Secretary-General of the League of Arab States Ahmed Aboul Gheit participated on Sunday in the inauguration of the Environment & Development Forum: The Road to Sharm El-Sheikh Climate Change COP27, organized in Cairo by the Arab Water Council in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment in the Arab Republic of Egypt.
Aboul Gheit delivered a speech and pointed out at the outset the importance of the forum in enriching the Arab debate on the issues of water, climate change, energy and food as the main issues to be addressed by the 27th UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), which Egypt will host in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, Spokesman for the Secretary-General Jamal Rushdie said.
The secretary-general called on participants to take advantage of this unique opportunity to highlight the priorities of the Arab region, as it is an important global source of energy, but also as a region that suffers from severe water poverty, which impacts its ability to secure food.
The spokesman said that the secretary-general referred in his speech to the interdependence and overlapping nature of current problems affecting energy, water and food. This calls for a more comprehensive view on how to address them, beyond isolated solutions for each sector, that can build national and Arab capacities to effectively manage this interdependence.
Rushdie said that Aboul Gheit indicated that recent dangerous developments have led to an alarming decline in Arab food security, which has necessitated urgent re-consideration of this issue by Arab foreign ministers.
"The Arab League had recently submitted an integrative strategic study on ways to enhance food security as an integral part of Arab national security, in preparation for submitting it to the next Arab summit in Algeria for consideration," Aboul Gheit added.
The spokesman added that Aboul Gheit concluded his speech by saying that the issue of Arab food security is a priority for joint Arab action for the coming period.
