Manama: Bahrain is prepared and willing to host a regional centre for the Green Climate Fund to serve the Middle East, Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa said.
The Bahraini offer is part of the country’s commitment to support a potential new agreement on tackling climate change, Prince Salman said as he took part in the COP 21 climate change conference in Paris.
He noted that Bahrain had previously announced its readiness to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and its reliance on fossil fuels, and that its continued efforts have meant that since 2000, the share of fossil fuels in Bahrain’s real GDP has more than halved after it was reduced from 44 per cent to 20 per cent.
Prince Salman, who is also the First Deputy Prime Minister, said Bahrain is set to expand programmes to encourage pioneering research and the development of new approaches to the utilisation of clean energy in water desalination.
He added that Bahrain would pursue projects that include industrial heat capture and the harnessing of solar energy, Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported.
The Crown Prince said that the Paris climate summit represented a historic opportunity for world leaders to address the dangers of climate change, and that Bahrain supported efforts to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.
Prince Salman also emphasised that climate change must be addressed in a manner that balances the shift to cleaner technologies with the need to protect and raise living standards.
