A record number – over 45,000 participants – are registered for the UN’s major climate meeting in Egypt. But not everyone feels equally welcome.
Sharm el Sheikh is bounded by the Red Sea on one side and barbed wire to the desert on the other. The only way here is bordered by military checkpoints. The security apparatus in Sinai is extreme after previous wars and terrorist attacks, and some call the meeting the “climate fortress” COP27.
– It will be virtually impossible for unaccredited local organizations to enter the city, says Hossam Bahgat, one of Egypt’s best-known human rights advocates.
Egypt is ruled with an iron fist
Egypt has been ruled since 2013 by a political elite, supported by the military, who rule the country with an iron fist.
– We have known for a long time that Egypt is a black hole when it comes to human rights, says Richard Pearshouse, director of environment and human rights at Human Rights Watch.
Egypt rejects the criticism. Activists are welcome – but to a specially designated place in Sharm el Sheikh.
– The Egyptian government is very keen that the meeting be inclusive and that everyone can be here and participate, says Achraf Ibrahim, Egypt’s ambassador and coordinator for COP27.
Tasneem Essop, who heads the world’s largest climate network, the Climate Action Network, with over 1,800 organizations in 130 countries, says they don’t want to play into that narrative.
– Sharm el Sheikh is a sealed-off place, very controlled, very organized, she says.
Boycotted by Greta Thunberg
The question is how many will come. The networks KlimatSverige and Klimatriksdagen bring together many of Sweden’s climate groups, and tell SVT that few members will go. Greta Thunberg boycotts the meeting and demands that the regime open up society and release political prisoners.
But Greenpeace is already in place with its ship in the Red Sea.
– Although it is of course sad that few young activists and organizations from the global north are there, it is perhaps even more important that there is representation from the global south. This is also why we have young climate leaders from Pakistan, Sudan, Morocco. It is their voices that need to be heard clearly during this climate meeting, says Daniel Bengtsson, head of communications for Greenpeace in the Nordics.