Green MENA (EN)
Climate and nature, soil and water
Climate change and environmental issues are important for the future of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and for Europe’s relationship with the MENA-region. Issues such as water management and pollution are directly linked to a lack of economic prospects, quality of life and conflicts.
We can create a fair, clean and just world if European policymakers and companies start to think outside their own borders. The European energy transition from fossil to sustainable will then run parallel to the energy transition to sustainable energy in the Arab countries and North Africa. Dutch companies that are active in the MENA countries include local communities in decision-making processes, and let them benefit from projects and activities that they carry out in these communities’ surroundings.
Just, shared and connected
Ideally, local communities and farmers are involved and contribute on a large scale to soil restoration and biodiversity restoration. Dutch companies, researchers and policymakers immediately benefit from the knowledge of experts in the MENA region when it comes to water scarcity and climate-proof nature. In just and sustainable circumstances, farmers in countries like Palestine, Morocco and Egypt have enough water to grow food for the local population, ensuring their own food security. At the same time, we want to return to a situation where the rivers in Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon are clean, and provide local farmers with sufficient irrigation water.
Just like in the Netherlands, many young people in the Arab world and North Africa feel a great deal of concern for the state of the earth. And just like in the Netherlands, there are passionate farmers, idealistic entrepreneurs and enthusiastic researchers. We share with them the desire for a healthy and safe world, in which we work together and treat each other and the earth with care.
What’s wrong today
At the moment, our politicians are proposing a European energy transition that is completely dependent on raw materials from the global South. Such a transition will inevitably cause further environmental damage in countries like Algeria and Morocco through the extraction of resources. This is in addition to the already existing extraction of fossil fuels and of water for export-oriented agriculture. Food security is also at stake due to current European trade agreements, which prohibit farmers in countries such as Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt from enhance their own seeds. This makes farmers dependent on foreign seed companies and pesticides.
European companies also often do not look beyond their own borders: in many cases they do not comply with environmental legislation outside Europe, making them responsible for serious pollution and damage in environments that are already vulnerable due to poverty and (colonial) exploitation.
Sustainability agendas for countries in the Global South are largely devised and developed in the West, and are linked to donor priorities. Solutions to environmental problems are also often devised in the West, and not by local experts or communities.
Vision
Fortunately, there are many ‘green’ organisations, companies and individuals in the Arab world and North Africa who are working towards a sustainable world in various ways. In 2019, the Greater Middle East Platform started mapping these people and initiatives. We called this the ‘Green MENA Network’. Our database includes over 700 activists, NGOs, entrepreneurs, farmers and researchers from all over the world, from Morocco to Egypt, from Iraq to the Gulf countries.
Bottom-up
All these bottom-up initiatives offer opportunities for collaboration and potential partnerships for us in Europe. We want to facilitate aid and trade partnerships that have a truly green and sustainable impact. By sharing knowledge within the Green MENA Network, and between MENA partners and Europe, we all become wiser. By listening to what our partners find important, and by being more aware of what European companies and governments are doing in the countries around Europe, we can tailor our policies from Europe to what is needed in the Middle East and North Africa.
We invite you to read our articles, meet Majd Massharawi, Omar Hajji, Salman Khairallah, Joslin Kehdy, and the many others who dedicate their lives to a green, sustainable world. Do you want to collaborate with sustainable partners yourself? We would be happy to put you in touch!
If you are a green, sustainable organisation, entrepreneur, researcher or activist from one of the MENA countries, and want to be included in the network, please reach out to us.
