John Lennon Would be Proud

“Make Love not War” is the last thing I would have expected His Excellency Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah to say. For over 30 years his Excellency has served as Qatar’s minister for portfolios such as Finance, Industry, and Energy, eventally became the head of Qatar Petroleum and is now the Deputy Prime Minister. The host country’s minister of Environment is traditionally appointed COP president.  This year marks a change and H.E. Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah is at the helm.

His Excellency’s office has arranged for an “informal dialogue” to allow civil society observers a chance to engage with him.  Enthroned on a dais with a staff member on one side, and the lead Qatari negotiator on the other, His Excellency is either expertly – or completely ineptly – handling questions from observers.  It is unnerving that I cannot entirely decide which it is. 

When a Palestinian woman challenges him for stating that agriculture is not an issue because there are no farmers in the Middle East, he immediately reverses his statement, boldly asserts that Palestinians are the “most famous farmers in the world,” and manages to take a parting shot at ethanol producers for using land that could have been used for food (ahem, who could also be competitors for Qatari gas) -- all in one smooth stream-of-consciousness loop.

An Indigenous man from the Amazon asks him to provide greater support and visibility for Indigenous Peoples in the negotiating process.  “All Qtaris are indigenous peoples so we understand your oppression” he claims, and warmly gives his full support for all Indigenous concerns without the offer of either a single Qatari Riyal or a concrete action in the negotiations. 

A youth delegate’s hand shoots up. She asks him how he is going to speed up negotiations.   Time is running out.  Youth don’t want to inherit the earth they are being left.  He sits back, relaxes and regales us with memories from his student days in Michigan during the 1970s.  “Make Love not War”, he urges all of us, and then sighs and adds reflectively, “ah yes, I was a youth once too, and the youth, they are always wanting change……”.

The UNFCCC secretariat works throughout the year to provide support to the 195 Parties (ie. countries included in the convention) involved in the negotiations, but only the Parties can agree to a deal.  The central job of the COP President is to facilitate these negotiations.  Near the end of the dialogue an environmental NGO representative asks straight out, “what strategies do you have for facilitating the final negotiation?”

His Excellency’s answer is unaccustomly direct.  “Yes, the ministers must be managed.  We will have some roundtables, we will exclude the press, and I will tell them that they need to get along.”

While I agree that it is high time for some cooperation in the climate arena, I’m not entirely sure how successful His Excellency's admonition will be at 3 am in a room full of negotiators faced with unfinished texts haunted by the spectres of two decades of disagreement and mistrust about development, economic interests, and colonialism.  Then again, he has survived Qatari politics for over 30 years and its not like anyone else has come up with any better suggestions.  And really, all he is saying, is give peace a chance.