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The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are currently navigating a "poly-crisis", in which climate change, economic instability, conflict, and fragmented governance interact and reinforce one another. In most countries in the region, this is evident in acute water scarcity lack of water governance mechanisms, accelerating coastal erosion, increasingly severe heatwaves, and heightened pressures on livelihoods and public infrastructure.  In 2026, all these factors are exacerbated by conflicts from Gaza to Syria and Yemen, the MENA can be reframed not only as a climate front line, but as a source of conflict-aware, locally led governance innovations with global significance.Climate activism has expanded dramatically over the past decade, culminating in mass mobilization through climate strikes and digitally mediated campaigns. Yet, while mobilization is often assumed to translate into impact, existing research provides uneven and sometimes contradictory evidence across tactics, political systems, and scales of action.

In many MENA contexts, climate activism has tended to take the form of individual behavioral change initiatives or project-based NGO interventions, often shaped by international donor priorities. While such approaches may yield important localized benefits, they remain limited in their capacity to challenge the structural drivers of climate vulnerability or in meaningful engagement at various levels (Madehi, 2025; Madehi & Karam, 2025). However, systemic change requires moving beyond these direct effects toward indirect activism and strategic action (Fisher and Nasrin 2021).

This webinar responds to a growing need among activists, scholars, and policymakers to move beyond the symbolic visibility of climate mobilization toward a clearer understanding of how activism can generate political leverage and material change.

Objectives

Introduce and distinguish different types of climate activism
Examine strategic and tactical shifts to understand how tactics and solidarity mechanisms work in the MENA region
Provide participants with a framework for inclusive civic engagement and for building social resilience in contexts where state infrastructure fails

Potential Discussion Questions

• What distinguishes climate activism from other forms of environmental or social mobilizations?
• Comparing tactics - what works, where, and for whom?
• To what extent do dominant theories of civic engagement, largely developed in democratic settings, travel to MENA contexts?
• How does climate activism intersect with broader struggles over governance, livelihoods, and social justice in the region?
• What are the activism opportunities around climate in a region that is undergoing wars, occupation and displacement?