|
|
Tweet |
Israel and Palestine Declare War… Against Climate Change
“It is a new way of doing diplomacy because all these countries have a lot of problems to deal with — economic crises, political instability and other issues — and the conflicts between them. However, they sat around the same table realizing that they all face the same threat to their culture and their way of life.”
- Diplomat at the meeting
Israel and the Palestinian Authority are among 15 Mediterranean nations who have just signed a historic agreement to work together to combat the effects of climate change, one month ahead of the next United Nations conference on climate change, meeting at Cancun in November.
The Mediterranean Climate Change Initiative was inaugurated by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to develop common Mediterranean positions on climate change and was signed by the prime ministers or top environmental officials of 15 countries who agree that climate change threatens their way of life as peoples of the Mediterranean.
Most remarkable of all, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed on to the initiative.
Signatories included a wide assortment of countries: EU members like France, Spain, Italy, and Greece; Eastern European countries like Turkey, Croatia, Romania and Macedonia, and Middle Eastern countries, like Libya, Syria and Egypt.
The declaration called for contributing to the emergence of low carbon, resource efficient and climate resilient economies.