This December, those involved in combating climate change have turned their attention to Dubai, the host city of COP28. Comparing this host to last years – Egypt, helps highlight the contrasting developments within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Egypt and UAE present two aspects of the region, illuminating the differing responsibilities between developed and developing countries in reducing global warming. This is a distinction that the international community, including the political “West,” has increasingly acknowledged from a socio-economic perspective using the terms Global North and Global South.
The Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement both recognised these differences in responsibility and response to climate change between developing and developed nations and lay out compensation and support for low emission countries to combat climate change. However, this top-down approach sometimes fails to consider the contextual nuances of each country and may overlook grassroots solutions to climate issues, which often arise from locals most familiar with their land.
Thus, it is important to make sure that future funds for developing countries go through the right channels, avoiding redundancy in programming and increasing cost effectiveness of aid, as previous aid in the region was spent with very little reaching grassroot initiatives most affected by climate change.
Global Climate Agreements: applicability and sensitivity to complex contexts
The modern history of the MENA region is often viewed through the lens of crises, conflict, and fractured governments, which can impede climate action. Global policies focusing on governmental plans may overlook the inefficiencies in government planning and implementation, particularly in crisis-ridden and underdeveloped countries. Lebanon serves as a poignant case study in this regard.
Case study: Lebanon
As someone from Lebanon, I witness how climate change can be sidelined by a country preoccupied with crises, rendering global plans far-fetched, or in some cases, a source to fund corruption.
Since 2019, Lebanon has been experiencing hyperinflation due to an economic crisis, exacerbated by the economic impact of Covid-19. Over 80 percent of the population lives in poverty. Political gridlock and near-total governmental collapse have left public service provision, including environmental response mechanisms, in disarray. Additionally, the largest non-nuclear explosion in history in Beirut in 2020 and the ongoing armed conflict in southern Lebanon with Israel all raise the question: can we afford to prioritise climate change?
Having worked in humanitarian development programming in the region for the past five years and witnessing the immense socio-economic needs – this question resonated with me. However, upon refocusing my work on Lebanon, I realized that environmental degradation and the other crisis are interconnected.
Deforestation is one such critical issue, with a 4.8 percent decline in tree cover between 2015 and 2022, adding to a 38 percent loss from 1965 to 2015. Additionally, approximately 2.8 million people struggle to access clean water and sanitation due to electricity shortages which affect 87 percent of water supply systems. These challenges, compounded by increased demand, reduced rainfall, poor infrastructure, and a lack of effective planning put nearly four million people at risk of losing access to safe water.
Only 20 percent of waste in Lebanon is recovered, with just six percent recycled. Meanwhile, 36 percent is landfilled, and 44 percent is dumped in around 940 open dumps across the country. Regarding air quality, the WHO classified Lebanon’s air as moderately unsafe, with annual mean pollutant concentrations exceeding recommended maximums by 3.5 times.
With the government’s inadequate response to these issues, citizens have been developing their own solutions, which incidentally align with global rhetoric on combating climate change and reducing global warming.
Grassroots environmental solutions
In preparation for COP28, the incoming presidency announced a focus on four “paradigm shifts,” each of which can be examined to assess how just transitions in combating climate change can be maintained in the region and beyond.
The first paradigm shift involves “fast-tracking the energy transition and slashing emissions before 2030.” While the Paris Agreement acknowledges that global emissions are primarily influenced by highly industrialised countries like China and the USA, developing nations are also contributing, despite their challenges.
After the economic crisis began in 2019, Lebanon saw a deterioration in the government’s capacity to provide electricity, with some areas receiving as little as four hours of power daily. This led to a heavy reliance on highly polluting diesel generators, monopolised by the political elite, burdening the nation’s most vulnerable, who spend around 44 percent of their monthly income on private generators.
The installation of solar panels for private residences and institutions emerged as a grassroots solution. This was achieved with minimal government support despite a goal of sourcing 30 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2030. However, those who can afford it have increasingly relied on solar panels since the crisis. The Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC) indicated that Lebanon will surpass one GW of solar rooftops by June 2023, a 47-fold increase from the 2020 value of 14 MW produced by solar rooftops.
Transforming climate finance
The second paradigm shift focuses on “transforming climate finance, by delivering on old promises and setting the framework for a new deal on finance.” Current funding schemes must reconsider the eligibility of countries for financial aid, given recent economic shifts. For example, Lebanon has transitioned from a middle-income country to a low-income country, necessitating a review of the proportion of aid to be given. Moreover, the modality of aid must be sensitive to existing inefficiencies in funding channels, particularly those passing through government, and work to reach people directly.
COP28 also aims to “put nature, people, lives, and livelihoods at the heart of climate action,” which is arguably the best way to encourage populations in developing countries to view fighting climate change as a necessity rather than a luxury. The Socio-Economic Institute for Development (SEID) has established a community-owned Environmental Justice Action Unit in response to a lack of governmental accountability and control mechanisms for environmental violations.
SEID has taken decisive legal action to halt environmental violations, with cases spanning a range of challenges including tree cutting, pollution, encroachment, and waste management issues. All of these cases were raised and handled by citizens and communities directly impacted with the support of lawyers and experts.
SEID’s Environmental Action Unit utilises community networks and civic action to halt environmental violations. This approach aligns with COP28’s fourth paradigm shift -“mobilising the most inclusive COP ever.”
The approach takes grassroots initiatives global, operating at all levels of the socio-ecological model to enact holistic and lasting efforts towards environmental sustainability. SEID has raised the experience from these violations to structured discussions with members of parliament, discussing environmental degradation, its impact on the economy, and the wellbeing of citizens. This was done to bring them to a consensus on needed legislative reform and to double down on ensuring the implementation of prevention and response mechanisms.
To establish a full feedback loop, SEID takes discussions with ministries and parliamentarians back to the local community.
Hybrid interventions
While the top-down approach of global climate action allows for greater accountability and responsibility among developed nations, if left unchecked can risk perpetuating colonialist mindsets with blind spots to the knowledge of local communities in developing countries.
Elias Ghorraa is Humanitarian and Development Aid Professional working with IDS as part of the IDS MENA Initiative.
