What a month it’s been. COP 26 in Glasgow followed by the Water-Energy sale announced between Jordan and Israel. On the announcement, beyond the press coverage, we wanted to thank our supporters on this significant development.
EcoPeace Middle East recognizes the significance of the recent announcement of a renewable energy – desalinated water exchange between Israel and Jordan as a first step towards Palestinian, Jordanian, Israeli climate mitigation and adaptation. EcoPeace Middle East expresses its gratitude to the Konrad Adenauer Foundation who, with German Government funding, supported the initial 2017 Palestinian, Jordanian, Israeli water-energy nexus pre-feasibility study. Since then Sweden has supported the efforts of EcoPeace to advance a Green Blue Deal for the Middle East.
EcoPeace Israel Director, Gidon Bromberg, said “It’s a model for out-of-the-box thinking on climate security. Climate change already at a crisis point in the Middle East must lead to policy changes at the regional level. Without these new arrangements Israel would struggle to meet its commitments for renewable energy under the Paris Climate Accords and Jordan would struggle to meet its basic water needs.”
EcoPeace Jordan Director, Yana Abu Taleb, explained “The exchange will create healthy interdependencies between countries in our region. Jordan for the first time will have something of real value to sell to Israel resulting in much-needed new political leverage.”
EcoPeace Palestine Director, Nada Majdalani continued, “As the Green Blue Deal advances EcoPeace is committed to seeing Palestinian climate security needs to be met in all four chapters of our proposal, prioritizing Palestinian water rights.”
EcoPeace is committed through its environmental peacebuilding work to a fair and just peace in our region that supports preserving the viability of the two-state solution.