A consultative meeting for the launch of the Palestinian Coalition for Climate Justice
Ramallah- the Union of Agricultural Work Committees in cooperation with Comité pour le Développement et le Patrimoine (CDP) conducted a consultative meeting to launch the Palestinian Coalition for Climate Justice with the participation of specialists and representatives from organizations working in the field of climate issues.
The UAWC’s director, Fuad Abu Saif, addressed the UAWC’s experience in COP21, which was held in December 2015, that did not reflect the reality the Palestinian’s sufferings due to climate change, which its effects are the doubles under the presence of the Israeli occupation, and the lack of coordination between the institutions of civil society and the Palestinian government, pointing out that inpidual efforts will never be able to raise the Palestinian issue to the international world.
Therefore, the establishment of this coalition aims to unify efforts and enhance coordination between civil society organizations to reach for real Palestinian participation in COP 22, which will be held in Morocco in November of this year, noting that this consultation meetings are very important in putting the building blocks for the establishment of the coalition and defining its objectives and organizational structure .
The environmental expert, and the director of the research unit in Maan center, George Kurzum, stressed on the importance of the establishment of this coalition for the benefits of the Palestinian issue. He focused on the data that reveal the real impacts of the Israeli violation on changing the climate worldwide, for example, Palestinian per capita share of emission is around 1 ton per year, whereas, the Israeli person per capita share are 12 tonnes per year which is higher than per capita in the person in EU (about 10 tons / person per year),
In the same context, the CDP’s general director, Yousif Habash, provided a summary about their meeting with the French Coalition for climate justice and Moroccan coalition that aimed at getting the support for the establishment of the Palestinian coalition and to get benefited from each other experiences in this field
Palestinian Hydrology Group’s general director, Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Tamimi, clarified the fields that the coalition should focus on: political, technical, and practical fields, while stressing on the need to establish a full action plan for the coalition
The UAWC will formulate the final framework for the coalition that defined its structure, aims, members,..etc , and will call to widen the coalition through the participation of others interested organizations, activists, volunteers