Being a hub of oil and gas production, the region has been battling a number of challenges—high carbon emission levels, air quality and plans of some countries to have nuclear power plants.
But the NGOs, some of them big names like Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), have so far disappointed people as they have been lethargic and inert, say critics.
Not a single protest has been held by any of them on any issue so far and one eagerly awaits the outcome of their procession tomorrow.
As it is, people in this region do not have much trust in global NGOs as a vast majority of them are from the West and seen by many as representing the interests of their respective countries.
It is too well-known a fact that the West looks at the Middle East, the GCC region in particular, as a source of cheap energy and shies away from raising issues that it fears might have an adverse impact on energy supplies and security.
As pointed out earlier, the region faces a number of challenges but none has so far been touched on by any NGO—whether it is to do with water crisis, high carbon emission levels or air quality.
Some countries in the region are planning to have nuclear power plants at a time when Europe, especially, wants to do away with existing nuclear power plants due to safety concerns.
The irony is that the very countries that are shunning existing nuclear plants and want to disband them want to sell their technology to interested countries in this region. If that is true, it is not difficult to guess why they might be doing that—for easy money.
No NGO has so far raised this issue. This is a living example of how western NGOs avoid issues that directly or indirectly concern western interests.
NGOs play a key role during summits like COP18 as they hold mass demonstrations and help draw the attention of the world media to issues of relevance.
They act as pressure groups through such protests on negotiators to work on issues they might ignore or want to ignore due to the vested interests of the countries or regions they represent.
The NGOs, on their part, say they don’t have their offices locally and so lack the wherewithal to hold demonstrations. In other words, since they don’t have a presence locally they don’t have member-activists who would be taking part in protests.
Nearly all NGOs have sent leaders to the COP18 summit and flying in large numbers of activists would not be feasible due to the exorbitant costs involved.
So, all eyes are at today’s procession, and on Greenpeace, which has hinted in media interviews that ‘something is in store’. “We never announce our protest plans in advance. Wait and watch,” was how a Greenpeace office-bearer said when told that critics were skeptical whether it would live up to its name in Doha, and questioning its silence.
