By Isabel Ovalle
DOHA: Greenpeace says it will not organise protests during the United Nations conference about climate change (COP-18) that will take place in Doha from November 26 to December 27. During COP-17, held in Durban (South Africa) in 2011, the organisation occupied the conference centre where UN climate talks were being held.
Hoda Baraka, Communications representative of the Arab World Project of Greenpeace Mediterranean, told The Peninsula that “due to practical challenges in a country where we have no local office, we have finally decided not to organise visual events in Doha in the way that we have had at many previous Conference of the Parties”.
The representative of Greenpeace added that “we did explore in detail the possibilities of doing so, but found that we could not carry out activities with sufficient impact at reasonable cost”. For that reason, the presence of Greenpeace will focus on lobbying with the delegations and interacting with the media.
Nevertheless, the Greenpeace official stated that “of course we still take the opportunity of COP-18 very seriously, and we are sending a large delegation of climate policy experts and communications specialists”.
About Qatar’s role in the battle to stop climate change, Baraka said that “having the COP conference in Qatar is a positive development in a regional context with the possibility of having a positive effect on major states in the region in pledging emissions reduction; this also represents a great opportunity in addressing funding for mitigation efforts”.
During the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP-18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Greenpeace will focus primarily on the Energy (R)evolution strategy for the region as a whole and as a central part of addressing climate change for the COP meeting.
The Energy (R)evolution strategy advocates for a pathway to protect climate through investment in renewable energy. In the statement of intent of this strategy, the organization stated that “it’s about getting the world from where we are now to where we need to be by phasing out fossil fuels and cutting CO2 emissions while ensuring energy security”.
According to this approach, “the expert consensus is that this fundamental shift in the way we consume and generate energy must begin immediately and be well underway within the next ten years in order to avert the worst impacts of climate change. The scale of the challenge requires a complete transformation of the way we produce, consume and distribute energy, while maintaining economic growth”.
The Peninsula
