Abu Dhabi: The UAE will press ahead with its plans to conserve the environment and sustain its natural resources for Emirati generations to come.
In a speech marking the 21st National Environment Day to be observed on Sunday, President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan said: “The UAE will celebrate its National Environment Day as an important occasion to renew our national and ethical commitment to preserving our national resources.
“This is to be achieved by building on the previous milestones and doubling our efforts to realise sustainable development goals as per the UAE Vision 2021.”
Themed “Sustainable Production and Consumption”, the 2018 programme will focus on sound environmental practices and rationalisation of the consumption of natural resources to ensure their sustainability. “We emphasise our determination to make more efforts to ensure a clean and safe environment that contributes to ensuring the well-being and happiness of our generations to come,” Shaikh Khalifa said.
Celebrations of this year’s National Environment Day coincides with the Year of Zayed, which is observed throughout 2018 to pay tribute to the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the nation, who was keen to establish a culture of environmental protection and preservation of national resources in younger generations.
Shaikh Khalifa renewed the call to government organisations to spare no efforts to develop legislative and institutional frameworks as well as implementing programmes that help achieve the national goals and raise the awareness of community members, particularly school and university students, about their national environmental and humanitarian responsibilities and duties.
The president also called on the private sector to play its role in shouldering its community and environmental responsibilities by adopting rational behaviour towards the environment and rationalising consumption to ensure the sustainability of natural resources.
“We still have a long way ahead, requiring us to work very hard and lead significant changes in community consumer practices and we hope our entire community would reach a firmly established conviction that responsible and rational consumption does not contradict economic and social welfare.
“Over the past years, the UAE made considerable efforts to preserve natural resources and issued laws that ensure the safety and sustainability of these resources. We embraced ambitious national strategies to transform our national economy into a green one, paying more attention to environment and preserving its resources,” Shaikh Khalifa added.
Adopting a sustainable lifestyle and refraining from excessive consumption of resources are very important to maintain the rights of younger generations to benefit from their country’s natural resources.
“The UAE will harness the latest technologies in implementing the best practices to lead an innovative approach to ensure a better future for our country,” Shaikh concluded.
