2023-12-08 15:45:00
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“Governments participating in COP28 – including that of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), host of the conference and producer of fossil fuels – must take concrete and strong measures to avoid the worst damage of the climate crisis in the context of the alarming water scarcity aggravated by climate change that also affects the States of the Middle East and North Africa”, has declared itand Amnesty International.
These measures should include the urgent and progressive phase-out of fossil fuels and the provision of human rights-based climate financetwo fundamental measures to guarantee the right to water of the population of the Middle East and North Africa region.
“Many countries in the Middle East and North Africa are grappling with crises caused by overwhelming debt, destruction and damage from conflict, and now, water scarcity compounded by the climate crisis in a region where water is already is very scarce,” said Kristine Beckerle, economic, social and cultural rights adviser at Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Office.
“So far, the response of the region’s governments to guarantee the right to water is woefully insufficient.”.
Whether or not the population’s right to water is met depends not only on the amount of water available, but also on how governments manage, distribute and protect the available water. In the context of the climate crisis, governments in the Middle East and North Africa region must intensify their efforts to protect and ensure sufficient water supplies, among other measures, by ensuring that disadvantaged and marginalized groups who will be disproportionately harmed affected by the crisis – such as rural communities, subsistence farmers, fisheries and migrant workers – can meaningfully participate in planning, proposal formulation and monitoring.
Human rights specialists have repeatedly concluded that negligence, mismanagement, discrimination and attacks on water sources have damaged the right to water of the region’s population. However, it must also be recognized that the countries of the Middle East and North Africa have very different capacities to face the common challenge of the climate crisis, since while some are suffering serious financial and economic difficulties, others, such as the host of the COP28, enjoy some of the highest per capita incomes in the world. Yemen, for example, is one of the least developed countries in the world, while its neighbors such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar reap immense benefits from their domestic fossil fuel companies. These companies are already aggravating the climate crisis with their enormous fossil fuel production, yet they plan to increase it even more, contrary to what is needed to address the climate crisis.
This contradiction, as well as the disastrous human rights record of these States, offers a bleak outlook for the ability of current and future generations to enjoy their right to water in the region.
It is not just that the high-income fossil fuel-producing states of the Gulf are failing on this front. Across the planet, there are governments – especially those in industrialized countries that bear the greatest historical responsibility for emissions – that are not taking sufficient measures to protect humanity from the acceleration of climate change and its devastating impact, particularly by not phase out all fossil fuels and fossil fuel subsidies.
“Governments participating in COP28, which is being held for the second year in a row in a country in the Middle East and North Africa, have the opportunity to take vital steps to help ensure that the right to water is fulfilled in the world. region now and in the future. They must respond to the call of activists and civil society groups by linking the complete, rapid, fair and financed phase-out of fossil fuels to a human rights-based approach to climate finance that includes increasing and improving the funds offered to help countries. low-income and lower-middle-income families to adapt to climate change,” said Kristine Beckerle.
“Across the region, people are already facing the human rights harms of droughts, extreme heat and worsening water shortages. COP28 must not become a platform for making empty promises where governments can pretend they are taking action while doing nothing.”
Amnesty International also calls on governments to respect and protect the right to water of all people on their territory, including preventing and condemning attacks on water resources, and to ensure equitable access to safe drinking water.
Additional information
Even during crises, governments have an obligation to enforce the right to water. Furthermore, international human rights law and standards provide important guidance to governments in the Middle East and North Africa on the areas they should prioritize in water policy and practice to ensure they can implement the right to water. water for current and future generations, specifically in the context of the climate crisis.
The climate crisis is severely exacerbating water shortages in the Middle East and North Africa. Climate attribution studies have concluded that recent heat waves and multi-year droughts in the Middle East and North Africa are more likely and/or more severe due to human-caused climate change.
According to studies by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), dryness levels in the Middle East and North Africa will rise with increasing global warming. If temperatures rise by more than 1.5°C, the Mediterranean, which includes parts of this region, will become a “hotspot of dryness change” and will experience “an expansion of desert terrain and vegetation.” […] “which will cause changes unparalleled in the last 10,000 years,” according to the IPCC.
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