Dubai: The UAE will soon recognise global and local industry players for their sustainability contributions to encourage more partners from all sectors of society to do their bit in the fight against climate change, it was announced on Sunday.
The UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Dr Thani Ahmad Al Zeyoudi, yesterday announced two initiatives during the Sustainable Communities and Climate Change Summit held in Dubai coinciding with Earth Day.
The summit is a dedicated platform for stakeholders from different sectors to present issues regarding climate change and other sustainability challenges.
Dr Al Zeyoudi said the first initiative will establish environment sustainability partnership between the UAE and the United Nations Environment Programme. The partnership aims to educate and inform policymakers, the private sector, government officials, the civil society and the public to cultivate interest and support to sustainable communities.
Dr Al Zeyoudi said the ministry will also establish the Green Carpet Award that will recognise industry players for their innovative contribution to sustainability.
“The main objective of the two initiatives is to ensure that we share our sustainability best practices with the rest of the world. The Green Carpet Award will recognise global and local players when it comes to sustainability practices and in moving forward in implementing those best practices,” Dr Al Zeyoudi told Gulf News, adding details of the award will be announced at a later date.
During the summit attended by decision makers from governments, UN bodies, and different sectors, Dr Al Zeyoudi said the UAE is firmly committed to meeting the global common objectives of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Also present at the summit was Thoriq Ebrahim, the Minister of Environment and Energy of Maldives, an island state in Asia that is at the forefront of the battle against climate change.
“We all know climate change is man-made. For us small islands, our carbon emissions is 0.003 per cent of the global emissions. So we did not do anything to actually change the climate but every day we have to struggle because of it. Resilience and adaptation is something we have to fight for every day,” Ebrahim said.
“Let’s get to work. We don’t have to wait until 2020 to start — we can do it now. Every year something very damaging is happening to small island states. Why not do it right now? Let’s start early action.”
Ebrahim lauded the UAE for the help it has extended to Maldives throughout the years, including supporting the island state in voicing out its concerns in the climate change arena and the loan it received from the UAE for its waste-to-energy project.
“The UAE has been very helpful to us over the last four years. Hopefully in a year’s time we should be able to produce energy from waste,” he said.
