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Greenpeace is always the thorn in a polluter’s or whale hunter’s side: Looming over the 28th UN Climate Conference (COP28) is whether governments will finally heed the calls, that grow stronger by the day, to phase out fossil fuels and deliver on climate justice, writes Greenpeace.

“While the causes and consequences of climate change have never been felt so deeply, the solutions have never been more in reach. The question is no longer how but when? Those serious about a livable planet have the tools needed to deliver the climate action needed: COP28 must agree to end the fossil fuel era,” says Greenpeace. 

Greenpeace’s wish list for COP28 in the UAE:

• For the Paris Agreement warming limit to be kept within reach, the COP28 decision text must hold an uncompromised commitment to a just and rapid phase out of all fossil fuels, with an immediate end to new coal, oil and gas. 
• The Global Stocktake must conclude with outcomes that kick-start transformative action across the board to limit temperatures to 1.5ºC and respond to increasing climate impacts with justice.
• A credible finance package that responds to growing needs is essential. It must include the launch of a new Loss and Damage Fund, and move us closer to making polluters pay for the destruction and harm they have caused.

“This is truly a unique moment in time. Solutions are now here, bigger and cheaper than ever before, ready to replace fossil fuels and bring us greater security.  But it won’t happen fast enough unless governments regulate oil, coal and gas out of the way. COP28 can be the turning point, when governments act on the science, commit to protecting their own citizens, and agree to make fossil fuels history,” says Kaisa Kosonen, Head of the Greenpeace COP28 delegation.

“In yet another year of record temperatures, delaying climate action would be catastrophic for the communities for whom navigating the impacts of the climate crisis is a daily reality,” says Ghiwa Nakat, Executive Director, Greenpeace MENA.

“The COP28 Presidency stated that reducing fossil fuels is both inevitable and essential, but we now need to see actions that support what we already know to be necessary – a total phase out of fossil fuels. We need to take this ambition seriously and agree to the equitable phaseout of all fossil fuels including oil, gas and coal – and for the worst fossil fuel polluters to be held responsible for the crisis they have caused.

“People with the least resources to defend themselves are immersed in a constant struggle for survival: farmers seeing their harvests fail, desert nomads whose oases are disappearing, Ahwari women in the marshlands of Southern Iraq whose livelihoods have been devastated by drought,” says Nakat. “Every passing day without real change becomes a sentence of hardship or even death for these communities. Ending this suffering is the essence of climate justice.”

From what I have learned by attending climate events is that COP isn’t where decisions are really made and where action is taken. It’s a media and political spectacle. What happens at COP28 is when the work has been done – work that has been going on the year previous with teams and boots on the ground in various UN working groups. Still, I hope Greenpeace does like it always does – it’s a group that pushes the envelope a little further to some reality that the planet can live with. The UN shows time and time again that it can’t be accountable for all its moving parts and it can’t always hold every nation’s interest at heart.

:: Briefing on Greenpeace COP28 demands

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Saudi Arabia is pumping up its propaganda machine during COP26 to deflect the true nature of its intentions, announces Greenpeace. Saudi Arabia recently announced it will be net zero by 2060, a long way off, and with no exit plan to wean the world from oil (remember its oil shale announcement?). Meanwhile Saudi Arabia has plans to increase its oil production from 12 million barrels per day to 13 million barrels per day by 2027. 

How can anyone take Saudi Arabia seriously? They are developing 90 untouched islands on the Red Sea, one with Foster + Partners, are creating the world’s most nuts environmental nightmare “green” city called Neom, where they have evicted locals and even killed a Bedouin activist. It’s like a villain making promises while crossing his fingers behind his back. 

Ahmad El Droubi from Greenpeace, who obviously sees the ongoing contractions Saudi Arabia spouts out into the world: “We question the seriousness of this announcement, as it comes in parallel with plans for the Kingdom to increase its oil production … and seems to simply be a strategic move to alleviate political pressure ahead of COP26.”

But the words are likely just a smokescreen, as Saudis plan on carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS), which have not been proven to scale and which may require more energy than the emissions they sequester. The use of CCS as a golden bullet idea summons the idea that Saudi Arabia can “buy” its way out of unrestrained use of fossil fuels. The usual old world approach.

“The stipulations of the announcement are of great concern as they focus on an array of false solutions, such as CCS whose viability at scale remains largely unproven and its potential to deliver significant emission reductions by the mid-century is currently limited,” says El Droubi.

“Safe, permanent, and verifiable storage of CO2 is difficult to guarantee and there are many hidden climate impacts of such technologies.

“The proposition of increased dependence on natural gas and development of a hydrogen economy, based primarily on it, are also of great concern; blue hydrogen relies on CCS and also maintains the status quo of dependency on fossil fuels, according to a recent study the total carbon dioxide equivalent emissions are only 9%-12% less than for grey hydrogen.”

Greenpeace, a leader in environmental education and action warns that climate change is a global threat that requires a global reduction of carbon emissions and that fossil fuel exporting countries have a responsibility beyond their national borders.

“We urge Saudi Arabia to stop expanding their investment in oil and gas at home and abroad,” El Droubi says. “The region has an abundance of renewable energy potential. There are faster, cleaner, safer, more efficient, and cheaper means that exist to reduce CO2 emissions.”

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This year’s Conference of the Parties, known as COP21, may turn out to be the one that finally addresses the ravages of human caused climate change. Or will it? COP21 comes on the heels of some of the worst climate issues that humankind has experienced in recent years; including intense typhoons and hurricanes; and crazy Middle East “heat domes” that may make parts of the ME uninhabitable by year 2100. Also included are worsening droughts in many locations, including India, Africa, and the United States.

Fossil fuels, especially heavily polluting ones like coal and petroleum are still being extensively used in most industrialized countries; especially so in China. These fuels could derail the global warming degree target of 2 degrees Celsius; the warming temperature increase limit to be agreed upon in this year’s conference. Even this amount, if possible to attain, would still result in significant damage to the global environment, especially to agriculture in developing countries.

This years conference In Paris France is being attended by many of the world’s top leaders, including US President Barack Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinping. XI’s
participation comes at a time when some of the worst air pollution levels ever recorded are choking cities like Beijing. Much more than speeches and photo ops are needed, however, to slow down the increasing effects of global warming and climate change; that many climatists are now attributing to be largely caused by over use of fossil fuels.

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Christina Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change,  said: ” A climate change treaty is in our shared interest.There is a good mood among countries to fight climate change. We need a legally binding treaty for all countries to adhere to; especially the large industrialized countries”. Ms. Figueres added that green technology projects must be accelerated; particularly those involving solar and wind energy.

Despite all the good intentions being expressed by the various high profile delegates attending this year’s conference, will an agreed upon climate change treaty be a situation
of “too little, too late” to deal with what is beginning to look like an irreversable reality? China, one of the worst pollutors on the planet, already has air pollution levels so high in Beijing that they are considered to be “extremely hazardous”.

Even in the USA, severe dust storms, normally attributed to other parts of world like the Middle East, are already occurring in states like Arizona as shown in this video

Reaching the agreed annual world temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius is still not a very desirable level, taking the aforementioned “heat dome” phenomenom into account.
Large areas of countries like India, Kuwait and Iraq are already unlivable during the summer months. Weaning large industrial countries off dependence on fossel fuels will take years; and require heavy investments in infrastructure changes to renewable energy. Taking the example of the Arab Gulf region into account, do we have the time to reverse the ravages of climate change? Or is it already too late to do so?

More articles on climate change:

Crazy heat dome will mean no one can live in the Arab Gulf by 2100
Climate change “worst” is yet to come, UN report warns today
The wrath of global warming and the Middle East

Photo of effects of dangerous air pollution levels in Beijing, by Yahoo News/Andy Wong:

Photo Climate change image by  Tutu Foundation USA

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The ‘historical imagery’ function on google earth is particularly helpful in tracking changes to landscapes since about the turn of the millennium when satellite imagery became commonly available.

For instance, it has allowed me to estimate that the army of earth-moving vehicles that I saw at work have been excavating this site west of Abu Dhabi for almost a decade. The area of the development extends to roughly 39 square miles. The carbon footprint of this project defies belief.

The landscape was originally a large tidal sabkha plain. The developers had to first construct a sea barrier around the whole area, allowing the diggers to move in and lower the ground level.

A network of deep channels was created and then flooded through pipes before the removal of the sea barrier, allowing the area to become tidal again. The channels allow a deeper penetration inland of the high tide and make the whole ‘swamp’ navigable.

Related: Massive concrete amphitheater lies disused outside of Dubai

The process is currently being repeated on further areas, and the waste created by the excavations is being laid over the adjacent sabkha plain, raising the ground level and, presumably, creating an area suitable for future development.

‘Beds’ created by the channels have been planted with mangrove shoots, although with limited success so far. It is the stated aim of the Environment Agency to expand the Emirate’s mangrove forests. In fact, at least two million mangroves are slated to be planted along the coast by the end of this year.

Mangroves are known to store carbon efficiently and provide rich environments for wildlife. Many natural mangrove areas have been impacted upon by development around Abu Dhabi island.

I find tragedy in many aspects of this project: the destruction of a natural landscape, the excruciating regularity of the channel grid system and, of course, the energy consumed in order to create it, to name but a few.

Maybe it will eventually become a valuable environmental asset. But even if it does, it will always be there to stand testament to man’s fossil-fueled subjugation of nature.

Please see for yourself the breath-taking scale of this project on google earth at  24° 6’26.77″N  53°57’0.02″E

Note from the editor: this photograph is part of a series called “Consumption” that seeks to document consumerism’s impact on the environment. From resource extraction and commodity production all the way down the supply chain to retail stores and waste processing facilities, Richard artfully examines what nature has come to mean in a world that depends on buying stuff. 

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The United Nations has issued a five years in the making report on climate change, and our future. It does not look bright. Green Prophet obtained today’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report and the future looks bleak if we do not take action today.

The New York Times summed up the report nicely:  “Ice caps are melting, sea ice in the Arctic is collapsing, water supplies are coming under stress, heat waves and heavy rains are intensifying, coral reefs are dying; and fish and many other creatures are migrating toward the poles or in some cases going extinct.”

These words and those in the report expressed a dire warning that unless intense efforts are made to curb the increase in greenhouse gasses created by overuse of fossil fuels, the worst is yet to come, in regards to the effects of climate change on both animal and human populations on planet Earth.

Human suffering already attributed to climate change is being felt all over the world, the IPCC report says. World food supplies, especially in the world’s poorest countries, will be especially at risk, the report concludes. “Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by the impacts of climate change,” said Mr. Rajendra K. Pachauri, chairman of the intergovernmental panel, during a news conference conducted at the session, during the presentation of the report.

The resulting human suffering caused by either extreme drought in some regions or destruction of homes and farmland by intense flooding in other areas may cause serious security problems, the report added.

“There is possibility of violent conflict over land, water or other resources, to which climate change might contribute indirectly by exacerbating well-established drivers of these conflicts such as poverty and economic shocks.”

In the past seven years since the intergovernmental panel issued its last big report in 2007, growing evidence shows that governments and businesses around the world are making extensive plans to adapt to climate disruptions. However, many of the poorest and most seriously affected countries, especially low lying ones like Bangladesh, are being affected the most by a combination of rising seas and severe storms; even though they are making the least “contributions” to overall greenhouse gas levels.

In an interview Monday on CNN, Christopher Field, founding Director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at Stanford University; and a co-chairman of the working group that wrote the report, told CNN that if world temperatures increase between 2 and 4 degrees Celsius “every person on earth will be effected by rising food costs averaging $125 per person. Naturally, those in the poorest countries will be less likely to cope with this increase,” he added.

The report includes a World Bank estimate that “poor countries need as much as $100 billion a year to try to offset the effects of climate change; and that they are now only receiving a few billion dollars a year from rich countries for this purpose.”

In the Middle East, civil unrest, at least partially caused by drought and other serious weather problems, is now being felt in many regional countries; including Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Sudan, Mali and Algeria.

Although intense use of desalination is providing at least partial relief from severe water shortages in countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia, other area countries like Yemen and Jordan have yet to build desalination plants due to either lack of suitable locations and available funds. The effects of these conflicts, especially the ongoing civil war in Syria, are being felt in many Middle Eastern countries; especially Lebanon and Jordan where large numbers of Syrian refugees are currently living in tent cities.

Related: Woven refugee shelters powered by the sun

The conclusion that the effects of climate change are going to get much worse matters little to countries already stretched beyond their limits due to environmental disasters and political unrest. Many of these countries are unfortunately situated in the Middle East.

Read more on effects of Climate Change in the Middle East:
Saudi Agriculture to be Hit Hard by Climate Change
Climate Change Contributing to Mali-Algeria Conflict
The Wrath of Global Warming and the Middle East

Photo of melting Greenland ice, by Kadr van Lohuizen and NY Times; Photo of 2014  IBCC Panel by NY Times; Photo of Syrian Refugees on the Move by Yahoo News.com

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President of Futek’s Board of Directors, Mohamed Helal told Daily News Egypt that he hopes the new manufacturing facility will boost production capacity so that the company can reach new markets and increase exports. But he also laments a series of obstacles that curtail wider development of similar renewable energy projects throughout the country.

Countries in the Middle East and North Africa region are finally realizing not only the importance of incorporating solar into their energy portfolio, but also producing the necessary technology at home.

Homegrown solar cell manufacturing plants reduce Egypt’s dependence on international solar manufacturers, such as Germany for example, which in turn cuts the cost of adding solar energy to local commercial and residential developments.

At present, the technology is prohibitively expensive for most people who want to get off the fossil fueled-bandwagon, which means the great majority of  people who have access to energy in Egypt often have to endure frequent power cuts.

Yet despite an increasing demand from factories, farms, hotels, and airports, who aim to use solar to supply up to 25 percent of their energy needs and reduce their dependence on the unreliable national grid, according to DNE, the same bureaucratic hurdles that made it so hard for the local NGO Shagara to plant a rooftop farm in Cairo has stunted the evolution of good, clean and renewable energy initiatives in the troubled nation.

Helal told DNE that it is difficult to obtain funding because solar energy is intermittent and because the large swaths of land necessary to construct solar cells are expensive for potential investors.

Meanwhile, subsidies for fossil fuels, which were recently brought into the spotlight last week as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called for their reduction in order to green economies and cut back on carbon emissions, make pricing uncompetitive.

Yet the company perseveres, thereby shrinking Egypt’s longstanding addiction to fossil fuels – albeit at snail’s pace.

:: Daily News Egypt

Image of oil and war by Shutterstock

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Led by ruler-backed organizations such as King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (K.A.CARE) and confident with its 18 percent share of the world’s proven crude oil reserves, Saudi Arabia has taken decisive steps towards incorporating clean, renewable energy into its mix. Israel, meanwhile, obsessed with its former fossil inferiority and under the spell of such power mongers as Rupert Murdoch, is dead set on ecological self-destruction.  

Rupert Murdoch is corralling support for maniacal ecological moves disguised as “energy security.”

Along with former US Vice President Dick Cheney and Lord Jacob Rothschild, Murdoch has a huge stake in Israel since he sits on the board of Genie Energy Ltd., a local subsidiary of which recently received a license to explore for fossil fuels in the disputed Golan Heights territory.

Basically the Cheney-Murdoch-Rothschild triad is kicking the Syrians while they are caught up in a bloody civil war – with the Israeli government’s blessing. Or it’s just plain opportunism. I’m not sure which is worse, but this is the subject of a former post.

For now we’re focusing on shale oil –  IEI/Genie’s other insanity.

Responding to a fishy Op Ed in the New York Post, which recently issued a soaring review of the benefits of oil shale in Israel right around the time that another Murdoch-owned rag, Fox News, did the same, David Krantz, President and Chairperson of the Green Zionist Alliance, excoriated the NY Post journalist’s obfuscation of shale oil’s dark side.  

Each right-leaning paper proclaimed that Israel has as much oil as Saudi Arabia, and that fracking in the tiny country would bring independence – that long sought-after dream for Jews everywhere, a golden carrot dangling in stardust.

But there was little mention of how fracking has been associated with increased earthquake frequency in areas, nor did the Murdoch-owned papers mention how much energy (in Israel’s case coal) will be required to exploit shale oil – something that currently comes in low supply and at a staggering environmental cost.

“Fracking for oil is an energy net loss, and one that may make Israel more dependent on foreign fuel than it is today,” writes Krantz, who also reminds us that in the Middle East, water is more important than oil.

“It is widely thought that the next war in the region will not be over oil, but over water,” says Krantz.

“And fracking for oil threatens to poison the region’s limited fresh-water supply, further escalating tensions and making new peace agreements between Israel and its neighbors harder to achieve, since such agreements will include division of water rights.”

I’m not sure who Murdoch is trying to impress with his campaign to sing oil shale’s praises regardless of its environmental cost to the Israelis, Palestinians and other residents, but in a country where water conservation is as much a part of the local ethos as resting on the sabbath, and where the sun shines absurdly bright, he will have a hard time convincing environmentally and socially aware Israelis that fracking is better than solar.

“[Arthur] Herman was right in pointing out that the oil shale is in Israel’s Elah Valley, where David fought Goliath, but he got the roles wrong,” writes Krantz.

“The fossil-fuel companies are Goliath. The Green Zionist Alliance and its allies in Israel — such as the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and the Citizens’ Committee to Save Adullam — are working against Goliath to protect and safeguard Israel.”

“If you love Israel — if you want clean air, land and water for its citizens, if you want to support energy independence in Israel, if you want to support peace in Israel — then join the fight against fracking. Goliath fell once before in the Elah Valley, and together we can fell him again,” he concludes.

Everywhere the fight between ordinary citizens and energy giants feels just like this historic battle – be it in Canada, Egypt or Israel, yet grass roots organizations across the globe continue their fight to ensure that powerful lobbies don’t deprive the rest of humanity their inalienable right to enjoy clean water, breath fresh air, and live in peace.

Image of dirty coal plant, Shutterstock

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Cold weather and a booming industrial economy is making it hard to breath in the Middle East says NASA

Air pollution is a big problem in the Middle East particularly in cities such as Tehran, Cairo and the rich Gulf nations. The latest images from NASA, however, reveal the true extent of the problem with high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide lingering over cities and hospitals full of people with lung ailments.The NASA map above highlights the concentration of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere in the first week of January 2013. Dark patches of orange reflect a high concentration of nitrogen dioxide which is a key emission from burning fossil fuels by cars, trucks, power plants and factories. I was really struck by these findings as Green Prophet writer Joseph Mayton published an article in late January after struggling with asthma attacks in Cairo. Surely not a coincidence?

“The doctor I went to and nursed me back to good health, was clear about what was causing my near constant asthma attacks: air pollution,” explained Mayton in his post.

“Unable to leave my flat during the day, I suffered and waited for my lungs to open and become used to the pollutants in the air. Finally, after nearly a week of treatment, I was in the clear and back able to walk the streets of Cairo. But it left me wondering the affects of pollution and asthma on Egyptians in the city.”

In a word, the impact of air pollution on the region is devastating. It kills 27 people a day in Tehran and it is believed that thousands, if not millions, of Egyptian children suffer asthma-related illnesses that go untreated. Air pollution also happens to be a bigger problem in the cold winter months. As NASA explain, during the winter people burn more fuel to keep warm and if that fuel is coal then you are left with more smog-producing compounds.

“In most times of year, the air higher in the atmosphere is cooler than the air near the ground, allowing warm air to rise and carry pollution up and away from its source,” they explain. “But in the winter, temperature “inversions” can form, where the air near the ground is cooler than the air at altitude. Polluted surface air rises a bit, but then runs into warmer air masses above and stays trapped near the surface.”

In sum, we are left with more pollution hovering over cities and the heads of its inhabitants.

For more on air pollution see:
Hospitalized From Cairo’s Air Pollution
Why 27 People A Day Die From Air Pollution in Tehran
Egypt’s Natural Gas Push Does Little to Curtail Murderous Air Pollution

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Israel has a reputation as an international hub of green technology. It has not only fostered a market for clean technology and sustainable innovation, but has also made these developments a national priority.

Eyal Rosner was recently appointed the director of Israel’s national initiative to develop transportation technologies that reduce the use of oil. In 2011 the program was approved by the government and given a budget of NIS 1.4 billion ($365 million) for a decade of research and development, from jet fuel alternatives to oil-replacing technologies of all shapes and sizes.

Israel is now home to over 100 alternative energy start-up companies and another 100 university-based research groups. Not bad for a young nation with slightly less people than New York City, and possibly up to 13 percent of that population living abroad.

Israeli Environmental Protection Minister, Gilad Erdan, expressed concerns that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will use the global conference as a chance to harp on  the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rather than focusing on environmental issues.

According to Erdan, Israeli delegates would rather discuss technology and solutions to the environmental issues that plague the region, mainly desertification and water scarcity.

Israel has already been able to develop international cooperation and connection through its national water company, Mekorot. The Rio+20 Conference may be an opportunity to diversify those cooperative efforts. Or it may turn out to be just another occasion of U.N. theater, abundant photo opportunities and scant tangible action.

::Jpost

Image of  solar powered water heaters in Jerusalem via Gilabrand, Wikimedia Commons

Read more about Israeli innovation:

Better Place Electric Car Network Begins in Israel

First Transit Implements GreenRoad Technology

Israel Cleantech Ventures Raising $100 Million for Energy Innovation

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