COP18: Arab youth call on governments to act now before it is too late

COP18: Arab youth call on governments to act now before it is too late

COP18 (27/11/12) – Reem Al Mealla from the Arab Youth Climate Movement says the group has a strong message for Arab governments that they should pledge now to cut down their greenhouse gas emissions.

She explains how the MENA region is already feeling the impacts of climate change. She says in some regions temperatures are reaching over 50 degrees, when they would not have even hit 40 degrees when her parents were young. She also says the region is experiencing more and more rainfall and, without adequate drainage systems to deal with it, flooding.

She says the Arab youth are concerned that the world is changing at a rate too fast to comprehend and that in 20 years, when they are sat in the negotiating room, it will already be too late to do anything about climate change.

She says that they are not asking for anything which is unrealistic or unfeasible; they are not asking for their governments to immediately stop using oil but to begin the switch to renewables.

She calls on Arab governments to stop thinking and to get it done – starting with one project and then another until they no longer have to rely on oil for their economies.