of adults — 52 per cent — said they were either somewhat worried or very worried that the air they breathe could seriously harm them, while 47 per cent said they were not worried at all.

The level of concern contrasts with the scale of exposure. The newest Gallup analysis cites World Health Organisation data showing that 99 per cent of people regularly breathe air considered unsafe, while air pollution was estimated to have contributed to nearly eight million deaths globally in 2023. The poll also found that 12 per cent of adults said they had personally experienced serious harm from polluted air in the previous two years.

Air pollution also generated less concern than several other risks measured by the poll. While 52 per cent worried about the air they breathe, 77 per cent were worried about traffic accidents, 71 per cent about prolonged severe weather such as droughts and heatwaves, 68 per cent about severe weather events such as floods, 65 per cent about violent crime and 60 per cent about food safety.

The report said the relatively low level of concern could partly be because the effects of air pollution tend to build over time and may feel less immediate than risks such as road accidents or violent crime.

It also pointed to possible “risk habituation”, where people become accustomed to pollution or feel resigned to living with a risk they believe they cannot change.

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