Environmental journalist @NatGeo, @NYT, @bbc etc. Global Fellow @ The Wilson Center, Fellow @ Center for Climate & Security
published on Financial Times on Oct 10, 2022
The government promises to permit dissent, but some environmental groups remain wary
Global climate conferences have almost always been accompanied by a big, vocal activist presence. But this November’s COP27, in Sharm el-Sheikh, might look and sound rather different.
Over the past decade, Egypt, the host country, has all but banned protest and cracked down on independent civil society action, as it has become increasingly autocratic. This has led to scepticism among international and local NGOs about whether they will be able to participate in discussions, let alone effectively influence proceedings.
Senior Egyptian officials have promised that, in this instance at least, protest will be permitted. In May, foreign minister Sameh Shoukry pledged to have “a facility adjacent to the conference centre that will provide [activists] the full opportunity of participation, of activism, of demonstration, of voicing that opinion”. But, while some Egyptian activists say government engagement in the run-up to COP has been better than they have ever experienced, many feel it is still insufficient and has mostly come from less powerful parts of government.
Among environmentalists generally — both local and international — few appear wholly convinced by official assurances. Environmental organisations say they are wary of organising unsanctioned demonstrations for fear of getting activists from the global south into trouble.
Those activists, in turn, are uncertain whether they will even make it to Egypt. Many are battling some of the same struggles to secure visas and sufficient funding that they frequently had ahead of European and North American events.
Online groups focused on environmentalism in Sub-Saharan Africa have voiced complaints about Egyptian embassy paperwork demands — and the high cost of accommodation in Sharm el-Sheikh. Opportunistic hotel operators have raised prices up to 10 times beyond their usual levels, threatening to compromise a conference that was billed as a more accessible counterpoint to COP26 in Glasgow. “You need to win the lottery,” said one COP-bound Jordanian activist on Facebook.
Wariest — and most vulnerable — of all are independent Egyptian environmentalists. As documented in a recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, these individuals and organisations have been stifled by severe restrictions on funding, NGO registration, and research permits. Many anticipate a serious backlash were they to do anything that authorities perceive as embarrassing while the eyes of the world are upon them.
“When COP ends, they might start looking to see who is doing what,” a longtime activist told HRW. “The security apparatuses will probably, now more than ever before, focus on environmental civil society.”
Omar Elmawi, co-ordinator for Stop EACOP, an East African environmental group, and member of the COP27 Coalition, says: “We are still looking at possibilities but we might have to settle for actions inside the COP [convention centre] and not outside, as we are a bit worried about the security outside. We hope there would not be reprisals after international activists have left COP and local organisations end up being targeted.”
Recent events suggest that he and his peers have every reason to be sceptical about Cairo’s promises. Egyptian environmentalists say authorities are training state-affiliated NGOs to protest about “safe” subjects in November and thereby deliver the impression of a bustling local civil society.
Meanwhile, a few Egyptian human rights organisations, such as the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF), have been denied COP accreditation. Less than 60 miles from the COP convention centre, the state is ignoring objections of local activists and developing the area around St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, a Unesco world heritage site of historic and environmental significance.
For the relatives of civil society activists who are languishing in prison because of their work, the very fact that Egypt has been awarded the world’s marquee climate event is an enduring injustice.
“It’s tragic that the [President] Sisi regime is able to greenwash its environmental and human rights violations documented by the UN itself,” says Mohamed Amasha, a PhD student at Yale and son of Ahmed Abdelsattar Amasha, a longtime environmental and human rights advocate. Amasha senior has been imprisoned without charge in Egypt for more than two years for various causes — not all environmental. “The regime is deliberately cutting environmentalist attendees from the harsh environmental reality that most Egyptians endure on a daily basis,” his son says.
Terrified by the region’s increasingly debilitating array of climate stresses, most activists and NGOs in Egypt and across the Middle East welcome the decision to hold the COP locally, despite the possible pitfalls. COP28, in 2023, will be held in Dubai.
They see this as an opportunity to mobilise authorities that have so far been slow to engage on environmental issues. The host country is already suffering from devastating climate shocks, including more intense heatwaves, fiercer sandstorms and a rising sea level along the Mediterranean coast.
It is also a chance to secure much-needed climate adaptation funding for themselves and their global south peers — and in a political environment that may be more conducive to securing it than some recent COPs.
But, at a time when the war in Ukraine has distracted from global climate action, Egyptian NGOs, activists and their international peers also stress the unlikelihood of achieving much in Sharm el-Sheikh — unless organisers grant them the freedom to fully participate.
At past COPs, strong and relatively uninhibited civil society participation has been pivotal in pressuring state and business delegates into more meaningful commitments.
“We need more climate activism, not less,” says Richard Pearshouse, director of environment and human rights at HRW. “We need activists and protests, environmental journalists, independent courts. Absent those, we’re not going to come close to the climate policies we need.”