Copenhagen, Denmark Liana B. Baker / TML – Three days before the U.N. climate talks kicked off in Copenhagen, Tarak Tayara was told he was accepted as an official observer at the negotiations. The 28-year-old hopped on the next flight out of Lebanon and landed the next day in Denmark, ready for two weeks of protesting climate change as world leaders attempt to reach a global climate treaty. While thousands of youth have gained official status by the U.N. to watch the negotiations at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, only a tiny fraction of these young activists, like Tayara, hail from Arab countries.

“Activism in the Arab world is very low,” Tayara, who manages an eco-village outside Beirut says. “While some Arabs are active, when it comes to defying politics, defying power, the leaders – it’s totally out of the question for many Arabs.”

In Copenhagen, Tayara has been wearing a black shirt with bright lettering in white, red and gold, which spells out “Arabs against oil,” on the back and “You can’t drink oil on the front.”

It’s a message which he says is intended to shatter stereotypes about Arabs.

“Everyone, when they think of Arabs, links them to oil or to camels or the desert,” Tayara says. “We’re here to show them that no, we are not just oil and whatever they want to think. We have brains, we think, we’re active and we know what’s right from what’s wrong.”

This is a message that has gained attention in the negotiation session halls and the reaction has been positive. While he has seen people from all over the world supporting him and his peers, he has also realized that many countries are grateful that Arab youth have come to support them.

Tayara is in Copenhagen with a group called IndyAct, short for the League for Independent Activists. The group formed in Lebanon after one of the worst environmental disasters in Lebanese history. In 2006, more than 10,000 tons of fuel spilled in the Mediterranean as a result of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. Based in Beirut, the IndyAct head office attracts activists from across the Arab world.

Sarah Rafeet, a graphic designer from Egypt received an email from IndyAct last June, calling for young climate change activists. The 25-year-old signed up and spent three weeks in Turkey over the summer learning different approaches to climate change activism.

With several cities located on the coast, Egypt has cause to worry. Rafeet cited a study which warned that a meter rise in sea levels could cover the entire city of Alexandria, but the biggest concern, she says, is how the Nile Delta will be affected.

“The whole of the country is concentrated on the Nile delta which is in the north,” Rafeet says . “The Nile Delta pours into the Mediterranean Sea. Not only will we lose our coastal cities where most of our industry is based, we will also lose the Nile delta, the most fertile part of Egypt, this is where civilization started. Egypt is a civilization because of the Nile.”

While Rafeet only became involved with youth environmental activism this past summer, she says she grew up with an appreciation for conservation having spent three years as a volunteer for the Wadi Environmental Science Center, which organizes the World Environment day in Egypt every year – not to mention countless days in her Grandfather’s garden.

She says the Egyptian public is generally not aware of climate change, and that it’s the youth climate movement bringing attention to it.

On October 24, the 350 global day of action, Rafeet helped organize a high profile bike ride from Cairo to the pyramids, as part of the global series of events calling for a carbon reduction in the atmosphere.

Egyptians, she says, paid attention to the bike ride because it’s not that common to see people on bicycles by choice.

“People who ride bicycles in Egypt are delivery boys on very, very cheap bikes,” Rafeet says. “It’s not like here in Copenhagen.”

Rafeet is engaged with the grassroots movement which is gaining momentum in Egypt. Two groups, the Cairo Cycling Club and the Egyptian Carpoolers, organized a vigil on December 12 at the Cairo International Opera House where people lit candles and discussed the recent happenings in Copenhagen online with Egyptian activists at the conference.

While Egypt does not emit as much carbon as oil refining countries in the Middle East, it does have one of the the highest carbon emissions in Africa. The country has begun tapping into its solar and wind energypotential. By 2020, Rafeet says, Egypt plans for 20% of its energy to come from renewable resources. Egypt currently has two wind farms, coincidentally, Rafeet’s father works at one of them.

Rafeet has been organizing actions to bring attention to issues being debated in Copenhagen. For the past week, one IndyAct member has been dressing up like an oil lobbyist to mingle with UN delegates from different countries. So far, the phony oilman has tried in vain to recruit hackers to find leaked emails casting doubt on climate change science and holding up a sign calling for 850 ppm, a highly dangerous level of carbon in the atmosphere.

Not all Arab youth came to Copenhagen to speak out against oil though. Haidthan Al-Yakoubi, 23, is the only youth attendee at the conference from Oman. He came to Copenhagen to learn more about strategies to raise awareness about climate change in his home country. Al-Yakoubi is in Copenhagen with the British Council, which sent 30 representatives to the negotiations from around the world.

Al-Yakoubi says Oman relies on its oil production and he won’t wear a T-shirt saying “Arabs against Oil,” at the conference, but if Oman is going to continue to drill oil, he wants to see his country invest in better technology that will help reduce carbon emissions.

“We cannot forego this product,” Al-Yakoubi says. “At the same time, I am asking the government in Oman to start a scientific study of using solar energyin the future because the oil will eventually disappear and we must find alternatives.” For the 350 Day of Action, Al-Yakoubi helped organize an event with a telecommunications company in Oman, which called upon clients not to drive between 6pm and 8pm. The second event took place underwater, where divers displayed a 350 banner near Oman’s endangered coral reefs.

Al-Yakoubi’s was also instrumental in having environmentalist Bill McKibben come speak last August at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, which received a lot of press in the country.

While people are starting to pay attention to climate change in Oman, it’s taken destructive events to make that happen. The government created the Ministry for Climate Change after cyclones off the coast caused massive destruction in 2007.

Al-Yakoubi says Oman has a long way to go, but he’s excited to be a part of it.

“I will take a lot of ideas from here,” he says. “In Copenhagen, a lot of people have more experience than me, and when I get back to Oman, I will reorganize and restructure my projects and campaigns to add all of this new material.”