Doha 2012: My Quest For Climate Justice

                                                   Adekunle Waheed Saka Mao ·

In my 16 years as a Rights activist and 5years as climate Justice advocate,Doha 2012 was my first COP experience,it was an experience I am still assessing the leap of progression I made in just two weeks of interactions,attending major events and side events of Parties seeking to reduce carbon emmission ,therefore saving the world from man made catastrophe that set to dwarf Noah prophetic era.

My Journey to Doha was a fairytale experience,the board of directors of Climate and Environmental development Initiative CEDI which I am the board secretary notify me that I will be representing alongside my leader and mentor comrade Amitolu Shittu and two other members of our sister organisation CDRP at the UN climate change conference otherwise known as COP18 Doha 2012.

After the various documentation,visa and ticket ,my travelling and that of our other members of delegation which include Niyi Orosanye and Boye Balogun and others arrived MMIA to check in and board Etihad Airline to Abu Dhabi enroute Doha,the process was hitchfree because the sponsored on our visa was United Nation,ours was a free pass to the departing lounge and we not only enjoy our flight but I met three young men who are travelling to Nepal to play football,I was dissapointed with a system who don't care about these youngster and I wish them all the best.I digress

We arrived Abu Dhabi international Airport on the early hour of 27th November,and we waited for eight good hours before we boarded a connecting flight to Doha. We there used the opportunity to explore the essential Abu Dhabi,the capital of United Arab Emirate,it was a magnificient airport that questioned our ways!

We eventually reach the oil rich Qatar at exactly 6pm Doha time,we were looking for the UN designated bus to transit us for the registration at the Qatar National Convention Centre QNCC, after we were unable to see the bus , we settle for taxi ride from the Airport to the Convention centre at 25 US dollar,expensive but as a stranger,our choice are lesser.

Driving through the city to the convention centre was a welcoming sight of a country who have oil and used the resources for their people,the city is a city of architecture,Doha is a city of orderliness and whatever we may have as freedom in a democracy,Doha nullified it with development and welfare of their citizen,infact I can never write the essential Doha in a single text,it deserve a compedium for a city so beautiful and organised,one member of our delegation said God truly lives here!

COP18 conference was continuation of discussion around the Durban Platform for enhanced Action,so there was a roundtable on a 2015 aggrement as well as a planned roundtable on climate adaptation and mitigation finance,therefore I was part of many roundtable discussion and side events especially those that are related to Africa,Pacific,climate finaancing and climate justice.

While leaders-especially of developed countries lack equity,intergovernmental justice and needed sense of urgency,I am proud to be among young minds growing up in a world increasingly mired by the threat of climate change to ask the Conference of Party 18: what kind of world do they want us to inherit?

Fundamentally,I enjoyed the side event on Managing the Risk of Extreme Events and Disaster to advance Climate Change Adaptation organised by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which was chaired by Dr. Renate Christ,in which Hurricanes in USA,flash floods in kenya and drought in Africa.

I also experienced some interesting discussion on,equity and climate change,assessing climate fund, organised by Africa Development Bank,and I enjoy seeing arab youth undertook actions asking Arab countries especially state of Qatar to lead the pledge to mitigation in order to reduce green house gas emission.

Above all,I met a lot of people that have taken climate justice as a way of life,Cyndi from South Africa,Juan Ruiz from Mexico,Qazim head the Qatar Sustainable Network,he is a youngman in a hurry to engage the world.

I will forever be grateful to the Board of Directors of CEDI,the National cordinator of CDRP comrade Amitolu Shittu for giving me the opprtunity to increase my Knowledge and explore the world,it was an experience no money can quantify,I can't wait to be in Poland for COP19 in warsaw

Saka Waheed Adekunle
Secretary.CEDI
cediclimate@gmail.com