‘Arab youth should drive climate change awareness’ – The Peninsula

‘Arab youth should drive climate change awareness’ – The Peninsula

Doha: Youth from the Middle East, the Arab world and the Global South should be empowered to drive climate change, and sustainability challenges in the region, Executive Director of the Arab Youth Climate Movement Qatar (AYCMQ) Neeshad Shafi said.

He was addressing the Historic Cambridge Union Society at the University of Cambridge Climate and Sustainability Forum 2022.

The two-day forum titled ‘A Climate Reset’ sought to reset and recalibrate responses to the climate crisis.

Speaking at the event during the ‘Decolonising Climate Responses’ session, Shafi said, “In order to analyse climate justice, more light has to be shed on the participation of youth from the Global South, including the Middle East — one of the worst impacted regions by climate change in guiding how decision-making processes predominantly unfold in international politics.

“We need young people from countries in the Global South to share their perspectives, not just Global North youth narrative. We need an inclusive youth climate movement, but without having a collective and representative voice, the whole movement will collapse.”

Shafi told the forum that the current dominant notions of climate activism and movement are often based on Western ideal theories, which tend to create colonial structures. He said this formula neglects the lived