UAWC conducts a consultative meeting for the establishment of the Palestinian Coalition for Climate Justice
Ramallah – Specialists and representatives from different organizations which work on environmental issues and climate justice recommended that it is high necessity to officially announce the Palestinian Coalition for Climate Justice in September.
This recommendation came during a consultative meeting which UAWC conducted in Ramallah, to discuss the establishment of the Palestinian Coalition for Climate Justice.
Eng. Abu Seif, General Director of UAWC, discussed the participation of Palestine in the Climate Change Conference 21 held in December of last year, which did not reflect the reality of what the Palestinian people suffer from due to climate change, and the doubled effect of the presence of the Israeli occupation, as well as the absence of coordination between civil society institutions and the Palestinian Authorities, pointing out that inpidual efforts do not achieve its goal in raising the Palestinian cause in the international forums, and do not pressure decision makers to include it in their statements and decisions.
Dr. Abu Seif also noted that the formation of the coalition aims to unify efforts and reinforce cooperation between civil society institutions to reach a real Palestinian participation, referring to the first consultative meeting held on September 11th of last year, with the participation of a number of institutions that adopted and supported the idea, where the framework for the coalition was prepared and distributed on several institutions, including the Environmental Quality Authority, and notes and additions were collected to come up with the final framework, he also added that UAWC communicated with the National Committee for Climate Change who welcomed the idea and expressed their desire to strengthen cooperation and communication.
Representatives of PNGO, Applied Research Institute (Areej), UAWC, Palestinian Society for Consumer Protection, Palestinian Farmers Union, An-Najah University, The Land Research Center, and MA’AN Development Center, discussed the framework of the coalition and stressed the need to strengthen coordination with the National Committee for Climate Change, and review the national report issued by it, in addition to organizing activities specifically for the subject of climate change, finally preparing the founding statement for the coalition and sending it to all participating institutions to sign it.