In Cairo I attended the 30th session of the Council for Arab Ministers Responsible for the Environment, an important gathering of leaders from the region dedicated to environmental cooperation. At the opening of the high-level segment, I called on the Arab countries to ratify the Kigali amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
This important agreement aiming to phase out dangerous greenhouse gas emissions has not been ratified by any country in the region. I made the argument that by ratifying the Amendment, the region can send a strong signal to industries around the world to dedicate funds for research and development on new technologies that are well suited to the region. As temperatures rise, the demand for cooling will rise exponentially, in turn impacting climate change adversely. The Arab region has the opportunity to break this vicious cycle. I also called on the Environment Ministers present, to ensure high level participation at the forthcoming UN Environment Assembly.
I held a series of bilateral discussions with the Environment Ministers of Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan and Lebanon on critical environmental challenges facing the region including waste management, air pollution, biodiversity, climate change and drought. I was delighted to meet Egypt’s newly-appointed Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad. As host of the next Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, the country has a critical role to play in conservation of biodiversity.
