Holding COP 27 In Egypt Means Working With A Dictatorship W. A Horrific Record On Rights, Protests
Concern is growing over plans to host a UN climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh next year, in what will be a crucial summit if the world is to limit global heating to 1.5C. Several green experts and human rights activists have told the Observer they fear the ability of civil society groups to protest at the summit will be curtailed by Egypt’s authoritarian regime, reducing the pressure that can be brought to bear on leaders and ministers from the nearly 200 countries expected to take part.
The Cop26 summit in Glasgow produced substantial progress on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but the national carbon targets laid out there fell far short of the near-halving of emissions required to stay within 1.5C of pre-industrial levels. Recognising that, nations agreed to review their targets before the next annual climate “conference of the parties”, scheduled for next November.
Egypt will host Cop27, in keeping with the expectation that the next location of the Cop should be in Africa. But the choice of Egypt has caused concern. Since coming to power in a military coup in 2013, Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has overseen the broadest and deepest crackdown on civil rights in Egypt’s modern history. Dissent has been outlawed: the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information estimates that 65,000 political prisoners are currently inside the country’s detention system, which has grown to at least 78 major detention centres in the past decade. Critics, from politicians to people posting comments on social media or even small groups protesting against a price rise on the Cairo metro, have been detained and imprisoned on terrorism charges.
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An Egyptian environmental activist, who asked not to be named, said that Egypt hosting the next Cop removed the necessary pressure created by activists operating outside the conference’s “blue zone”, or sanctioned area. “That tension between civil society and governments has led to concessions and some progress,” they said. “Egypt hosting the Cop severely compromises that tension.” The activist said that the result of Egypt’s almost decade-long ban on street protests and suppression of political organising is that civil society actors and prospective protesters visiting Egypt for the Cop will be unable to liaise with local organisations, as it would risk endangering Egyptian activists. “It’s too dangerous for that to happen unless they are directly or indirectly sanctioned by the Egyptian government,” they said.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/21/cop27-is-in-egypt-next-year-but-will-anyone-be-allowed-to-protest