Environmental Justice

Factory-style livestock production is a critical driver of agricultural industrialization. Its remorseless expansion is contributing to climate change, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and human-rights violations – all to satisfy Western societies’ unhealthy appetite for cheap meat. 

Those most vulnerable to climate change are often least responsible for its causes, and have the fewest resources to deal with its consequences. Contrast this with the carbon majors, which have made huge fortunes from the fossil fuels that are largely responsible for climate change. In 2013, the combined profits of just four majors – Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell – topped $94 billion. This colossal return was possible only because these companies externalize their products’ highest cost – the climate devastation borne by the poor and vulnerable.

Author: Svenja Oberender - Program Coordinator/ Environmental Justice On 15th April 2014, the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Palestine & Jordan office invited to a round table debate titled “The Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal – Implications for Palestine” aiming to discuss the topic with experts and representatives of Palestinian civil society, universities, and governmental institutions. Background for the discussion was a Memorandum of Understanding signed in December 2013 by Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority regarding the construction of a desalination plant in Aqaba, Jordan. The discussion about this topic was kick-started by input from HE Dr. Shaddad Attili, head of the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA); Dr. Abdelrahman Tamimi, the Director General of the Palestinian Hydrology Group (PHG) and lecturer at Al-Quds University; Dr. Azmi Shuaibi, Commissioner for Combating Corruption at AMAN (Transparency Palestine) and commissioner at the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights; as well as Dr. Maher Abu-Madi, associate professor for Water and Environmental Studies at the Institute of Environmental and Water Studies (IEWS), Birzeit University. 

World media recently lauded a new project, backed by the World Bank, that will allegedly “save” the Dead Sea and prove that peace is possible through cooperation to manage natural resources. But the scheme only threatens to make an already disastrous situation worse, as well as robbing Palestinians of their right to water.

The gulf has run out of pearls and we all know oil is next. During the COP18 in 2012, four countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) filed a historic joint submission to the UNFCCC to put forward their national efforts and cooperative actions under the umbrella of economic diversification. At COP19 in Warsaw, the climate negotiators from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Qatar held a side event to share their national progress made in climate related initiatives.

“Arabs – Time to lead” was the slogan emblazoned on my black t-shirt during my participation at COP18 last year in Doha as a youth delegate from the Arab Youth Climate Movement (AYCM). This was our call for the Arab world to take climate change seriously, and to push our own leaders to develop and communicate a comprehensive low carbon development strategy. Sadly, little happened in Doha, and the true test is now how to keep pushing Arab governments for voluntary commitment. After the first week of the climate negotiations in Warsaw, we could infer that the Arab stance will not change.

Between the 12th and the 23rd of November 2013, Warsaw hosted the 19th Conference of Parties (COP19) of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC). As the cold intensified in Warsaw, cold atmospheres penetrated indoors hitting the political mood in and around the conference meetings, making the political initiatives and solutions look meager and feeble, and affecting in return the ambitions and hopes of the participants, as well as of those who follow up the biggest annual congregation specializing in climate change.

A 'map'! I guess this is the best description I could reach over the course of two consecutive weeks of negotiations on climate change that were held in Warsaw in Poland. COP19 is the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC), aiming to reach a binding agreement to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations and mechanisms to adapt to the effects of climate change. Yes, all these together stand behind the climate negotiations.

The Conference of Parties (COP19) of the United Nations Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) has started in Warsaw in the Republic of Poland, accompanied by several expectations in terms of funding. It was even thought that it would be the 'money conference', in addition to hopes pertaining to finally be able to come out with a mechanism for loss and damage.