IndyACT delivers a message to Arab governments: Arabs are more than oil

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IndyACT delivers a message to Arab governments:
Arabs are more than oil

Beirut – 19 November 2009: Today, activists from the Global League of Activists, IndyACT, carried out a peaceful action in the Annual Conference of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development – AFED, to demand the Arab states for active participation in the United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen, and to urge them to not to be drawn behind the obstructive Arab states in the negotiation process. They also called on them to take their moral responsibilities to insure the safety of the Arab world and the planet from a tragic fate.

In an unprecedented action, two activists from IndyACT lifted a banner during the opening session of the conference, which criticized the obstructive role played by some oil exporting Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia in the climate negotiations. The banner said “Arabs are more than oil” to indicate that the current Arab position is based on protecting the oil trade more than protecting Arab citizens from the catastrophic impacts of climate change. Other activists carried a banner in front of the entrance to the conference’ hall that says “we can’t drink oil”, while wearing diving suits, highlighting two major impact of climate change: shortage in fresh water and the rise in sea levels due to the melting of the polar ice caps. The activists also distributed hundreds of leaflets that explained the expectations of the activists and Arab citizens from their representatives in the Copenhagen negotiations.

Fossil fuel, like oil and coal, are the main cause of climate change. To solve this problem, nations must cut their dependence on oil and coal as the main source of energy and turn into renewable energy. That’s why Saudi Arabia considers the war against climate change as a threat to its oil trade, its main source of economical and political power. “Oil is a limited and very valuable resource and we should preserve every drop of it for future generations. Most of the products we consume today are made of petroleum derivatives. If we burn all the oil now we will deprive future generations from all these products and we will destroy the human civilization by causing climate change”, said Wael Hmaidan, Head of the climate change campaign in IndyACT.

A new report by the International Energy Agency showed that OPEC nations will increase their profits four folds between now and 2030, even if all nations in the world cut their carbon emissions to the level needed to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change. “AFED report showed today that the Arab world will extremely suffer economically and socially due to climate change, and all of the world’s oil will not make up this loss”, concluded Hmaidan.


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Notes to editor:

For more about the Arab states’ positions in climate negotiations, visit:
http://www.cantdrinkoil.org/
Photos of the event will be available on:
http://indyact.blogspot.com

Further information on IndyACT can be found on:
www.indyact.org

For more information please call:
- Wael Hmaidan, executive director of IndyACT; Tel- fax: +961-1-447192; Mobile: +961-3-506313, email: whmaidan@indyact.org