Executive Summary Syria faces a devastating “polycrisis.” The growing impacts of climate change are deeply connected to years of poor governance, a brutal conflict lasting over a decade, and a severe economic collapse. This report argues these are not separate problems. Instead, they are part of a single, widespread failure. Environmental damage has both driven
Syria's building codes, including the Syrian Arab Code for seismic design, are dated and, far more fatally, unenforced, and the 2023 earthquakes showed what that gap costs. A comparison with Jordan, Israel, the UAE, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Italy and the UK shows the fix is institutional: an independent code authority, regular updates and real enforcement, not better paper.
The Assad state carried “ghost employees” for decades, and dismantling that payroll is a genuine and urgent reform. It is also a decision about who eats next month, taken by a government with little fiscal room and no reliable count of the people it is about to release. This argues for sequencing the social safety net ahead of the layoffs, and treats the missing data as the central problem rather than a footnote.
This research presents a simplified analysis method aimed at reducing energy demand in Syrian residential buildings by implementing highly cost-effective and structurally feasible passive design solutions. An optimised envelope specification is recommended based on thermal simulation across different building materials, glazing types, and climatic zones.
An annual government budget is not merely a collection of financial estimates; it is a direct statement of a state's priorities. For countries emerging from conflict, such as Syria, the budget becomes the absolute cornerstone of reconstruction efforts. This analysis explores the lessons Syria can draw from the UK and Rwanda.