“Today is historic, for the first time ever we are having a march in the modern history of Qatar,” said Ali Fakhry, the spokesperson for IndyAct, a league of activists based in Beirut, Lebanon and one of the event’s organizers. “To all the international leaders,  the youth are asking you to make serious and ambitious plans to reduce the emissions of CO2 and to fund the Green Climate Fund, so we can reach a binding treaty by 2020.”

 

The purpose was to pressure all countries to pledge to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and for the Arab nations to show some leadership during the process. 

 

“The message going out today is: “Arabs it is time to lead.” We really believe that as Arabs we have the potential to lead these negotiations,”said Reem Al Mealla, a member of Arab Youth Climate Movement (AYCM) from Bahrain. “We, the Arab youth are here to send a message to the world to say that Arabs are more than just oil.” 

 

The demonstration was primarily organized by IndyAct and the AYCM, with support from the Doha Oasis, a Qatari environmental NGO. 

 

AYCM is a group of youth from 15 countries across the Arab region that was formed in September 2012 to lobby Arab states at the negotiations. This was particularly significant since Qatar is an Arab state that is highly dependent on oil production and that has one of the highest GHG emissions per capita in the world. 

 

“We need more leadership from the Arab region on climate change to start by reducing their emissions” said Wael Hmaidan, the Executive Director for Climate Action Network International, a coalition of NGOs working on climate issues and the former Executive Director of IndyAct. “We want a strong climate change Arab movement". 

 

Youth and civil society groups from across the globe attended the march with similar messages to their state leaders and other negotiators.  

 

“We need less talk and more action because the impacts of climate change aren’t just in the future and we are seeing it happen in all parts of the world,” said Aneya Maseko, from the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance, a coalition of organizations from the African continent that are calling from climate justice. 

 

After pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, in December 2011, following the negotiations last year, Canada has already stated its unwillingness to move forward with the proposed Green Climate Fund that is crucial to come  up with a post kyoto agreement. 

 

“The Canadian government continues to embarrass Canadians internationally by acting against the interest of the people and the environment, while supporting the carbon intensive, destructive tar sands industry” said Kira Lamont a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation to the negotiations.

 

The negotiations have been advancing slowly without much progress made in the first week. 

“I am hopeful, but of course we’re still worried since no crunch issues have been resolved ” said Hmaidan. “We hope that Qatar will be well-organized to resolve [the outstanding issues].”