Sparkling new buses are ready to drive the widened highways that cut through the desert landscape, flanked by smooth shiny new runways adorned with angular sculptural arches. A field of glittering solar panels run by a company with ties to the Egyptian military will be online in time for the conference, as will a new shopping mall. There are also new surveillance technologies, so much so that General Khaled Fouda, governor of South Sinai, recently boasted on a local cable channel that visitors entering on land would be extensively searched at a gate surrounding the city. He added that 500 white taxis that will transport attendees during the conference will be equipped with internal cameras, all connected to a local “security observatory”, to monitor the footage. There will be space for protesters to gather at Cop27, but only in a designated area near a highway and away from the convention center or any other signs of life. Images of the designated protest area show a row of white cabins among a row of palm trees and a car park. It was unclear whether protesters would be allowed to spread out in the vast open landscape or be forced to huddle next to cabins to find relief from the desert sun. “It’s very elegant, very clean. There are cafes and restaurants on site,” Fouda said, and: “No one is allowed here without registration.” He added that Egyptian authorities built the protest area in response to a series of appeals from Western diplomats who are concerned that protests will be prevented at Cop27, under a ban on public protest that has been in place for almost a decade. “This could be the most heavily policed police officer in the history of the conference,” said Hussein Baumi of Amnesty International. A hotel in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Photo: Sayed Sheasha/Reuters He scoffed at the Egyptian government’s vision of a designated protest area. “It’s theatrics,” he said. “They don’t want to allow the right to protest or the freedom of assembly, but they want to appear as if they are. Of [president] Sisi’s vision of a protest – you go to a place, register and protest for an hour where no one can see you, and then they have you on camera where the authorities can see if you say something they don’t like. It is the act of a state that does not want to allow freedom of assembly, but does not want to be called because it does not allow it.” For many observers, Egypt’s choice to hold Cop27 in a resort town away from the country’s bustling capital of 22 million is by design. Sharm el-Sheikh has long been used by Egypt’s leadership as a satellite location, a way to get away from their own citizens and ensure visitors and officials are kept away from the country’s major cities when attending state events. The purpose-built city between the sea and a backdrop of mountain ranges resembling a lunar landscape has no central square or places where people could gather in large groups, even if the law allowed it. Instead, long, flat highways connect a web of high-end luxury resorts, meant for visiting tourists or the Egyptian elite to gaze out at the Red Sea, the perfect spot for anyone watching Cop27 to scrutinize. “Sharm el Sheikh is a dream resort where the government can exclude the majority of Egyptians and invest huge resources to ensure that everything is under their surveillance and control,” Baumi said. “It states how the Egyptian presidency and leadership see their ideal society, a closed society without the masses.” Surveillance of Cop27 attendees will also extend into their virtual world, through an app created by the Egyptian government to act as a guide to the conference premises. “You can download the official Cop27 mobile app, but you must provide your full name, email address, mobile number, nationality and passport number. Also, you need to turn on location tracking,” tweeted Hossam Baghat, of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Baoumi added that technology experts working for Amnesty International have reviewed the app and raised concerns about tracking, due to its ability to access a user’s camera, microphone, location data and Bluetooth. The complex of hotels and mansions in Sharm El Sheikh have symbolized the seclusion of the elite for decades. When former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak fled popular uprisings in mainland Egypt in 2011, it was for his Sharm el-Sheikh mansion. Bakr bin Laden, former head of the family’s construction company and Osama’s half-brother, was one of Mubarak’s notable neighbors, known for conducting business from his luxury home. The convention center next to the Jolie Ville resort, with its lush gardens and a golf course built by a former Mubarak ally, also frequently hosts diplomatic events, a way for Egypt to welcome allies from Saudi Arabia or Israel to a remote location. But since taking power in a military coup in 2013, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has also been fond of using Sharm el-Sheikh as a venue for national conferences where authorities can make sweeping decisions about Egyptian citizens from afar from any audience. input or control. This, in particular, includes the state’s economic development conference in 2015, where he announced that Egypt would build a new capital in the desert outside Cairo and received $12.5 billion in donations from Egypt’s supporters in the Gulf, as well as $12 billion dollars in deals with BP. The most important stories on the planet. Get all the week’s environmental news – the good, the bad and the must-haves Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The Egyptian government’s surveillance extends to an app it has created for those in attendance. Photo: Zuma/Alamy There is a marked contrast between who is welcome in the gated community of Sharm el-Sheikh and the treatment of those elsewhere in the Sinai Peninsula, not least because Fouda oversaw the construction of a wall around the city in 2019 to “beautify and secure the Charm. el-Sheikh”. The wall consists of concrete barriers and razor wire with “four very beautiful doors” to access the city. Bedouin and local communities living in the northern part of the peninsula, meanwhile, have long suffered neglect and state violence, including massive home demolitions that Human Rights Watch has called a possible war crime. Observers say hosting Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh is a way for Egyptian authorities to control which citizens interact with conference participants and ensure that anyone allowed in is under strict surveillance. “They don’t want Egyptians interacting with the world or the world interacting with Egyptians,” Baomi said. “One of the main reasons why they host the cop is greenwashing, to hide the crimes that are happening inside the country and to prevent government delegations and officials from meeting with Egyptians.” A participant who attended a briefing with Egyptian officials at the climate change conference in Bonn this year described how they introduced Cop27. “We were billed as a wonderful all inclusive resort holiday,” they said. “They showed us pictures of luxury resorts and palm trees by the beach. It was excellent. “They implied we could snorkel and go on fancy tours, be chauffeured from place to place – you’d think we were going on a dream holiday. Cop27 was sold to us as a five-star romantic getaway when many are trying to raise concerns that civil society and delegates from the global south cannot afford the price of hotel rooms or get visas in time to ensure that we can actually engage in some meaningful discussion and action.” Using Cop27 to promote Sharm El Sheikh as a tourist destination does not bode well for vital climate negotiations, they added. “It’s very telling how these climate talks are being handled now. It’s not about what’s on the agenda or delivering results,” they said. “It’s just about bringing in money, cleaning up the green and taking pretty pictures along the way.”
