It’s easy to think that social and environmental issues are separate and that the first should take priority, but as we have pointed out on numerous occasions, people are nought without the land and water that sustain them.

In other words, if we degrade our natural resources on earth, we also diminish our own chances of survival.

The Middle East is incredibly vulnerable to climate change. Not only do we have low-lying coastal areas that could eventually become swallowed up by rising seas, but our deserts are expanding, and our groundwater resources are drying up.

People living in Jordan, Gaza and Yemen understand all too well that water is no longer a given, even though it is the most fundamental need of all life. Gaza in particular is hard hit and researchers estimate that has soon as 2020, it will be unlivable!

And yet, apart from Green Prophet and a few isolated artists and bloggers here and there, very few people in the Arab world have publicly taken it upon themselves to open up dialog and promote policymaking that address the very real and present threat that climate change poses to Middle East stability.

Which is why Mr Batir Wardam, a Jordanian environmentalist whose specialities include natural resource management, environmental policies and communication, has launched a climate change blog written from the perspective of a longstanding government researcher.

Mr. Wardam has 15 years working experience with national academic institutions, NGOs, the government of Jordan and international and regional environmental organizations such as the UNDP, UNEP and IUCN, he writes in his biography.

Currently he is working as the national project manager for the preparation of Jordan’s 3^rd National Communication Report to the UNFCCC. A two year project funded by UNDP and GEF, Wardam plans to use it as a springboard from which to communicate climate change developments and policy changes in the region.

“The lack of visionary political leadership, the dominance of core economic and social challenges and the absence of information sources has always crippled this region’s work on climate change,” writes Wardam.

“This blog will not claim to provide all answers but will strive to provide information and a platform for discussion.”

If you want to understand how governments and leaders in the Arab world are preparing for and responding to climate change, watch the Arab World Climate Change blog, where Wardam has already accumulated a body of insider knowledge that would interest any concerned environmentalist in the region.

Image of ancient city of Petra in Jordan, Shutterstock

The post Climate Change in the Arab World – a New Blog appeared first on Green Prophet.

Case Study: A stable security state or a nation eager for reform? We look at Jordan and the strengths and weaknesses of its civil society

Whilst Jordan may not have seen the flurry of protests that lots of other Arab countries witnessed during the Arab Spring, that doesn’t mean Jordanians are not desperate for reform. In fact, they are and to a certain extent the government has been eager to show they are happy to make changes. In the last two years alone there have been amendments to over 42 articles of the Jordanian Constitution. But, for many, these reforms aren’t having a real impact and there are growing concerns that the authorities are becoming more draconian.

First, there were efforts to censor the internet and last month, protestors gathered to demand the release of activists charged with opposing the regime and slandering the royal family. It seems that becoming a campaigner and a genuine member of Jordan’s civil society just got a little more difficult.

“Although Jordan is a security state – if a less extreme, less openly repressive version of one than Egypt was – it continues to be held up as an example of one of the more progressive and democratic Arab states. Jordan’s path to reform has been a carefully managed top-down process which has all the trappings of democracy while lacking substance. Despite its failure to take meaningful steps towards democracy, donors continue to laud Jordan as a democratizer.” 

That was the damning conclusion that researchers Ana Echagüe and Hélène Michou at the Foundation for the Future came to in a report released in May 2011 exploring Jordan’s civil society.

Over a year on has anything changed for the better? It’s hard to tell. A recent report launched by the same organisation points out the real challenges facing civil society organisations in the country. Firstly, donors tend to fund projects more than the infrastructure of the organization, leaving the organisations structurally weak and with sustainability issues. Secondly, there are legislative and government obstacles to the free execution of civil society activities in Jordan.

For example, the Foundation for the Future explains in a press release that foreign funding is subject to government approval and societies must “not intend to achieve any ‘political’ gains covered by the Political Parties Law in the course of their work”, though the term ‘political’ is undefined.

Why is all this relevant? Well, I have been thinking a lot about the environmental movement in the region and the importance of a strong civil society for it to flourish. If people are able to organise freely, feel that their voice matters and are unified then they are likely to take action on issues that concern them. If not, they will wait for the government to not only realise the severity of the problem but also come up with a solution. This is particularly worrying if the issue is climate change.

Climate change is not a problem that can be solved by governments and authorities – it’s far too wide reaching for that. It needs local solutions and local actions to go hand in hand with government support and policy. The problem can’t wait for governments to wake up and smell the carbon-dioxide coffee. So, if we are serious about building up an environmental movement in the Middle East, then we need to be serious about building up a strong and independent civil society first.

For more on Jordan see: 

Websites Go Black to Protest Internet Censorship in Jordan

King Abdullah: Israel is Disrupting Jordan’s Nuclear Ambitions

Recycling Yourself When Green Projects Go Bust

Image of Jordanian forced holding flowers distributed by protesters calling for release of political prisoners in Amman last month. Muhammad Hamed/Reuters.

The post Without A Strong Civil Society, Middle East Environment Has No Chance (Op-Ed) appeared first on Green Prophet.

Carboun has released a powerful infographic which details how energy is consumed in the Middle East. Using data received from personal contributions, the World Bank and the International Energy Agency, founder Karim Elgendy has mapped out energy use by country in each of the following sectors: buildings, food production, industry and transportation. An architect and sustainability consultant based in London, Elgendy also breaks down how “resource-rich” and “resource-poor” countries consume energy differently. The results may surprise you.

Tunisia’s dubious win

Tunisian buildings consume more energy than any other Arab world country – about 43 percent of the country’s overall energy consumption. This is higher than the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average, which is about 37%. Lebanon, Algeria and Jordan follow close behind.

On the whole, buildings in the Arab world, which includes Maghreb countries, account for 1% less overall energy consumption than OECD countries combined, which seems contrary to popular thought. Turkey and Israel are the only countries from the Middle East -North African region that are members of the OECD economic group.

Also, buildings in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are on the lowest end of the energy consumption spectrum, which comes as a surprise since the oil-producing countries are so frequently blamed for being the biggest power hogs because of subsidies.

This doesn’t mean they aren’t using a lot of energy, however, it just means that a greater proportion of it is being spent elsewhere.

In Qatar, commercial and residential buildings only use about 10% of the country’s overall energy, but industry accounts for roughly half of the country’s overall energy consumption.

Rich countries versus poor countries

Elgendy claims that resource-rich and resource-poor countries use energy very differently. In Saudi, for example, a resource-rich country, the oil and desalination industries usurp a greater percentage of energy whereas in resource-poor Egypt, food production dominates instead.

Likewise, in resource-rich countries, commercial buildings consume more energy than residential buildings, whereas the opposite is true for resource-poor countries.

Riadh Bhar, who is an Ecofys consultant in Germany, wrote of the infographic: “Really nice graphics… I´m not 100% sure if they are that reliable. It´s not that easy to find good statistics in the region.”

It’s true. Finding good data is difficult, but Carboun is helping to lead us out of the dark.

The post How Arab World Buildings Use Energy (Infographic) appeared first on Green Prophet.

Do you feel that the politics behind environmental issues in Israel-Palestine are being sidelined? 

A couple of weeks ago, Green Prophet reported on the news that Israelis and Palestinians were working together to build a restorative eco-park. It was a relatively feel-good piece showing that despite the political conflict, joint projects could be useful in building bridges between the two nations. One commentator, however, felt that our coverage was politically naïve.

H.Shaka remarked: “I appreciate that GP is trying to report on ‘green’ in the whole Middle East, including both Israel and the Arab world, and I have come to see this as a step in the right direction. However, given the strong political drivers in the region, I think GP should aim to be much more politically informed and balanced if it wishes to gain the respect of its readers, at least in the Arab world.”

From me personally, the comment struck a chord. I can see why the commentator would prefer that politics play a bigger role in the way we see green initiatives in the region. I am the first to admit that green campaigners can be a little idealistic about joint Israeli and Palestinian projects, and tend to ignore their political downsides.

I remember speaking to a green Bedouin organisation about such joint projects and they were eager to point out that they are deeply problematic as the partners are in no way equal. They explained that the Israeli side have more say, more influence and a lot more to gain than Palestinian Bedouins, who are almost token players.

Others add, that joint Israeli-Palestinian projects can be seen as ‘normalisation’. That they allow and even encourage greater acceptance of the unfair political situation and distort the oppressor/oppressed relationship between Israel and Palestine. I understand all that. I also understand that not everyone sees the political situation the same way. That the political situation is quite complex and that solutions are not as easy to point out as the problems are.

If you don’t think that joint Palestinian-Israeli projects are fair, does that mean that allowing environmental resources to deteriorate further to make a political stand is the solution? I don’t think I can accept that. There has to be a better option – what that is, isn’t clear right now.

I also have to defend Green Prophet’s openness to discussing these political issues. As well as covering these joint projects, we have reported on less ‘positive’ stories such as Israel’s water apartheid, the dire environmental situation in Gaza and the environmental impact of the conflict. Indeed, the Green Prophet writers are quite a varied bunch of writers and I don’t always agree with my fellow colleagues on issues such as nuclear power, working with corporations, green gadgets and lots more. I also think we don’t need to agree.

All writers are given the freedom to talk about every political issue they feel is important. If coverage appears to be apolitical, I can only guess it’s because writers may feel that there is nothing to gain from bringing up these political issues time and time again. The reader will most probably still believe what they believed when they started reading the article. I know that sound cynical but I am being honest. I have seen how political argument blow up on some websites and blogs and they not only achieve very little but are corrosive too.

I don’t really know how to end the post other than to say that I speak for myself. This is not some attempt to say ‘yes, Green Prophet has it right/wrong’ but rather my personal perspective on things. Yes, I think we need to include politics more in our coverage of green issues in the Middle East. But I can also understand why many of us choose not to. It’s too messy, too complicated and I am not sure that it is what the majority of our readers want.

I guess, now it’s your say.

Do you feel that the political dimensions of environmental issues in Israel-Palestine are being sidelined in our coverage?

And do you want to see more or less politics?

: Image via Michele Benericetti/flickr.

For more on political issues in the environment in the Mideast see:

Israeli Enviro Minister: Please Keep Politics Out of Water!

Jordan Politics Hampers ‘Friends of the Earth Middle East’

Solar Power In The West Bank- Green Progress or Bad Politics?

The post Israel and Palestine: The Place of Politics In The Mideast’s Environment appeared first on Green Prophet.

Thanks to a recent feature in Sadiyaty Magazine, residents of the UAE may soon be interested in recycled cardboard furniture.

The latest issue of Sadiyaty Magazine, an Arabic publication on design trends and fashion, featured design team Sanserif Creatius’s cardboard Valentina throne chair – and no wonder.  The Spanish designers at Sanserif Creatius are enamored with Arabic art and design and have integrated Arabesque details into many of their furnishings, including the cardboard Mustafa table.  In integrating Arabic arches, geometric shapes and scallops into their designs, will Sanserif Creatius be the design company that makes eco-friendly cardboard furniture palatable to the Arab world?

Published weekly by the Saudi Research & Publishing Company, Sadiyaty Magazine is an Arabic-language market leader which will hopefully succeed in setting a greener trend in the UAE.

In addition to the Valentina chair featured in the magazine, Sanserif Creatius recently designed a cardboard LED lamp intended for large spaces.  The Canesú lamp (pictured above) is 1.5 meters in diameter and is designed for both maximum energy efficiency and minimal environmental impact.

Inspired by traditional Spanish textiles used to make dresses, Sanserif Creatirus writes that the Canesú lamp is meant to “dress up a space, but without becoming a visual separator, without hiding their environment, but on the contrary, it aims to integrate and be functional, maintaining a high aesthetic look.”

“The lamp structure,” write the designers, “is built using only recycled materials as a skeleton that finally creates the luminaire.”

Perhaps this lamp will soon adorn the large spaces of some homes in the UAE.

:: Sanserif Creatius

Read more about Sanserif Creatius and other cardboard furniture:
Sanserif Creatius Carves a Cardboard Table With Arabic Devotion
Paper Carton Furniture Is No Pulp Fiction
Krooom Makes Recycled and Recyclable Cardboard Furniture For Kids of All Ages

The post Sanserif Creatius Brings Recycled Cardboard Furniture to UAE appeared first on Green Prophet.

Most people who think about clean tech developments in the Arab World immediately think of Masdar City, since it is probably one of the most publicized projects in this region. But we have compiled a short list of 7 other noteworthy initiatives that are either being developed in or benefit the Arab World.

Step in for a look at everything from a small wind energy project started by a group of Turkish villagers disillusioned with their utilities provider, a 3D printer that makes objects out of Sahara Sands, to Egypt’s groundbreaking 150 MW solar-thermal Kuraymat plant 90km south of Cairo. You may be surprised to learn just how much green goodness we have to show off!

Saudi Gives Postage Stamp-Sized Solar Technology Project $10 Million

Even though Saudi Arabia is currently protecting its oil wealth at the COP 17 meetings in Durban, that isn’t to say that the Kingdom isn’t looking to maintain its energy hegemony in a solarized world. In addition to a 500 kilowatt plant on Farasan Island and other alternative energy projects, they have committed to helping this Canadian postage stamp-sized solar technology get off the ground. How does it work? For much less than it costs to produce photovoltaic panels or other solar technology, these sheets are painted with quantum dots that harvest energy from both regular sunlight and infrared light. Expecting it to become a game-changer in the solar world, Saudi has given it a $10 million confidence vote.

Egypt’s 1st Solar-Thermal Kuraymat Plant Feeds Clean Energy into the Grid

Just before the Tahrir protests flared up again, we recently traveled to Egypt to attend the Desertec conference and visit the 150 MW Kuraymat plant south of Cairo. This impressive plant operates at night as a combined cycle gas power plant producing roughly 110 MW of natural gas-fueled energy. During the day a 1,900 square meter solar thermal field filled with parabolic trough technology converts energy captured from the sun into steam-powered electricity. It has been feeding energy into the grid since July, 2011.

Abu Dhabi Prince Shames White House by Crowning Court Roof with Solar Panels

We never thought we’d see the day that oil-producing countries shame the United States, but that day came when HH Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi crowned his court with active photovoltaic panels. The White House had an opportunity to return Jimmy Carter’s solar panels to its roof, but spurned it. This is just one of the ways in which the Gulf countries are outpacing America’s renewable energy promises. While the west complains about new regulations designed to reduce airline-produced carbon emissions, the Gulf has been piling up orders for fuel-efficient 787 dream liners.

Solar-Powered 3D Printer Makes Glass Objects from Sahara Sands

We may have a lot of political problems and water shortages, but one of the Middle East’s greatest assets is its ubiquitous sun. Markus Kayser took advantage of the infinite Sahara sun to test the Solar Sinter – a solar-powered system comprised of little more than a fresnel lens and a bit of computing that makes objects from silica sand. Reaching temperatures of up to 1600 degrees Celsius ( 2912 Fahrenheit), focused sunlight melts the sand to create 3D glass bowls and other objects.

Incredible SunGlacier Leaf Will Use Sahara Sun & Humidity to Make Ice

There’s more than one way to use the sun, and nothing proves this better than Ap Verheggen’s incredible SunGlacier Leaf. This solar-powered leaf has the potential to create a lot of ice and water – way out in the middle of the Sahara. How so, you ask? It’s actually not as complicated as you might think. The 200m² elm-leaf shaped structure has a PV cell coated underbelly, which powers cooling condensers that in turn convert humidity from the desert air into ice. This technology is currently being tested in a shipping container that simulates desert conditions, and researchers have already created a 10 cm slab of ice.

Turkish Village Goes Off the Grid with a Wind Turbine

Maybe it’s starting to seem like the Middle East has got nothing but the sun to offer, but this isn’t true at all. Case in point: the Akbıyık village in Turkey went completely off the grid after the Turkish Electricity Distribution Company cut off the village’s electricity. Because the utility company wanted to charge the villagers an unreasonable pile of money for outstanding bills, they raised funds to install a wind turbine with 50 KW capacity. To date, the new turbine has enabled Akbıyık to pay off its electric debts and power a water pump that allows the village to stay completely energy independent.

Sharjah Students Make Renewable Energy from Noise

Nothing makes our green hearts sing more than seeing our youth pick up the green baton, especially those from somewhat obscure parts of the world. These four young men from Sharjah, which is an Emirate located just north of  Dubai, won a prestigious award for developing technology that harvests energy from noise! That’s right. Noise. Their device converts otherwise wasted mechanical energy, acoustic noise, and ultrasonic waves into electricity by using piezoelectric technology. Even though it won’t generate staggering quantities of energy, their device has an extraordinary range of potential applications, including tapping ultrasonic waves produced at aquariums.

The post 7 Amazing Clean Tech Projects in the Arab World appeared first on Green Prophet.

From earthquakes to water scarcity, the Middle East faces its fair share of natural disasters but countries are only now starting to take disaster risk reduction seriously

Over the last 25 years, the Arab region has suffered 276 disasters in which 100,000 people died, 1.5 million were left homeless and 10 million affected – yet the region has systematically failed to prioritize disaster preparedness.

This all looks set to change, as for the first time ever the region has a strategy which outlines a commitment to reduce risk and vulnerability for Arab countries. And whilst experts state that the commitment is still low, they have welcomed the move as a step in the right direction.

“The region is affected by several hazards: earthquakes, floods, landslides and drought. However, disaster risk reduction has not been a priority for governments until recently,” Luna Abu-Swaireh, regional programme officer at the Cairo office of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), told IRIN.

As part of the commitment to reduce risk, several Middle Eastern countries including Syria, Jordan and Yemen have established a national database which should allow them to estimate the level of risk and improve their response when disaster strikes.

One of the risks the Middle East region faces is that of earthquakes in the Jordan rift valley which extends from the Red Sea, Palestine, the Dead Sea to Lebanon. This puts around two thirds of Jordan’s population, the entire population of Lebanon and the urban Syrian population that lives within 50km of the fault line at risk.

Flooding in places such as Saudi Arabia as well as increasing water scarcity and food security has also increased the vulnerability of Arab populations to disasters. For example, last year a drought in Syria meant that 500,000 people were forced to abandon their homes in east Syria in search of water and food.

Egypt and Morocco will also be developing national disaster loss databases to ramp up their ability to deal with disasters whilst reducing the vulnerability of their populations.

“The impact of disasters on the economics of the Arab countries coupled with the problems they are already facing in terms of poverty, etc., makes it a challenge to engage in disaster risk,” Abu-Swaireh explained. “You need to work today on disaster reduction, to make sure your system does not collapse in the face of a disaster.”

The UNISDR has plans to bring together the relevant governments, civil society organisations and businesses at the end of 2011 to help them translate policy into action and increase investment in risk reduction.

:: Image via nimboo/flickr.

:IRIN

For more on natural disasters in the Middle East see:

Arab Scientists Model Red Sea and Persian Gulf To Stop Flash Floods

Saudi Citizens Release Documentary Criticizing Lack of Flood Protection

500,000 Syrians Flee Drought-Stricken Zone

The post Middle East Countries Prepare For Natural Disasters appeared first on Green Prophet.

Conservative Muslim bloggers and women’s rights activists bring harassers and inadequate legal and cultural protection to task, with women leading the charge.

Women’s rights are a key environmental issue, a topic we’ve covered in recent articles about the need for a language revolution and the Arab Spring of women.  Women in the MENA region are struggling behind their western counterparts with regards to reproductive and sexual sovereignty. From virginity tests to sexual harassment, environmentalists are committed to giving voice to efforts that stake a stand against gender-based social injustices.

That conversation recently becoming more pronounced in the MuslimMatters.org community, with the April 25, 2011 publication of an article entitled, “Sex & the Ummah | Sexual Harassment: A Muslim Problem?” The author, Hena Zuberi, shares her personal encounters with unwanted touch – each one is chilling and some are echoed in the experiences of other commentators of her blog.

“A touch, a feel, a whisper. It doesn’t take much to make a young girl feel dirty, stripped of her dignity. Walking in the streets of this Muslim country was treacherous,” she writes. And then in thoughtful language that spares neither civility nor responsibility, she ascertains those features of her beloved country and religion (or interpretations thereof) that allow for the continued subjugation of women.

Her conclusion: Women and men must speak loudly about the problem, and no longer hide in shame when someone harasses them for simply being a woman in the wrong place at the right time from the perspective of the aggressor.

Sexual Harassment is at epidemic proportions in some countries in the region. Consider these statistics, taken from Zuberi’s article:  “In 2008, Abul Komsan, the woman’s rights activist, polled 1,000 women from all parts of the country. What she found shocked her. 98 percent of foreign women polled said they had been sexually harassed. And about eight out of 10 Egyptian-born women said the same thing. She also surveyed Egyptian men, and almost two-thirds of men polled actually admitted that they harassed women.”

Religious and non-religious women, Muslim and not, dressed conservatively and otherwise, have been reporting extraordinary high numbers of untoward advances that include groping, inappropriate language, to outright assault.

Further, she writes that, “From Mexico City to Chicago, this is a male problem.  According to National Crime Records Bureau, the fastest growing crime in India is violence against women.  Walking down the street, taking public transportation or having a career, all put women at risk for sexual harassment and sexual assault, no matter the city, country or continent.” No country and no female are fully safe, she states, even those dressed in the most conservative attire.

Zuberi holds men and women responsible – not those who are victimized, but those who as she experienced as a child either offered no support or looked the other way. “I do not believe a victim is responsible, but the other women in the society are. Having said that… just as we would caution children about sexual predators, we should remind ourselves not to be vulnerable and accessible, the two qualities that rapist and harassers look for.”

Society must change its responses, she insists. “Men need to support their daughters, sisters, wives when they complain of harassment instead of forbidding them from going out or blaming them for causing the incident.  Men and women both need to raise sons to be men who do not treat women like toys.” These sentiments may resonate particularly well with important allies – non-Muslim women living in Western countries who have long pointed out that no manner of dress or behavior is an invitation to assault.

What’s equally noteworthy about the article, aside from the author’s convictions, are the responses by many readers (at last count, they totaled 160 comments). Many women shared their experiences, suggestions and outrage over sexual harassment in Muslim countries.   One female writer identifying herself as Nadia expressed alarm in response to suggestions that women bring sexual violence upon them because of how they are dressed (i.e., modestly, but without a niqab) or for simply leaving the house (one male reader insisted that harassment would stop if women stayed home all the time).

“That lesson is not going to be learned by just covering someone up because you are validating the point that women are simply sexual beings and cannot be seen as human beings until you add some kind of artificial barrier over them,” Nadia writes. “How come women seem to understand this and don’t demand that men cover their hair or smile or arms, because those can be attractive? Why is a woman not offended or “challenged” by a man walking around and living his life regularly?”

“Obviously rape happens all over the world, but it is unique in the Muslim world for being framed as a clothing-responsibility and gender-responsibility argument instead of a religious-values, social upbringing argument.” She continues.

The author references several important steps men and women can take to end the social acceptance of sexual harassment, including the role that Harrassmap.com (no longer operating as of 2023) can play in empowering women.

According to the website, the aim of harrassmap.com is to, “implement a system in Egypt for reporting incidences of sexual harassment via SMS messaging. This tool will give women a way to anonymously report incidences of sexual harassment as soon as they happen, using a simple text message from their mobile phone. By mapping these reports online, the entire system will act as an advocacy, prevention, and response tool, highlighting the severity and pervasiveness of the problem.”

In a blog about the grassroots program, London-born journalist Jack Shenker investigates why sexual harassment has increased in the Middle East, Egypt in particular, over the last twenty years. He writes:

Why is sexual harassment such a problem in Egypt? Anecdotal evidence suggests that 20 years ago this simply wasn’t an issue on the same scale; when cases of harassment did occur other people on the street would often step in to help. These days such assistance is rarely forthcoming.

Many different explanations have been put forward, with varying degrees of credibility. Some blame Islam’s (highly contested) attitude to women, though harassment levels in Egypt seem to far outstrip those in other Muslim countries. Others point to sexual frustration, which is certainly a factor in a country where economic pressures are forcing many young people to wait longer and longer before they can afford to marry – but this doesn’t account for pre-pubescent children and married men being among the harassment repeat offenders.

HarassMap’s Rebecca Chiao offers another perspective: “Egyptians today are exposed to a great many pressures: unemployment, inflation, urban overcrowding, pollution … pressure from all directions. And one of the ways that pressure manifests itself is in the targeting of the weak and marginalised; in the news we see negative attitudes towards refugees, sectarian violence, and of course harassment of women – who are a social minority, despite making up 50% of society.”

The program currently operates on a volunteer basis, and was formed by both foreign and Middle East born women’s rights activists.

Related News:

The Middle East Needs More Sluts

The Rising Voices of Arab Women

Harrassmap Let’s Women Cyclists Report Abuses in Cairo

The post Sexual harassment against women in Muslim countries appeared first on Green Prophet.

The unusual political identity of Turkey — a stable, democratic, Islamic country — serves as inspiration for democratic reformers in the Arab world. Its government is a model of political progressiveness for its neighbors to the east and south. In the same fashion, strong climate and energy policy in Turkey could inspire environmental action as radical as the democratic revolutions currently sweeping the region. That was the message of former U.S. vice president Al Gore at the “Leaders of Change” summit in Istanbul on Monday, according to the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman.

Speaking alongside several former prime ministers and former UN secretary Kofi Annan, Gore commended Turkey for displaying “unprecedented leadership” in its region of the world, and urged the government to position itself at the center of an intercontinental renewable energy grid. Gore also pointed out that Turkey would be among the countries most affected — make that desertified — by a devastating drought predicted to set in toward the middle of this century if carbon emissions continue at current rates. (This desertification has already started occurring in some parts of the country, according to the environmental news site TreeHugger.)

Turkey’s government has long claimed to be concerned about environmental issue. In fact, Gore’s words came almost one year after Turkish Environment and Forestry Minister Veysel Eroğlu announced that Turkey was “ready to become the world’s most environmentally friendly country“. So in the last year, Turkey’s energy and environmental ministries have teamed up to reduce carbon emissions and encourage a cleaner energy industry in the country, right? Wrong.

“Turkish bureaucracy still wants the 1970s kind of energy developmental path,” Alidost Numan, who works with Greenpeace Turkey, tells Green Prophet. “They want to walk down the path that has already been tested rather than the more sustainable, decentralized policies that other countries are now pursuing.”

Indeed, despite the government rhetoric, most of Turkey’s power still comes from plants that run on fossil fuels, with at least sixty more currently under construction. Turkey’s hydropower dams, which account for about one fifth of the country’s installed capacity, have faced strong opposition from environmental groups and local residents because of their inefficient use of water and destruction of riparian ecosystems.

Rather than offer financial subsidies to get Turkey’s tiny wind and solar industries off the ground, the government is investing heavily in nuclear power at the moment. One reactor has already been commissioned from a Russian company, and Turkey’s energy minister has said that construction on it will begin in the next few months.

The plant, which would supply roughly ten percent of Turkey’s current installed capacity, is slated to be built just 15 miles from an active fault line. Furthermore, it probably won’t actually be plugged into the grid for another 20 years — if it withstands the current tide of anti-nuclear sentiment and gets built at all, that is.

So when is Turkey going to step up, and become the environmental exemplar its leaders claim it is ready to be?

:: Today’s Zaman

Read more environment news from Turkey:

“Anatolia Won’t Be Blackened” Declare Turkish Anti-Fossil Fuel Groups

Dam Victory for Turkey’s Environmentalists

Turkey: The World’s Most Environmentally-Friendly Country? Maybe, With Water

Image via simone.brunozzi

The post Al Gore Talks Turkish Climate Policy appeared first on Green Prophet.