The panel including of co-founder of AYCMQ, Neeshad Shafi; former Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in Germany, Dr. Barbara Hendricks; Ambassador of Australia to Qatar H E Shane Flanagan, and Director of Middle East Council on Global Affairs in Qatar, Dr. Tarik M. Youcef. Photo by Oussama Abbassi
Doha, Qatar: The Doha Climate Talks was held yesterday at Bin Jelmood House, Msheireb Museums, under the umbrella concept of ‘Climate Diplomacy in Action,’ conveying a paramount need to ‘talk and do’ when combating climate change.
The event, co-hosted by the German Embassy in Doha, Arab Youth Climate Movement in Qatar (AYCMQ), and Msheireb Museums, featured prominent speakers.
With Neeshad Shafi, Co-Founder of AYCMQ, acting as master of the ceremony, the talks featured a high-level panel including Dr. Barbara Hendricks, former Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in Germany, Ambassador of Australia to Qatar H E Shane Flanagan, and Dr. Tarik M. Youcef, Director of Middle East Council on Global Affairs in Qatar.
When prompted whether the climate diplomacy contributed to building a needed trust and willingness to revive the spirit of the Paris Climate Agreement, H E Hendricks said that ‘a decision was made to make it possible to switch from a top-down to bottom-up approach,’ with the focus transcending economics to include survival.
Former Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety in Germany, Dr. Barbara Hendricks.
Regarding the legally binding Paris Agreement (COP21), she emphasized the need to implement and deliver, stating that ‘the fate of the world is decided by the ambitions of emergent economies like India, Brazil, and most importantly, China … We have affordable technology, but policy still has to remove some systematic barriers to deploy them.”
Ambassador of Australia to Qatar H E Shane Flanagan.
In light of an upcoming COP summit in Brazil at the end of the year, H E Shane Flanagan commented on the possibility to keep the climate question relevant in current geopolitical atmosphere: “Climate change is a cross cutting issue and we clearly see the relationship between it and natural disasters,” noting how the rise of forest fires in Australia and unnatural spread of diseases should keep the issue relevant and urgent.
Director of Middle East Council on Global Affairs in Qatar, Dr. Tarik M. Youcef.
From a foreign policy point of view, Dr Tarik spoke about the rise of awareness, emphasizing knowledge production as meaningful work taking place within changing geopolitical contexts.
He delivers a binary aspect stating how lots of efforts are happening now, yet, ‘uncertainty remains in climate change policy.’
He relays concerns on the multilateralism aspect of the struggle as we ‘witness the disintegration of rules-based order’ and how a growing broken trust hinders efforts to take meaningful action when rivalry between China and USA picks up pace and likely to take us into a polarized divided world.
He adds that ‘Qatar, with its active, resilient diplomacy, and dealing with conflict resolution and mediation … can claim a role in fostering cooperation.’
Dr. Tarik revealed to The Peninsula that while neighboring Gulf countries are currently focused on AI technology - known for its heavy impact on climate - as part of a diversification strategy away from fossil fuels, Qatar might be ‘choosing another sector for diversification,’ further conveying the complexity of this issue and its interconnectedness with multiple political and economic sectors while urging a need for more dialogue and thought to be put in combating the common existential threat.
