The ‘Adopt A Negotiator’ project is looking for young bloggers and activists from the region to take part in the Doha Climate Change Conference this November

Are you a budding blogger with an interest in the environment? Or maybe a video journalist with a passion for social issues? Well, if you are and also happen to be between 18-30 years old, then the ‘Adopt a Negotiator’ project is for you. They are on the look out for talented people to join their delegation to the UN COP18 conference in the hope of securing a better deal for the climate and the world’s citizens at the next climate summit.

Sébastien Duyck from AaN explains more about the project: “We bring young (18-30) people and bloggers to the main meetings of the UN climate talks to push for stronger climate action, mainly through the use of social media. So as we are now seeking new candidates to join our delegation to the UN COP18 conference, we would like to invite several regional representatives to join us.

“Hopefully we can contribute to raising awareness at the regional level and build the capacity of local young people for the benefit of their networks after the conference.” AaN, which is a project of the Global Campaign for Climate Action, have a number of fellowships available so if you’re interested then do get in touch. Applications received before 22nd August will be given priority, so no time like the present!

BACKGROUND

Adopt a Negotiator (AaN) is a project of the Global Campaign for Climate Action, an alliance of more than 350 non-profit organizations working to ensure a safe climate future for people and nature, to promote the low-carbon transition of our economies, and to accelerate the adaptation efforts in communities already affected by climate change by mobilizing civil society and galvanizing public. AaN got its start with a group of passionate young climate activists publicly tracking their country’s climate negotiators during the lead-up to the Copenhagen Climate Talks (COP15) in 2009. The project has since continued to support activists in publicly tracking their government’s roles in international efforts to respond to climate change.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Here are some of the qualities we are looking for:

You understand the landscape – Our Fellows should not only understand climate change, they are also familiar with their country’s national and international climate politics; preferably with the UNFCCC itself: its history, its inner workings, and its roles in addressing climate change.

You are a great communicator – Our Fellows are excellent at turning the complex and hard to communicate developments happening during climate negotiations into compelling, accessible, creative, actionable communications across multiple channels and mediums. Our primary tool is blogging – and you must be a skilled blogger – but the ability to leverage other communications tools and channels with strategic and/or large audiences via new and traditional media is key to their success.

You’ve got informed empathy – Our Fellows seek out a deep understanding of how climate change affects people in different situations in different ways all over the world – security, health, livelihood, values, politics, business, etc – and can tap into that understanding to help them connect with with various audiences (including your negotiators).

You’re brave – In a short amount of time, each Fellow has to build relationships with experts in our alliance, members of the media, and their country’s negotiators and decision makers. Fellows must make and take public stands on complicated issues; get their ideas and opinions out to media in their home country in meaningful ways; and share those.

You’re fast – Our Fellows must be able to rapidly respond to events and opportunities inside climate negotiations and out.

You’re dedicated – Our Fellows understand the stakes and are dedicated to helping push for progress in addressing climate change in spite of any setbacks and challenges we face along the way. While we expect to count on our Fellows’ full-time participation during the Doha Climate Change Conference, they will also actively participate in the project throughout the remaining months of 2012.

ROLE DESCRIPTION

Applicants will need to be:

• Aged between 18 and 30
• Be able to attend fully the COP18 in Qatar (from November 23rd to December 8th 2012);

• Be able to commit a few hours per week to prepare for the delegation in the coming months and act already as a negotiation tracker.

Fellows will be provided with:

• The opportunity to play a specific role to promote progressive climate policies in your country;
• The chance to be part of a team with many other amazing young activists/bloggers;
All support needed from our team and partner during the coming months (networking, capacity building);
• Transportation to Doha, accommodation and a generous per diem during the Doha Climate Change Conference

For the full details and to apply got to the AaN webpage.

: All images via ‘Adopt a Negotiator’ flickr.

The post Bloggers to Win Free Doha Climate Change Conference Trips this November: Adopt A Negotiator appeared first on Green Prophet.

Experts are calling on Israel to completely enclose its borders with a barrier to keep out ‘floods of climate refugees’

Around two months ago, a small piece of research carried out by the University of Buffalo found that in environmental disasters, humans tend to make things worse. Rather than getting together to resolve issues, the bickering starts and the fists start to fly. It’s a pretty bleak look at human society but one which I don’t buy into. I’d like to think that if/when things turn ugly due to runaway climate change, that the human race will sit down and try to avoid all sorts of nasty things like water wars. Indeed, there is a growing body of research which suggests that scarce resources could encourage better regional co-operation.

However, every now and then something happens which makes me doubt my faith in humanity and it’s ability to do ‘the right thing’. The recent report presented to Israel’s environment minister suggesting that they build a border fencing – including a marine border in the Mediterranean and Red Seas – to keep climate refugees out is one such example.

The report states that Israel must prepare for a situation in which climate refugees escaping drought and rising oceans will flood into the country in their efforts to reach Europe. “The lack of water, warming and sea-level rise, even if it will occur on a different schedule, will bring migration movements from all impoverished regions to every place where it is possible to escape this,” wrote a team of academics, led by Prof. Arnon Soffer and Dr. Anton Berkovsky of the University of Haifa’s Geography Department.

Moreover, the experts told the Jerusalem Post that additional law enforcement resources will be required to deal with the ramifications of securing the Egyptian and Jordanian borders, as an economic crisis might ensue for Negev Bedouin who trade across those lines. “In India, they shoot; in Nepal, they shoot; in Japan, they shoot,” Prof. Arnon Soffer said, adding that in Israel, the refugees know they can find welcome. “I am one that fights for building fences all around Israeli borders,” he said to the Jerusalem Post.

“We are an island – we don’t belong to this region, and we have to defend Israel from waves of migration from Egypt from Jordan and maybe from Syria. If we want to keep Israel a Jewish state, we will have to defend ourselves from what I call ‘climate refugees,’ exactly as Europe is doing now,” he said.

I think this statement from one of the authors is particularly telling and illustrates how national fears (real or imagined) become imprinted on the spectre of ‘climate refugees.’ For Soffer it seems to be about keeping Israel Jewish and making sure they are not ‘flooded’ by (let’s face it) Arabs. However, not only is this fear xenophobic but it’s inaccurate too. According to the latest research on climate refugees by Gregory White, climate disasters actually make it very difficult for people to leave and those that do travel, don’t go very far. So stating that you are justing doing what Europe is doing actually means following an illogical policy put in place due to irrational fears.

Whats more, White states that a “security-minded approach to CIM [Climate Induced Migration] diverts intellectual energy from more important endeavours.” Endeavours such as helping the developing world adapt and mitigating the emissions of the developed world. He adds that efforts to encourage adaptation and nurture south-south cooperation on trade and sustainable development practices, would be “far better than sounding an environmental-refugee klaxon and securitizating international borders.” Especially as the securitization of borders would have its own ecological costs inflicted by the military-security industry.

On a lighter note, the report does recommend swift action to increase Israel’s water supply and secure its food and energy. Soffer also says that sharing water resources between Palestinians and Israelis may well lead to peace. Whats more, the Environment Minister is a little dubious of the extreme measures proposed by the report. Speaking to Ynetnews he explained that “hiding behind fences is not a solution. Instead, it’s important to develop cooperative (initiatives) with neighbouring countries and international agencies.” How genuine this statement’s co-operative spirit is considering he said he’s happy to cut Gaza’s power supply if Israel faces any shortages, is another issue for another time.

For now, I just want to say that any notion that Israel’s should build a(nother) barrier to keep out climate refugees is not only irrational but it’s also not a particularly useful way to handle the unfair hand climate change will deal some of the world’s poorest people.

: Image of the boundary on a lock, of Israel/Lebanon via Maxmac/Shutterstock.com

For more on Climate Refugees see:

Climate, Migration and Why the Security Agenda Just Doesn’t Help

Israeli Minister Proposes Cuts to Gaza Electricity to Bridge Shortfalls

Water Scarcity Leads More to Peace Than War (Interview)

The post Why Israel Is Wrong To Fear Climate Refugees appeared first on Green Prophet.

A few months ago Egypt was named the greenest country in the Middle-East by a Yale group, even topping neighbouring Israel. It even turned out to be one of the best improving countries in the world. If you ever visited it, this might sound odd, and I in fact haven’t met an Egyptian that took the news seriously. But yet, the ranking seems credible. Maybe Egypt’s people care more about the environment than we think?

Me, I am particularly interested in non-Western ways of looking at the environment. In the West much people reached a level of prosperity, and now they start to care about the environment.  But not everybody who cares about the environment fits in this stereotype. And maybe luckily.

A few months ago I decided that I wanted to search out how a specific Egyptian or Arab environmentalist might look like.  I read too much books, but also interviewed some interesting people, and I thought it might be interesting to share my discoveries with you.  I say share, because I want you to interact with me, by letting me know if you (dis)agree.

West vs. South

First, of all, I don’t assume that the West is more advanced than the South (or the East). Yes, the use of words like ‘sustainable development’, ‘resource management’, ‘greening the economy’ stays limited to those with a Western education.  But that’s just lingo. Turn your focus on other parts of the world, South America for example, and you’ll hear ‘rights of nature’, ‘cosmo-visions’, ‘bien-vivir’ or ‘caring for the seventh generation’.

This is because their analysis differs entirely. The West rarely questions technology and economic growth, and the South seldomly criticises tradition and strong family ties.  Their history differs, the values of the Enlightenment helped the West dominate the world and subsequent crises showed the South local tradition’s ability to offer resilience.

Post-development

But there were also occasions in which the viewpoint of the West and the South met.  Some Western aid workers’ experiences made them question the virtues of progress and Southern intellectuals tried to share their analyse on the failure of development.

In the ‘90s a hotchpotch eventually united under the umbrella of ‘post-development’.  They argue that any attempt to make development more sustainable, balanced or effective is useless, we shouldn’t improve it, but abandon it instead. The concept of development is wrong.

They wrote interesting books, try Ivan Illich’s “Energy and Equity” for example.  Post-development consists for a fair part of people from the global South who use their own cultural roots to analyse society, development and the environment.

Vandana Shiva builds upon Gandhi’s concept of local self-sufficiency.

And Majid Rahnema reflects on his own experiences as an Iranian and UN-official.I thought this might also offer interesting insights about the Arab world, but unfortunately it offers very little examples of Arab thinkers. Also, it gives you plenty of nice insights, but is very ambiguous.  It might be useful as a way to criticise ideas, but gives very few inspiration to make things better.

Looking to Green Islam?

Maybe Islam has something to say about this.  I had heard about Seyyed Hossein Nasr, an American-Iranian professor who had written numerous books on how the loss of spirituality, Islam thus, causes a deterioration of the environment – and society.  His books give you plenty of new angles to look at science, but if you look at it as a whole, his message is quite simple and is merely that the West is to blame. It’s also very academical, difficult to translate to society.

Compared to this, the work of Fazlun Khalid is more interesting. A former officer in the British Army, he uses Islam to create awareness about the environment in theUK, and he  also sets up Islamic initiatives to foster environmental care in Indonesia, Saudi-Arabia and Zanzibar.

Yes, this already linked with the Arab world, but still originated in the West.  A bit in the same way Wester aid agencies promote environmental care in Egypt. There was still nothing really genuine about it.

Maybe I had to look at the local political movements instead. The region’s new rulers, the Muslim Brotherhood claimed to base their politics on ethics, and maybe that also involved the environment.  So I set out and asked them.

“Nature’s not our biggest concern” their think-tank’s Jamal Himdan answered, “but we are anti-nuclear, we believe in large scale renewables and want to fight pollution.”

Pollution was, thus, just part of their social justice approach.

Social Justice

Social justice, here we have it again. Each and every person I interviewed seemed to mention it, and in each article I had to explain that it was one of the main demands of the revolution. But is anybody serious about it? And has it already caused a change?

I’m doubtful, and so is Mohamed Nagi of the Habi Center for Environmental Rights.  He told me that if something changed it was for the worse.

So far outside the street protests, nobody seems to do anything with the message, the SCAF didn’t, and when campaigning most politicians find it more tempting to imagine new big-scale investment opportunities than explain how they will ensure their citizen’s basic rights.

Sarah Deputy, who’s analyzing Egypt’s Toskha Project, told me last week that she also was amazed at how nothing’s changed.

In the end, Egypt’s newly-elected politicians all seem to propose a new version of Toskha.  The abovementioned interview with the Brotherhood for example, shows you a lot more about big projects then about empowering the Egypt’s citizens.

Last time Saudi Arabia was pushing for Toskha, now the European Union seems to be in for a massive solar energy adventure.

Environmental Justice

But still, it’s not because those in power don’t understand what’s going on, that things cannot change.  People in Egypt have been standing up against big polluters and even resource squander, and have had an impact.

I call this environmental justice. Maybe I am skipping a few steps, but it looks like the same forces are at work as elsewhere in the world. Protests that started fifteen years ago inBoliviaeventually culminated in what is known as the Climate Justice-movement.  Experiences of how native and black Americans were affected by bad policy have led Rob Nixon to coin environmental justice as the environmentalism of the poor.  This may look as a very leftist view, but it is not, as it criticises the governments much more than anything else.

Joan Martinez-Allier and Sunita Narain have described their own experiences in the same manner, and argued that the potential of environmental justice is far bigger than the efforts the West is pushing for.  Their books should in fact be compulsory reading for everybody with an interest in the environment.

The Only Hope

To me, Egypt environmental justice seems to be very promising.  Look at what the most media popular example, the Zabaleen have been able to perform. They combined caring about their livelihood and contributing to the environmental sustainability of the economy at the meantime.

Yes, except for them not many examples are known. But that might be because they don’t get any publicity.  Also all the other environmental initiatives, at least those that gain publicity aren’t very promising.  On a recent conference called “Green Visions for Cairo” the most feasible idea academic experts proposed was to move all the government’s offices from downtown to the desert. That’s not only infeasible, but also runs contrary to what I understand as sustainable.

And the last “Cairo Climate Talks” I attended resulted in a discussion on why gmo-vegetables are still restricted in Egypt. Every time the organisation, or the experts weren’t to blame, they always tried to navigate away from bad proposals, but it just shows how unsuitable easy solutions are in densely populated Cairo/Egypt.

I could go on for a while, showing you initiatives that went wrong, but I think there are more interesting stories to follow. A lot has already been written about failures.  But the stories on environmental justice, or the environmentalism of the poor if you want, haven’t received a lot of attention. Especially not in the Arab region. And that’s what you might expect from me in the future.

Image of Egyptian crowd by Paul Vinten from Shutterstock 

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