Making peace in the Middle East through water
We learn from models such as Gidon Bromberg – the founder of EcoPeace – how a career in international environmental law can change the world and help young people impact the consequences of climate change. As countries across the globe struggle with climate change Middle East states such as Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Jordan show the world how struggles with climate negotiation cooperation can lead to hope for sustainable peace.
Bromberg and his Jordan and Palestinian partners at EcoPeace have created a project to dismantle areas of complications and form stronger bonds. When there are sensitive subjects in relationships between countries, climate agreements becomes millions of times more complicated and much more challenging to discuss solutions among enemies. For this reason, EcoPeace has created the Green Blue Deal, which may be an answer to climate troubles in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Green Blue Deal
The Middle East is a ticking time bomb. To defuse catastrophic consequences which may be larger than the climate question, the Green Blue Deal has worked up four key areas in order to create climate resilience in the Middle East.
For starters, the Green Blue Deal attempts to improve relations between Jordan, Palestine, and Israel by creating a water and energy exchange system that allows the countries to share water and energy to benefit all of the Middle East. In this deal Israel will build a desalination plant in the region of Emek Hefer and Jordan will be able to purchase the water at reasonable rates.
The business arrangements, to be financed by third parties, will be part of a larger business plan that includes Jordan developing and supplying solar energy which it can then feed back to the Israeli grid. The cost of labor and more open space makes Jordan a more ideal place for solar energy production over Israel.
Part of the deal, EcoPeace will rehabilitate the shared Jordan River and will create education programs that target youth groups for early education on climate resiliency and diplomacy.
Through this deal, EcoPeace charters the way toward a region that is not only creating a greener environment but also building a stronger community. Settling disputes via climate discussion, is a passive method of compliance between nations that were previously in a high-tension state.
By working together “we can build the framework for peace and climate security for all,” hopes EcoPeace directors collectively. This deal sets up the framework for a mutual economic support system for the environment, and promotes solutions between Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This is not only an Israeli, Palestinian or Jordanian discussion. EcoPeace also calls on leaders from other countries to help support the Middle Eastern deal.
How local conflict impacts us globally
Countries such as Australia, Germany, the United States, and Russia are all being urged to join a ‘coalition of the willing’ to help EcoPeace support the implementation of the Green Deal. In addition, countries in Europe can even benefit from EcoPeace’s plans, as Bromberg explains to Green Prophet from his office in Tel Aviv:
“All public areas were without heating in the winter,” and this was due to being dependent on Russian gas that was inaccessible at the time. However, with renewable energy technologies, countries all over the world can benefit from connections with other countries by getting resources for renewable energy from others.
This is why relationships between nations are so important, not only in the Middle East but everywhere. This plan can lay the foundation for inspiration for countries all over the world to come to a middle ground, settle disputes, and better our environment.
Author: Danielle Meyers
Danielle Meyers is an Environmental Science major at the University of Massachusetts Amherst interested in environmental law and policy. She took an interest in studying the environment once she learned about the worsening effects of climate change. Danielle enjoys going on adventures, the beach, shopping, and seeing friends and family. She is reporting from Tel Aviv in the Summer of 2023 to to learn, discover, and inspire change in the community and throughout the Middle East.
