More than 200 environmental and social activists from around the World met in London on the 12th and 13th of May to discuss a global campaign on climate change. The discussion was not about the importance of the issue or the need to work on it, but rather on how to reduce the impacts of climate change in the fastest way possible.
The participants of this conference finished discussing the importance of climate change a long time ago. Now their complete focus is on how to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions that have caused this problem, especially CO2 gas resulting from fossil fuels such as oil and coal.
The Conference was attended by Members of Parliament from the Labour, Green and Liberal Democrats Parties in the United Kingdom and other European countries. It also included international organizations, such as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and Christian Aid.
For any person attending this conference it is easy to see that the main concern in the lives of the participants is climate change, but they are not the only ones. Hundred of thousands of individuals and institutes around the world share the same concern. It was stated in the United Nations millennium declaration that climate change is one of the worst threats facing humanity. The United Kingdom has prioritized climate change over the fight against terrorism. Most of the international environmental institutes have prioritized climate change over any other problem they are working on.
And why shouldn't they? Climate change is predicted to cause devastation to world economies, agriculture and water security. More than 200 million people will become climate refugees, from sea level rise due to climate change, surpassing the number of political refugees. In Egypt alone, there will be 14 million climate refugees. According to the United Nations it is predicted that up to 4 billion people will suffer from water shortage by the year 2080 and this is mostly due to climate change. This is around 2/3 of the current world population. The World Health Organization has estimated that around 150,000 people die every year from climate change impacts. In the Arab World, tens of millions will be impacted directly by climate change, and hundreds of millions will be affected indirectly. Our agriculture and already scarce water resources are threatened by our changing climate.
The International Climate Conference also included preparations for the 3rd International Demonstrations Day on Climate Change on Saturday 8th of December. This global day of demonstration coincides with the UN Climate Talks, the Kyoto Protocol (COP13/MOP3), in Bali, Indonesia from the 3rd till the 14th of December 2007. In the previous year, during the 2nd International Demonstration Day on Climate Change, people from around the world went down to the streets in the thousands to demand that world leaders take urgent and resolute action needed to prevent the catastrophic destabilization of global climate. In the UK alone, more than 20,000 individuals participated in the protest, while in Australia there were around 75,000 protesters. No Arab country participated in the event.
This year, it is predicted that many more people will participate in the demonstration. We are running out of time. The United Nations' International Panel on Climate Change estimates that we only have around 8 years to take concrete action. Otherwise it could be too expensive and too hard for the World economies to actually do what is required. According to many estimates, including the European Union, 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions reduction is needed by 2020 and then 50% by 2050, if we just want to keep global warming under 2?C and avoid catastrophic climate changes. This means that if world leaders do not agree within 3 years on a new and strong post-Kyoto process (which ends in 2012), countries will not be able to ratify it in time.
This small window of action is being felt by governments, parties, organizations and individuals everywhere; everywhere except the Arab World. In the past two International Demonstration Days on climate change there was no participation from the Arab public. At the International Climate Conference in London there was only one participant from the Arab World. Why is the Arab World behind in the fight against climate change? There might be several answers to this question. Perhaps the oil rich Arab countries are hindering the climate debate in the Arab League. Perhaps the region has other priorities to worry about, from the economical difficulties to the unstable political situation in the Middle East.
Nevertheless, this can not be allowed to continue. The threats of climate change and the urgency to work on them surpasses any other problem. Because climate change amplifies the problems of poverty and water security, it is useless to work on them without tackling climate change first. For example, in the Arab region, the main climate change impact will be on our water resources and agricultural land. Knowing that agriculture is the biggest economical sector in the region, and that we are already the most water scarce area in the world, we can not afford to ignore climate change any more.
One may argue that climate change is the fault of the developed countries that built their industry and economy by burning fossil fuels for the past two hundred years, thus becomingresponsible for all the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that is causing climate change. Although that is true, it does not mean that we should not be concerned about an issue that is threatening our economy and future.
So, why are we not running after the developed countries, demanding that they do something about climate change? Especially that climate change impacts will be felt harder in the developing World. Also, what about the role of the oil producing countries? If a product in the market is harmful to the consumer, the producers usually carry the responsibility of their own products. So, why in the case of climate change, the oil producing countries, especially OPEC who have been making billions and billions of dollars out of their oil are not taking any responsibility for climate change?
Out of the 23 Arab countries, 11 are oil producing ones, and 4 of them are among the top 10 oil exporting countries in the World. This makes climate change and the reduction of fossil fuel use a very sensitive topic in the Arab League.
Nevertheless, tackling climate change does not mean that the oil rich countries in the region will lose all their resources. First, climate change threats might be more costly to our economy than the benefits of the oil. Egypt, for example, will lose more than 30% of its grain agriculture, 20% of the Nile Delta will be underwater if Mediterranean Sea level rises by 1 meter, and up to 75% of the Nile river water might disappear due to climate change.
Knowing that Egypt's economy and society is based on the agricultural sector, the Nile Delta and Nile River, the benefits from the oil and gas resources will never be able to compensate.
Second, although the Arab World oil is a major contributor to climate change, the Arab World can actually solve the problem as well. Our region has the most renewable energy resources in the world. Renewable energy technology, which is the alternative to the use of oil and coal and the only solution to climate change, can be our future oil. If we only use 5% of our deserts to build concentrated solar power plants, we can actually satisfy the energy needs of the whole World. We can again export energy to the world, but this time clean and non-exhaustible energy. This might sound like a dream, but there are actually a lot of people already working on it. Germany and other European countries have already conducted studies on how to get solar energy from North Africa to Europe. There are already projects under the development, but they are not enough and require the support of our governments.
Third, solving the climate change problem does not mean that we need to stop using fossil fuels completely. We only need to reduce the use of oil and coal by 50% by 2050, and we will never stop needing oil. Oil is a finite resource and will end in the future. If the oil rich countries reduce the use of oil then they will prolong the life of their resources, and thus have a more stable economy on the long run.
We can only benefit from seriously tackling climate change as we have everything to lose if we do not do anything about it. The Arab World needs to get its act together and start showing concern about climate change.. Hopefully, at the next International Demonstration Day for Climate Change in December, thousands of Arabs will hit the streets and voice that concern.
* Wael Hmaidan was the Greenpeace campaigner for the Arab World from 2003 till 2006. Now he is the Executive Director of IndyAct, which is a global league of independent environmental, social and cultural activists. IndyAct has classified climate change as its priority campaign, and is building an Climate Campaign in the Arab World.