The Climate Justice Camp will bring together 450 young leaders from across the Global South and the world’s most climate-impacted regions from 28 August to 2 September at a Climate Justice Camp in Lebanon, the first of its size in the Middle East region, where participants will share their perspectives and realities, exchange knowledge, and develop demands during more than 100 varied workshops.
These participants from almost 100 countries across the Global South will co-create strategies and demands calling on decision-makers at COP28 and beyond to implement an equitable climate action framework.
Following the stark warning by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the urgent need for action on what he termed ‘global boiling’ ahead of COP28 in the UAE, the Climate Justice Camp gives young climate living the day-to-day realities of the climate crisis a space to exchange knowledge, develop demands, and lead conversations with decision makers in both local and global contexts.
An intersectional agenda of more than 100 workshops led by local leaders, organizers, and young changemakers will be featured, covering topics including finance, loss and damage, climate adaptation, and fossil fuel phase-out; with the aim of building climate networks across the Global South that can work together to push for long-term political change.
The camp in Lebanon is the second edition of this global grassroots event, building on the success of the inaugural camp held last September in Tunisia. More than 40 local and global organizations [1] have worked collaboratively this year to bring together young people from regions including the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and the Pacific.
Ayisha Siddiqa from Pakistan, human rights and land defender and Climate Advisor to the UN Secretary General, 2022 camp attendee in Tunisia and taking part again in Lebanon said: “We are in the eye of the storm now. The crises we once feared are accumulating and feeding off each other, while peasants, poor people, and Indigenous People are paying in life for the wealthy and privileged to ignore the issue at hand. There comes a time when you repeat the mistakes of history so often and at such a scale, you unlock a new portal of grave mistakes.
“How many times were we warned that we were unleashing a monster we were not prepared for? This beast is slowly destroying life. Regions in the Middle East, which get the least attention but are arguably some of the most looted and impacted regions on Earth, first paid for fossil fuels with their life and are now paying in drought, flood, and hunger. It does not take a political scientist to understand that environmental disasters of such scale lead to political and social upheaval. The foundations of a market-based economy collapse fast and what we are left with is human suffering. More than ever, we need people power, we need to unify across borders and regions, across cultures and languages, to fix what we have broken. That starts with us caring for each other and the planet like it’s the most precious resource to exist.”
Fatima-Zahrae Tarib from Morocco, a youth climate advocate and political science major, will also be returning to the camp this year. She said: “During my years working for climate justice, I often found myself standing alone or among very few individuals from the MENA region mostly due to the absence of an established regional youth network to unite us. During the first Climate Justice Camp, I had the opportunity to meet and forge strong bonds with others who are active on climate here. A year on, our connections have grown, our networks have expanded, and we are working together and inspiring more young people from our region to demand climate action.”
Kenzie Azmi from Egypt, campaigner at Greenpeace Middle East & North Africa said: “Communities in the Global South are facing unprecedented social, health, and economic challenges as the drivers of climate change further deepen historical injustices. Those living in frontline regions are suffering the most from a crisis they contributed the least to.
“The fossil fuel industry has driven increased frequency and intensity of weather and climate extremes, which disproportionately impacts communities, particularly in the Global South, that cannot mitigate them. We must show solidarity and demand global action for recovery and survival, which includes loss and damage financing, and system change that fast-tracks an equitable and just transition to renewable energy, like solar and wind.”
[1] Climate Justice Camp 2023 partner list: 350.org, Action Aid, African Coaching Network, Africans Rising, American Friends Service Committee, Amnesty International, Arab Reform Initiative, Arab Forum for Alternatives (AFA), CAN Arab World, CAN International, CAN-Europe, CIVICUS, Climate Activists Defenders, Diaries of the Ocean, Ecowave, Ecumene Studio (Space for Dignity), Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Food Sovereignty network, Egypt Youth Association for Community Development in Fayoum, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, Global Strategic Communications Council, Green Generation Foundation, Greenish, Greenpeace Africa, Greenpeace MENA, HBS Lebanon, Kenya Inter University Environmental Students Association (KIUESA), Lebanese Reforestation Initiative, MENA Youth Network, Mada Association, Me & Youth, Medico International, Oxfam, Roots, Stop Pollution Gabes, Students for Earth, The Movement Trust, The Black Hive @ M4BL, Together for Future, Transnational Institute, USCAN, Women & Gender Constituency, Youth for Climate Tunisia.
