While UN climate-conference delegates seek ways to cut world reliance on high-carbon fuels like oil, OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) confirmed that it would keep producing oil at current levels, estimated in excess of 31 million barrels a day, despite prices that continue to plummet. Arab activists are on the case.

Earlier this week activists gathered in front of the main plenary of the COP21 negotiations to express their frustration toward the current Saudi position and how the rest of Arab countries are following their lead at the climate talks underway in Paris.

“Right now, in the Arab Group, there is no peer pressure, there are no champions, so Saudi Arabia has been allowed to act as a blocker for much of the climate talks. Arab countries are standing silent and letting Saudi Arabia talk on their behalf. Morocco and Egypt have strong climate action plans and Jordan has the largest wind farm in the region, but due to their silence, their climate action and their reputations are being undermined. Will they keep hiding behind Saudi Arabia’s obstruction, or will they step out and represent the will for climate action in the region?”, said Safa’ al Jayoussi, head of climate campaign at IndyACT and CAN Arab World coordinator.

IndyACT and other youth activists staged a bit of performance art for international media, wherein negotiators tried to move towards an ambitious carbon-cutting agreement, but – tethered to the “oil industry”, they failed to make headway. “This reflects what is happening behind closed doors.  We are asking Arab countries who are leading in renewable energy to take the initiative in moving ahead with an ambitious agreement,” PanAfrican Climate Justice Alliance representative and CAN Arab World Coordinator Chakri Said said in a press release.

“The conference in Paris presents our leaders with the opportunity to take critical action, such as investing in clean energy and the removal of legal and structural obstacles by creating detailed national energy plans that facilitate a fast transition to a 100% renewable energy system. This is essential if we are to keep average temperature rises to no more than 1.5°C, ” said al Jayoussi.

IndyACT is the leading Arab non-governmental organization working on climate change policy.  Want to get involved on a local level?  Contact Ms. al Jayoussi (email link here).

Images from IndyAct

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Dynamic change is taking place in the global energy sector, with renewable energy becoming mainstream in many countries, including MENA nations. Abu Dhabi’s concentrated solar power plant (CSP) Shams 1 has a 100 MW capacity and is the largest renewable energy project in operation in the Middle East. Jordan  is constructing its first utility-scale windfarm in Tafila which will have a final installed generating capacity of 117 MW).  This past year, Egypt opened the Middle East’s largest wind energy power station in the Red Sea’s Gabal al-Zeit area. It is capable of adding 800 million kW hours to the national electricity grid each year, according to Mohamed al-Sobky, executive chairman of the Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority.

MENA must continue to embrace clean energy innovation to transition to a fully renewable energy future.

Global expansion in renewable energy has meant real decreases in cost, so that solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind power are now economically competitive despite a global subsidy system weighted in favor of fossil fuels, which according to the International Energy Agency receive an annual subsidy of US$550 billion, more than twice the subsidy for renewables. Even with the 45% drop in oil prices in 2014, solar power remains competitive in this region.

“The Conference of Parties presents our leaders with the opportunity to take critical action, such as investing in clean energy and the removal of legal and structural obstacles by creating detailed national energy plans that facilitate a fast transition to a 100% renewable energy system. This is essential if we are to keep average temperature rises to no more than 1.5 or 2 degrees C,” said Safa’ al Jayoussi, head of climate campaign at IndyACT and CAN (Climate Action Network) Arab World coordinator, in a press release issued today from Paris.

There are encouraging signs.  In 2014, the Middle East awarded a record number of solar projects with a combined capacity of 294 MW, a four-fold increase over the previous seven years combined. However, fossil fuels remain the dominant energy supply for MENA electricity, in large part because existing energy subsidies discourage real investment in clean energy alternatives.

An energy transition is within the reach, according to Greenpeace’s Energy [R]evolution scenario, published in September (link to the report, here). By 2050, 93% of the electricity produced in Middle East could be from renewable energy sources in the ‘basic’ Energy [R]evolution scenario. New renewables – mainly wind, PV, CSP and geothermal energy – would comprise 86% of the total electricity generation.

At current development rates, by 2020 the share of regional renewable electricity production would be 14% and 52% by 2030. Under a more advanced scenario, 100% electricity supply from renewable energy resources, or around 1,510 GW installed generation capacity, is possible by 2050.

If renewable development halts, MENA CO2 emissions will double between 2012 and 2050, but under the Energy [R]evolution scenario they would decrease from 1,670 million tonnes in 2012 to 294 million tonnes in 2050 – 47% below 1990 levels.  Under Greenpeace’s Advanced scenario, energy consumption would be fully decarbonized.

“With all this potential within our grasp, we are urging the regional governments to start taking immediate remedial action by backing projects that cover peak energy demand, help get energy to people by investing in distributed off grid projects and in turn support the growing renewable energy employment opportunities,” added al Jayoussi.

IndyACT is has engaged in the climate change negotiations since 2008 and has become a reference for Arab world climate policy for international networks and organizations, such as Climate Action Network International.

Image of 2013 Doha climate march from IndyACT

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Established in the lead up to the COP18 Doha negotiations, the Arab Youth Climate Movement brings together over 20 campaigners from 15 Middle East/North Africa countries

As the saying goes, there is power in numbers. So it’s great to see environmental organisations across MENA come together to “create a more sustainable, prosperous, meaningful, just, and fair world”. The the newly launched and ambitious Arab Youth Climate Movement unites campaigners from IndyAct, 350.org, Global Campaign for Climate Action and the Climate Action Network (CAN) in a simple vision: to be able to enjoy the stable climate that our parents and grandparents enjoyed. A five-day workshop was held around two weeks ago in Egypt where new regional alliances were built and plans were made to hold an Arab regional day of climate action on the 3rd of November.

Youth activists from countries such Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Sudan, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates attended the event which helped train them in useful skills such as speaking to the media and organising actions and campaigns. However it wasn’t all plain sailing. Sarah Rifaat from 350.org, who we interviewed recently, said organising such a workshop brought with it lots of logistical challenges due to the political realities of MENA nations:

“One Tunisian applicant was hospitalized after being caught up in intense clashes in her city, while another Palestinian activist couldn’t get his visa on time due to strict security regulations. The Syrian applicant couldn’t make it to the workshop due to heavy fighting on the streets of his city, but despite the turbulent situation he is still in contact with us and is adamant on getting youth in his country involved with the Arab Youth Climate Movement.

“AbdulGader, the Libyan participant, almost didn’t make it to the workshop when his flight was grounded at Tripoli airport after a sudden indefinite flight ban was imposed. He finally arrived in Cairo on the second day of the workshop with such enthusiasm and commitment that it was hard to imagine how the workshop would have been without him.”

Indeed, the movement is a great way to get to know young activist from across the MENA region and I hope to be able to profile a couple of members about their country and the environmental work they hope to do in the future. First on my list is Tariq Al-Olaimy from Bahrain. As well as his eco-campaigning, Tariq is the co-founder of 3BL Associates, a Bahrain based social impact consultancy and Think-do-Tank, which focusses on multi-stakeholder sustainable and regenerative development in the MENA region. Another interesting fact about Al-Olaimy is that he is among the first 100 people in the world to persue deep specialist training in the field of Biomimicry.

So look out for GreenProphet’s interview with him but for now, find out more about the members of the Arab Youth Climate Movement here.

For more co-ordinated climate action across MENA see:

Egyptian Seed Bombing Campaign To Hit Cairo and Alexandria

Egyptian Campaigner: ‘Corruption not Climate Awareness is Holding Us Back’

Egypt Environment Activists Fighting Back Over Sinai Red Sea Bridge

Help Make Palestinian Filmmaker’s Arctic Eco-Documentary a Reality

: Images via Arab Youth Climate Movement Facebook page.

The post The Arab Youth Climate Movement Is Born appeared first on Green Prophet.

We speak to the Lebanese eco-campaigner Wael Hmaidan about corporate funding of green organisations in the Middle East and finding solutions

In a previous post, I posed some questions about green groups in the Middle East receiving funding from not-so-green corporations. Is it a good thing if they are working together to protect nature? Or are green organizations in the Middle East simply being duped by corporations who want to look green?

These are clearly difficult questions to answer but another concern is the lack of criticism that green organisations funded by un-green corporations face in the Middle East. I sat down for a chat with Wael Hmaidan, a green campaigner from Lebanon who heads an independent organisation for activists, to discuss these issues and also what can be done to stop greenwashing in the region.

Emerging Environmental Movement in Middle East

“It’s not in our culture to become activists,” admits Wael Hmaidan of IndyACT who was in Bonn for the latest climate talks, “but the revolutions in the region show that there is a need for change. Before many people felt that they could not change things so they didn’t think about it because there was no use.”

IndyACT has been working in the region building activism skills and training activist, especially environmental activism, since 2003. They started off in Lebanon but now work more broadly to train and educate activists in conservation, marine protection and conduct high-profile media campaigns, as well as relevant diplomacy efforts to influence policy.

Double Standards

Hmaidan explains that the small size of the environmental movement in the region is part of the problem as it makes it more susceptible to all kinds of greenwashing. Environmental campaigners are just beginning to emerge and may not aware of the double-standards that companies apply to the Middle East region compared to their own:

“Let’s say that there is a Swiss company using certain environmental standards but whilst in Lebanon they would use lower standards because the legislative process there has not forced them to or can’t make them. We believe that this is not fair- just because Lebanon doesn’t have the legislation that doesn’t mean that the company should become more polluting- if they abide by one law in a country they should stick to it.”

Biting The Hand That Feeds You?

Hmaidan also raised the issue that if green organisations in the Middle East decide not to take funding from big companies and oil corporations, they will inevitably struggle to keep their organisation afloat financially due to limited opportunities. “It’s also difficult for organistions to judge which companies are not appropriate and which are. I mean where is the cut off point and what criteria do you use to make that decision?”

“Saying that, when such partnerships are putting the credibility and their independence at stake then these NGO’s need to be honest with themselves and think carefully about taking the money and the company’s motivation.”

Funding Skills and Sustainability

Once again, it seems that the problem is complex. The under-developed environmental movement means that green organisations aren’t criticized for dubious funding (which means they are not forced to think more carefully about such funding) and limited opportunities further encourage organisations to accept sponsorship from big corporations. However, there is a solution, states Hmaidan, and it is paying to skill-up and train campaigners so that they value the sustainability and credibility of their own organisations.

“We need to be able to build the skills base of campaigners in the region so that they become better at financing themselves and become sustainable,” he states. “But that’s very difficult as funders tend to want groups to do work on the ground not staff training…”

For more on Greenwashing in the Middle East see:

Should Green Organisations Accept Sponsorship From Big Bad Corporations?

Maldives’s Floating ‘Green’ Golf Island Not So Green
Rawabi: Palestine’s Greenest City, Or Greenest Wash?
What’s Sustainable About A Green Airport: Foster + Partners In Jordan
Debunking The ‘Green’ Biofuel Myth
Global Warming Message Goes Awry At UAE Water Park

The post How Do You Stop Greenwashing in the Middle East? Wael Hmaidan Says Train Better Activists, appeared first on Green Prophet.