This afternoon at 7 pm, Julia Choucair, senior researcher not resident at the Arab Reform Initiative and assistant professor at IE University, offers the fourth lecture of the cycle Aula Árabe Universitaria 7 at Casa Árabe in Madrid, Climate change and environmental struggles in the Middle East and North Africa. Free entry until the capacity of the room. The event will be held in Spanish.
The environmental struggle is increasingly relevant in the Arab region. From protests over land use in Egypt or hydraulic fracturing in Algeria, to waste management in Lebanon and Tunisia, or water mismanagement in Iraq and Morocco, In recent years we have witnessed the emergence of mobilizations born from environmental damage and degradation. In some cases, environmental issues have triggered mass protests at the national level or have been intertwined with broader demands for socio-economic and political change.
The number of non-governmental organizations working on environmental issues has also increased throughout the region. Other civil society organisations that focus on economic policy or human rights issues are now also more active in environmental aspects: its members campaign nationally and represent the region more prominently at international meetings on environmental causes. In addition, both activists and academics have increasingly established links between environmental issues and long-standing political-economic problems which have led to social conflicts. At the same time, state-level discourse on environmental and climate action has changed in the region. In parallel, the Green Pact policies introduced by state powers (particularly in Europe) are generating some concern about a new green colonialism.
Julia Choucair will analyze these trends, which indicate a process of “greening” the public sphere in MENA, a term that refers both to the adoption of environmental discourse by different social groups and to the concrete incorporation of environmental justifications to legitimize certain institutional, political and scientific practices. Throughout your talk, you will address conceptual issues related to the environmental struggle and propose categories and frameworks to understand the actions, motivations and threats faced by environmental activists and social movements in the region.
The event is organized in collaboration with the MA European Union and the Mediterranean: Historical, Cultural, Political, Economic and Social Basis (UCM), the UCLM Degree in International Studies, and the UAM Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Alfonso Casani, Professor of Political Science and Administration at the Complutense University of Madrid, will present the report on behalf of this master’s degree, and Bárbara Azaola, representing the UCLM degree, will make a first speech after the conference. The session will be moderated by Olivia Orozco, coordinator of Education and Economics at Casa Árabe.
