Beirut forum to focus on climate change in region.

Byline: Daily Star Staff

Summary: <p>The Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) announced Monday that high level participation is expected at its coming annual conference to be held in Beirut, including environment and energy ministers from around the world, heads of agencies and top scientists.AaA main feature of the conference will be a presentation analyzing scenarios of climate change in Arab countries.

BEIRUT: The Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) announced Monday that high level participation is expected at its coming annual conference to be held in Beirut, including environment and energy ministers from around the world, heads of agencies and top scientists.AaA main feature of the conference will be a presentation analyzing scenarios of climate change in Arab countries, based on satellite images, according to an AFED statement.Aa

The conference, scheduled for November 19-20, 2009, in Beirut, will discuss a ground-breaking report, prepared by AFED, on the impact of climate change in Arab countries.Aa

"A team of over 50 researchers from all over the world, under the leadership of world environment veteran professor Mostafa Kamal Tolba, former head of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) professor Mohammad al-Ashry, and renowned expert on coastal zones professor Mohammad al-Raey, has been working on the report over the last year," the AFED report said.Aa

The report is expected to reveal new findings, mainly those derived from analysis of space images especially developed for AFED by the Center of Remote Sensing of Boston University (CRS-BU), to depict potential impact of climate change on the Arab countries. Director of the Center, renowned scientist professor Farouk al-Baz, will also be giving a presentation entitled: "When the Desert was Green."Aa

"At the international level, the Danish Climate and Energy Ministry will be highly represented and will submit an update on the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference hosted in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009," the AFED statement said.Aa

"The conference is the major gathering of international governments to reconcile international protocol on climate change," it added.Aa

According to AFED, a special plenary session will be dedicated to discuss how shifting to green economy can help fight climate change, during which corporate leaders who participated in seven regional workshops on the subject of Green Arab Economy, organized by AFED and the United Nations Environment Program, "will present experiences and recommendations to rehabilitate the Arab economy along a green path and kick off the Arab Green Economy Initiative."Aa

AFED's secretary general, Najib Saab, said: "AFED will be presenting its Green initiative and contents of its report on climate change to the Arab ministers of environment at their meeting in Cairo next month, October 2009."Aa

Saab hoped the report and conference would help develop a strong and united Arab position at the forthcoming international climate negotiations.Aa

In addition to the official sponsor of the conference, Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi, the OPEC Fund for International Development and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development have also joined as main supporters of the event. Other corporate sponsors include Petrofac, AMSI for educational solutions, Kharafi National, AES International, AVERDA International, Qatar Petroleum, Aramex, General Electric, Crescent Petroleum and Weber Shandwick.Aa

Participation in the conference is by registration through AFED only. Special forms are available at the AFED website: http:// www.afedonline.org /. -- The Daily Star

Aa

Copyright 2009, The Daily Star. All rights reserved.

Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company