ShareKUWAIT: The Environment Public Authority launched on Monday Kuwait’s ‘Low Carbon Strategy 2050’ to confirm its commitment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Program and various concerned sectors in the country to participate in reducing its emissions and launching and implementing this strategy.
Acting Director General of the Authority Samira Al-Kandari said that Kuwait is the second country in the Gulf and the Arab region to present its strategy, as it was preceded by the sisterly State of Oman.
“This strategy will be presented at the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28), which will be held in Abu Dhabi on November 30 and continue until December 12,” she said.
Al-Kandari stressed Kuwait’s commitment to the Convention on Climate Change in all items, especially the submission of national communications, the adaptation plan, and this strategy, which aims to reach carbon neutrality in 2026, at a time when Kuwait aspires to reduce its emissions to 60 percent by concerted efforts, and if cooperation continues, it will reach 80 percent.
She pointed to Kuwait’s support for the efforts made by the United Nations to combat climate change since the Rio Conference in 1992 through its active participation in negotiations aimed at reducing the negative effects of this phenomenon.
“Kuwait was making unremitting efforts to combat that phenomenon in accordance with the principles and provisions contained in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Climate Agreement and to implement them in effective and sustainable ways as binding legal tools and the basis for international cooperation in that field,” she added.
Al-Kandari stated that combating the phenomenon of climate change is a common international responsibility despite the different burdens and disparities in capacities, justice and sustainable development in developing countries, stressing the importance of harnessing the potential in line with their national priorities and capabilities in order to reduce emissions that cause climate change.
For his part, the Regional Representative of the United Nations Environment Program and Director of the Regional Office for West Asia, Sami Dimasi, said in a speech delivered on his behalf by the Coordinator of Climate Change Programs at the program, Tariq Al-Khouri, that the Authority’s submission of this strategy reflects Kuwait’s keenness to fulfill its obligations, especially under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.
Khouri said that the world is under real threat due to climate change and the earth is currently living in an era of global turmoil, as described by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as last July witnessed a record rise in temperatures, while different regions of the world are witnessing natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods and fires.
In turn, the Director of the Air Quality Monitoring Department at the Environment Public Authority, Sherif Al-Khayyat, said in his speech that this strategy aims to enhance resilience in Kuwait in the face of the effects of climate change and provides a comprehensive roadmap that includes ways to achieve sustainable economic growth through the use of integrated technical and innovative solutions in the field of circular carbon economy.—KUNA
