UNDP Regional Goodwill Ambassador for the Arab states, Lebanese endurance athlete Michael Haddad, is preparing to undertake his most arduous challenge for the climate yet in 2025 — 100 kilometres walk across the Arctic expanse of Svalbard, Norway.
The Arctic Walk for Action on the Klima Emergency —or AWAKE Walk— aims to urge scaled-up action to address the accelerating climate emergency. As part of his preparations and raising awareness to the matter of climate, and in particular how climate change affects people with disabilities, he concluded an advocacy walk last Thursday in Brussels.
– Climate change is affecting all of us, but it is not affecting us equally, Michael Haddad stated in an interview with UNRIC. I want to raise my voice for the people with disabilities, the 16 percent, the 1,4 billion people around the world.
Floods and heatwaves
Michael Haddad gives several examples to emphasize the reality for people with disabilities and how their lives are affected by climate change. As a regional ambassador he is familiar with some of the continuous climate disasters that has an impact on the everyday lives of people with disabilities in the Arab states.
– If there is a flood people with disabilities are left behind, they are the first to be affected. For instance Lebanon has a high number of people who have suffered from the consequences of flooded areas. In the Arab countries we also see extreme heat waves and to add to that there is no complete legislation for the disabled people affected.
Michael Haddad uses a specially designed exoskeleton and crutches to perform his walk employing his unique “step-to-gait” mechanism for walking. Since 2013, he has been employing his walking ability to shed light on critical environmental challenges in his home country, Lebanon, across the Arab region and globally.
Previous visits to Norway
– In a nutshell: I make things possible by taking them to the extreme. Either you give up or surrender to reality. I started to connect with people with disabilities. When we think inclusive we create a circle related to humanity, Haddad says.
He has visited Norway and the arctic region on previous occasions. In June 2022 he walked a stretch of nearly 5 kilometres from the Svalbard Museum to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Longyearbyen. His successful mission was to deliver seeds from 12 Arab countries and Pope Francis’ book to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.
See the glaciers melting
– In the Nordic countries and specifically Svalbard, climate change has a huge impact on the human agenda. There is a deep philosophical level of power in a place where you can actually see the glaciers melting. That is where I wanted to go on initiative with Pope Francis who was a strong advocate for climate.
In the company of officials from the United Nations, the European Commission and international organizations, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Goodwill Ambassador Michael Haddad completed an advocacy walk last Thursday in Brussels.
– I am happy to support UNDP’s focus on leaving no one behind in its endeavour to expand collaboration on the issue of food security, which is more important than every today, across our region, Michael Haddad stated during the event.
The walk started from UN House, through the Brussels Royal Park, and ended with a courtesy meeting with Her Majesty Queen Mathilde, Queen of the Belgians, who is a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocate.