SAT-7’S YOUTH PROJECT TEAM INSPIRED BY COP29
As COP29 concludes in Azerbaijan, a team from SAT-7’s Youth for an Enabling Society (YES) project who attended the conference are returning to Egypt inspired for their efforts to raise awareness about climate change among Arab youth.
It is the third consecutive year that the UN Climate Change conference has been held in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), following COP28 in the United Arab Emirates and COP27 in Egypt. The YES team has participated in all three MENA-based events.
Project lead Rafik George said it was “valuable and exciting” to be there again, adding, “What stood out about COP29 this year was the notable presence of other Christian organisations, such as the Coptic Evangelical Organisation for Social Services from Egypt, which emphasised that Christian organisations play an active role in their communities, raising awareness and leading impactful services in their respective countries.”
VULNERABLE REGION
The MENA region is one of the world’s most vulnerable to environmental problems, including rising temperatures and sea levels, droughts, floods, intense water scarcity, and polluted air. The hosting of three COP conferences in the region has been part of strategic international efforts to raise concern about the issues among MENA populations and governments.
“We are genuinely enthusiastic about sharing the conference’s highlights with youth in the Arab world and communicating to them that addressing climate change has become a necessity for all societies,” Rafik said.
One of the YES project’s aims is to raise awareness about environmental issues among Arab youth. They have filmed inspiring initiatives by people from different Arab countries to encourage others to take action, and they recently produced a comedy drama called From My Perspective to highlight the future consequences of failing to tackle environmental problems.
At COP29, the team filmed around 50 interviews with people from countries across the region, including UAE, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. These will be shown as part of SAT-7 ARABIC’s current affairs program Different Angle and also shared on the YES project’s Our Generation Plus social media pages.
CHURCH ACTIONS
This week’s episode of Different Angle highlighted the role of religious organisations in protecting the environment and raising citizens’ awareness. Rafik reported live from COP29 via Zoom to share highlights from the conference and stressed the importance of both Church and youth involvement in environmental efforts.
The episode also featured expert guest Dr Maher Aziz from the World Energy Council, who explained the causes and consequences of climate change, and Christian leaders explained specific actions taken by Church organisations.
Rania Rashad, from the Coptic Evangelical Organisation for Social Services, said: “The Church does the will of God on earth and has a role for humanity including climate change because it affects man who was made by God as the centre of creation.”
Pastor Abanoub Ibrahim shared some practical steps that individuals can take, and also stressed the importance of cooperation with others in society. “Since the church is light to the world and salt of the earth, then it’s first role is to pray,” he said. “Secondly, it must work on knowledge, skill and behaviour.