Will Lebanon Meet Its Renewable Energy Pledge by 2020?
Lebanon pledged to increase its renewable energy share to 12 percent by 2020 at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit.The goal of the summit, like so many more summits since, was to address climate change and to work on limiting the global average temperature increase to no more than two degrees Celsius.
Beyond the pledge, renewable energy is all the more important given Lebanon's recent garbage crisis. Last year, the country came to a near complete standstill as protesters, adopting the name ‘You Stink!’ (طلعت ريحتكم), took to the streets to protest against government corruption and their failure to collect garbage. To this day, the waste crisis is taking a severe toll on some of Lebanon's most vulnerable groups. AFP even published a photoessay entitled ‘drowning in garbage‘ on Lebanon.
Lebanese author and activist Sara El-Yafi recently took part in an online conversation entitled “everyday garbage can be transformed into renewable energy“, linking Lebanon's waste crisis to its energy crisis.
