UAE spearheads awareness on climate change

The move by the Arab Youth Council for Climate Change (AYCCC) to increase the knowledge and skills of Arab youth in global climate action is praiseworthy, to say the least. It inked a pact with Posterity Institute, a UK-based think tank specialising in sustainable development and climate change, to this effect.

Its impact is more relevant considering the fact that it comes close on the heels of the announcement of the UAE Net Zero by 2050 Strategic Initiative.

As Shamma Bint Suhail Faris Al Mazrui, Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Vice President of the Arab Youth Centre (AYC), said, “Organisations across the nation play an imperative role in educating young people about climate action and promoting the exchange of youth experience and best practices in building a better future for the next generations.”

The scale of environmental disasters, such as the California wildfires and  hurricane-induced flooding in Louisiana and New York, shows that climate change is “everybody’s crisis.”

Environmental issues need more support and attention from Arab youth. This is particularly important when the UAE is bidding to host the 28th UN Climate Change Conference (COP28) for the first time in the Arab region in 2023.

That the UAE should be conducting the event should be taken note of, particularly in light of the fact that there is virtually no pollution here. The air here is very clean.

Over the past years, the UAE has become an international centre for countries wishing to discuss climate change and environmental issues, as it continues to host a wide variety of leading international conferences, exhibitions and meetings that deal with topics related to a global issue that is expected to significantly impact our future.

President Joe Biden and Democrats are pursuing a sweeping $3.5 trillion federal overhaul that includes landmark measures to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in what would be the most consequential environmental policies ever enacted, after years of fits and starts.

France wants to be a leader in green hydrogen by 2030 and build new, smaller nuclear reactors as part of a 30-billion-euro ($35 billion) investment plan aimed at fostering industrial champions and innovation.

French President Macron said France would by 2030 build a low-carbon plane, a small modular reactor and two megafactories for the production of green hydrogen. It would also produce large numbers of electric vehicles.

But are the world leaders doing enough to stem the pernicious influence of climate change? Over 200 protesters gathered in Parliament Square in London recently demanding government action over the climate crisis. The protest was organised by members of Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement, as part of a series of similar events across the world.

The demonstrators, many of them young people who had skipped school in order to take part, marched through Westminster calling for the abandonment of fossil fuels and a more effective response by the government to the global emergency.

“The crisis over gas at the present time is a crisis of the stupidity of a market, the stupidity of privatisation, and the stupidity of saying there’s no alternative but the system we have right now,” former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said.

Environmental politics should not be treated as separate from other political concerns. The poorest in the world and in society are very likely to be affected the most by the consequences of climate change.

Labour MP Nadia Whittome put it very tellingly, “No more greenwashing, fossil fuels must stay in the ground, our energy must be 100 per cent renewable, and the destruction of our forests must end,” she said. “We literally cannot continue to live on a planet in a society that puts profits before planets and people.”