CAIRO – Biodegradable recycling straws and bins, beach walks and electric bus rides. These are images promoted by Egypt as it prepares to host a global climate conference next week at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Like other African countries, Egypt is highly vulnerable to climate change and the country has been chosen to host the 27th UN-sponsored climate summit to show its love for the world. needs of poorer countries that rich countries have to pay for. disproportionate sharing in destroying the planet.
Now, Egypt plans to push ahead with this year’s meeting, known as COP27, to compensate those countries least responsible for global emissions but most feel the consequences of the change. climate.
“We need a comprehensive vision to support African countries in their efforts to adjust to climate change,” President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt said in September at a forum on climate change. climate.
But Egypt’s inclusion at the center of the conference has raised questions about whether an authoritarian country with worrisome records on both the environment and human rights should host a major summit on climate change. posterior or not.
Egypt aims to become a regional natural gas export hub, and its capital Cairo has the world’s most polluted air. According to Egyptian human rights organizations and environmentalists, many environmental advocacy groups in Egypt have been harassed to the point of closing their doors, even though they have been given more time to prepare. for the summit.
And the environment is just one of many issues Egypt considers sensitive.
Mr. el-Sisi’s government was jail or pushed into exile by thousands of political opponents seen as rivals since coming to power in a 2013 military takeover. They include ordinary Egyptians, the main critics. authority on Facebook and famous opposition politicians.
Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate activist, said last week that she would not coming The summit in Egypt stemmed in part from concerns about Egypt’s human rights record. Together with an extensive network of international climate groups, she signed a petition calling on Egypt to ease its repression and release political prisoners, an appeal by Parliament. Europe.
“This is a challenge for the global community,” said Alden Meyer, international climate policy expert at E3G, a Washington-based think tank. “People are asking, ‘Should you reward countries with major human rights issues and concerns by allowing them to host these prestigious, high-level United Nations conferences? ‘”
Last month, Egypt freed a prominent political activist and former parliamentarian, Ziad el-Elaimy.
But Thousands still imprisoned, including Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the country’s most famous dissident, who spent more than 200 days on a hunger-strike in an attempt to pressure the authorities to let him go. His family feared he was about to die.
He has vowed to stop drinking as soon as the two-week summit begins on Sunday. But despite efforts to get his family and officials from Britain, where he holds dual citizenship, to win his release, Egypt has so far remained immobile.
Egypt is also getting tighter limitations on civil society groups and academics working on human rights, the environment and other issues.
With great attention to international scrutiny, the government has said that demonstrations will be allowed for one purpose-built The desert area is located separately from the convention center – although only if protesters pre-register their rally. In the past, protests were allowed in and around the main summit site.
However restricted, the protest area, complete with cafes and restaurants, will be “very classy”, the local governor, Khaled Fouda, promised in a recent TV interview.
Egypt wants to make sure that the protests will not disrupt the organizations renting exhibition booths at the conference, Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, said in September in an interview with The New York Times. on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
But protests are “certainly not ruled out,” he added.
Even when foreign tourists successfully protested, the authorities moved with typical care to ensure that Egyptians would not spoil the country’s pivotal moment with political unrest. batch treatment. Local rights groups say dozens of Egyptians have been arrested in recent days after they called for anti-government protests during the summit.
Sharm el-Sheikh is fenced with wire and moved by checkpoints. Egyptians entering the area by minibus, the most popular form of low-cost transport, must present a permit to prove they work there. Resident Sharm el-Sheikh said that Egyptians who were not directly involved in the conference have been forced out of the city in recent weeks.
But with the scarcity of accommodation – hotels Price up to 10 times their usual level during the summit – there was little prospect that the Egyptians would come to protest anyway.
Strict security also aims to protect against Islamist militants, who bombed Sharm el-Sheikh in 2005 and brought down a Russian plane full of tourists as it flew out of the resort. cool in 2015.
However, analysts and diplomats say Egypt is also working to deal with political conflict.
Eager to upgrade its image ahead of the summit and defuse internal dissension from a economic depression spurred by the war in Ukraine that is affecting the Egyptians heavily, the country began a “national political dialogue” in the spring to make politics more inclusive and release hundreds of political prisoners.
However, rights groups say such actions do nothing to reverse years of repression.
Egyptian environmental activists are often targeted with threats, asset freezes, travel bans or arrests. Dozens of civil rights and civil society groups have been prosecuted since 2014 for receiving money from abroad, leaving them struggling to survive with the meager funding available in Egypt.
Human Rights Watch report in September, discovered that several environmental groups had scaled back operations or closed in the face of government harassment and funding and field work restrictions. Teams face insurmountable obstacles to obtaining legal status and security permits that allow them to conduct research, the report found.
Egypt’s official press center did not respond to several requests for comment. But a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs speak In September, Human Rights Watch “released such a misleading report” as “reproachable and counterproductive” when the world should focus on climate goals.
In interviews, environmental activists who say victims of industrial pollution and other Egyptians who can help provide valuable environmental data often refuse to speak because the government has deemed researchers and journalists are foreign agents. In many cases, the researchers say, they don’t question to protect such people from the consequences.
“It’s very risky to do it without,” said Ragia el-Gerzawy, an environmental researcher with the Egyptian Individual Rights Initiative, one of Egypt’s few remaining rights groups. approval. “People are afraid to talk to us.”
The restrictions have resulted in “very poor” data on pollution problems, like Cairo’s notoriously stinking air, she said, undermining analyzes of environmental needs and restrictive solutions. of Egypt. The air in Cairo is ranked among the most polluted in the world.
In another questionable distinction, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that environmental research in Egypt is among the lowest-funded research in the world.
Previously, some of the only areas where environmentalists could safely focus included trash removal, recycling, climate finance, renewable energy and food security, the priorities matched. with the government.
In contrast, groups that campaign against industrial pollution and environmental damage from military-owned businesses, development, tourism and agriculture – including government projects like Egypt New administrative capital – said it had faced heavy opposition.
But Egyptian environmentalists say the atmosphere has improved as COP27 approaches, thanks to finding common ground with the government in pushing wealthy nations to do more on climate change. climate change. Officials invited a number of environmentalists to roundtable discussions and seek their input on the preparation.
35 Egyptian civil society groups have received permission from the United Nations to attend the summit with Egypt’s support, including well-respected groups, although others have been denied. . Egypt also spurred dozens of other African civil society groups to attend.
Optimism is protected.
Some environmentalists say they worry that the respite will be short-lived. As soon as the world’s attention shifts, they say, they fear even more scrutiny from security agencies.
“I see a lot of progress,” said Ahmed el-Saidi, an environmental lawyer in Cairo who has sued the government for several violations of environmental laws. “But we need more than that. And after the COP, no one knows what will happen.”
Somini Sengupta Contribution reports from New York.
