T
he world is suffering from economic instability as it approaches a financial tsunami similar to the 2008 economic crisis, due to the Covid-19 epidemic followed by the Russian-Ukrainian war that does not seem likely to end in the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, another global crisis is emerging, that of climate change, which UK naturalist David Attenborough considers to be “the greatest threat to security that modern man has ever faced.”
These two threats mean that all world leaders have a responsibility to confront them in a serious and appropriate way today and not tomorrow. We no longer have the luxury of watching these crises develop from afar or of postponing dealing with them until a later time.
Despite the steps that have been taken towards solving the climate change crisis at a global level, these steps are not enough, as they have not yet reached an appropriate level. Fortunately, the UN COP27 Climate Change Conference, to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, will allow Egypt to play a major role in facing up to this unprecedented global crisis.
Over recent weeks, Egypt has taken serious and effective steps towards combating climate change, the most important of which has been the organisation of the Egypt International Cooperation Forum (Egypt-ICF2022), a promising precursor to its presidency of the COP27 Conference.
The forum transforms theoretical steps in confronting the crisis into actual ones, especially with regard to the demand for the developed countries to fulfill their pledges regarding financing climate action in the developing countries, including the pledges made at the 2009 Copenhagen Conference that included financing for the developing countries of $100 billion.
President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said in his speech at the forum that the African continent is the most affected by climate change but is the least involved in producing the greenhouse gases responsible for causing global warming. He noted that 20 countries, meaning the developed countries, are responsible for about 80 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, confirmed by John Kerry, the US presidential envoy for climate change, at the same forum. These figures are consistent with globally accepted scientific research.
The presidential announcement is important in the context of mobilising financial resources in the developing countries and bringing them together to demand that the developed countries assume their responsibilities towards them, since they have been unfairly impacted by the previous development of these countries towards industrialisation.
What steps can be taken to push the developed countries to abide by their commitments and responsibilities towards the developing countries affected by the climate-change crisis, in the light of the impossibility of providing the billions of dollars required to confront the crisis by relying on the resources of the developing countries alone?
In order for any such steps to succeed, the issue must be turned into a global one to ensure that the developed countries do not escape their obligations, and this can be done through raising awareness of the issue and turning to international agreements.
The media can be used to help form global public opinion in support of the developing countries. The traditional media can help to cover exceptional events that will attract the international media at the COP27 Conference, including popular demonstrations and protests carrying banners written in different languages drawing attention to the financing of the crisis and the responsibility of the developed countries to fulfill their obligations. International TV channels and other media outlets are often attracted by issues of human rights and democracy, and this issue clearly touches on both.
Social networking sites work by drawing large numbers of people, and for this to take place exceptional events could be organised to attract the attention of the public all over the world, including by hosting figures from the international entertainment and sports communities and inviting them to talk about the climate change crisis and sign petitions demanding that the developing countries be assisted in facing up to it.
Other events might also be organised, including films that highlight the risks of the crisis for the developing countries. Such events attract the attention of users of social networking sites and can shape their reporting in support of the developing countries.
With regard to international agreements, an agreement could be drafted for ratification by the developed and the developing countries setting out the specific amounts that the former would be obligated to pay to the latter in order to assist them in facing up to the crisis. It could include penalties for non-compliance, putting pressure on the developed countries to fulfill this financing commitments or impose sanctions on them that at the very least would confront them with negative publicity and a pressing moral dilemma.
The writer is a researcher in political science and managing editor of the Middle Eastern Visions Platform of the European Centre for Middle East Studies in Germany.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 22 September, 2022 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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