The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is home to
some of the hottest climates in the world and the region's high temperatures —
in some countries exceeding 55C — make it particularly vulnerable to
climate change-related extreme weather events. As climate change takes a heavy
toll, the region’s young people are pushing for bolder action to address the
problem.
اضافة اعلان
As the outcomes from the COP26 U. Climate Change
Conference made clear, though, leaders are not doing enough beyond offering
empty words, and what was hoped to be “the most inclusive COP ever” instead
ended up being the exact opposite.
Historically, youth from MENA are underrepresented,
with limited media visibility and many were unable to participate and
contribute to the global climate conversation.
Young people
(0–25) in the MENA region currently account for nearly half of the population and
have the potential to become agents of change, contributing to a more
prosperous and stable future for themselves and their communities. However,
unleashing this potential requires urgent and significant support to create
opportunities for meaningful learning, social engagement, and work — all of
which are currently limited — at the local, regional, and global levels.
Middle East youth want to build awareness of the truth
about the climate crisis, as it seriously deserves, but it appears that
political leaders are only now waking up to the reality of the situation. This
does not mean that the Middle East youth climate movement has not been changed,
or that it will not.
The youth climate movement in the Middle East
In a region plagued by youth unemployment and
conflicts, daily survival is more important to many young people than fighting
climate change. Moreover, because quasi-state systems and
semi-authoritarian governments are still prevalent in the MENA region, and
public protests can be prohibited even if they are peaceful, it is not
surprising that there are not many climate protesters or marches in the streets
like Fridays for Future or Extinction Rebellion, and media stories, coverage,
and attention are limited. That does not mean that youth climate activism or a
youth climate movement in the Middle East does not exist, though. While street
protests may not be their modus operandi, educational, awareness, policy,
and lobbying activities are increasingly becoming essential tools for young
Arabs to voice their concerns about climate issues and influence their
governments and communities.
Today’s Arab youth are the first generation to come of
age amid rapid climate change and they have the most at stake in how society
responds to it. Climate change will bring economic and environmental challenges
as well as opportunities.
Young people in the Middle East are waking up to the
existential threat the climate crisis poses and have significantly increased
efforts to respond to it. However, the climate movement faces limitations in a
region that is beset with numerous other crises, including wars, refugees,
deadly sectarian divisions, economic stagnation, and authoritarianism. But
despite these challenges, the actions of young people give hope that grassroots
initiatives may galvanize actors to fight the problem of climate change in the
MENA region.
COP18, where it all started
Qatar’s hosting of the annual conference to implement
the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Doha in 2012, known
as COP18, was a pivotal milestone as it was the first time that a UN climate
meeting was held in a Middle Eastern country. It was also the first time that
Arab youth turned out in full force to protest inaction on climate change by
Arab and global leaders.
In addition, Qatar saw what was probably its first
public protest on December 1, 2012, when 800 people attended a climate march
through the busy streets of Doha. While this protest had support and was a
state-orchestrated event, it was still a symbolic moment. The protest was
notable for the presence of around 100 young activists from the Arab world, who
came together and called for Arab heads of state to take the lead in climate
talks.
Thus, the climate movement in the Middle East started
long before the Western movement, but their work was almost completely ignored
by the Western media, which rarely recognizes progress outside of its own part
of the world.
In the nine years since COP18, youth activists,
researchers, and entrepreneurs in the Arab world have been playing an important
role in designing and driving innovative bottom-up solutions to reduce the
impact of climate change, raising awareness, and building resilience in their
communities. This work has been instrumental in implementing climate change
education, awareness, and action in the MENA countries — activities that are
never in the headlines of global and regional media outlets.
There is hope that the upcoming COP27 and COP28
meetings, which will be held in Egypt in November 2022 and the UAE in November
2023, respectively, will help highlight the issues as well as the exemplary
work of the youth movement in the region. Moreover, these meetings could also
change the perspective of how the youth movement in the Global South works and
help create new avenues for partnership and close coordination in the global
climate movement.
Why the Middle East youth movement matters
Civic
engagement levels among youth in the MENA region are the lowest in the world,
as there are limited opportunities for them to collaborate and develop a sense
of shared responsibility, and they have few platforms where they can innovate
and work together. Regardless, over the years the youth movement in the region
has made huge efforts when it comes to advocacy and activism, even though this
has received little media attention.
Young people in the Middle East should therefore be
given opportunities to take an active part in decision making at the local,
national, and global levels. Ultimately, we need to further identify
opportunities, gaps, and challenges that youth climate actors in the Middle
East region experience regarding disseminating knowledge, funding, and capacity
building. It is essential to conduct major studies among youth regarding
awareness of climate change as well as the role of youth in combating it.
The tendency of the media to present only the Global
North climate movement is problematic, especially for those activists from the
MENA region whose media invisibility leads to them not being noticed by
organizations whose help they could greatly benefit from.
Young people in the Global South have been tackling
the climate crisis for years, and they should be celebrated, too. While youth
from the Middle East continue to work toward the common goal of fighting
climate change and advocating climate justice issues ahead of COP27
and COP28, Western and regional media must also
highlight their contributions. That way, when future generations talk about the
youth climate movement, it will not be the story of a single narrative and it will
make it clear that youth taking to the streets to protest climate change
inaction is not the only way forward for climate activism.
A collective and inclusive movement will help show how
young climate leaders are an unstoppable force, equipped with the necessary
policy knowledge and awareness that will help put forward their pressing
climate priorities ahead of the COP summit as it returns to the Middle East.
The writer is an environmentalist, speaker, and
policy-oriented social change advocate, best known for his work on
environmental and climate change education, advocacy, and policy in the Gulf
region. He is also a non-resident scholar with MEI’s Climate and Water Program.
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