Day 6 of the COP 18 seemed like it was yet another day characterized by affirmations by Qataris and their commitment towards achieving progress in the fight against “Global Climate Change”. Saturday saw the first ever march against climate change and organizers in Qatar believed that it would mark the first steps to a sustained grassroots action on environmental issues across the country. Approximately 400 people attended the march under the banner labeled “One Environment, One People, One Earth”. The aim of the march was to create a rallying point for other environmental groups in Qatar who want to promote the issue of climate change. Coming from South Africa, where people march all the time, I can safely say that although it may excite the press and create valuable PR, it rarely achieves a concrete outcome. That said, Wael Hmaiden, the director of Climate Action Network International, who helped organize the march, hoped it would create a change in the mentality of the common citizen and make civil action more acceptable in the culture of the Arab region.
All the marching obviously put a strain on the delegates and thus in order to catch their breath; the conference is on pause for this Sunday. Much of the “rest day” will be allocated for those who wish to explore Doha a bit more. With the various activities taking place, delegates will be spoiled for choice. However, in terms of environmental issues, the important Forest Day event will take place this Sunday. Forest day is an annual conference that informs participants in the UN climate change talks of the most up-to-date findings from research on the relationships between forests and climate change.
Marches and rest days aside, Saturday also saw China’s stance in Doha coming to the fore. Christiana Figueres hailed China’s initiatives in addressing climate change and reducing emissions and stated that as a “responsible developing country, it had already taken the lead in tackling climate change. China has already stated that it and other BASIC (Brazil, India and South Africa) countries are willing to provide support to and cooperate with other countries in order to achieve an open and inclusive process of global anti-warming efforts. However, as with all of these conferences, Figueres mentioned that despite the “initial talks going well”, the true assessment of the work being done would only be known at the end of the deliberations.
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