The Minister of Climate Change and the Environment highlighted the UAE’s Circular Economy Policy 2021-2031, aimed at promoting sustainable management and optimal use of natural resources…reports Asian Lite News
Dr. Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak Al Shamsi, Minister of Climate Change and the Environment, emphasised Earth Day’s importance as a key platform for raising awareness about reducing plastic use across society and economic sectors, reinforcing the UAE’s transition to a circular economy.
Al Dahak said, “This year’s Earth Day theme, ‘Planet vs. Plastic,’ raises awareness about the growing problem of plastic pollution in oceans, rivers, and the environment, posing a direct threat to human life and ecosystems. Over the past two decades, global plastic waste production has doubled. The UAE has been proactive in addressing this issue, enacting laws to restrict single-use plastic products and implementing policies to significantly reduce plastic pollution.”
The Minister of Climate Change and the Environment highlighted the UAE’s Circular Economy Policy 2021-2031, aimed at promoting sustainable management and optimal use of natural resources. By adopting innovative consumption and production methods, the UAE aims to protect the well-being of both present and future generations.
She emphasised that the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment collaborates with various federal and government entities via the UAE’s Circular Economy Council to amplify the private sector’s involvement in advancing the circular economy. The Council also aims to strengthen the ‘Scale 360’ initiative, in which the UAE is the first signatory globally. Additionally, she outlined the reduction of plastic imports, production, and usage as key objectives for the Council and the Ministry in the coming years.
Al Dahak concluded, “Raising public awareness about responsible plastic use is fundamental to mitigating plastic pollution. It’s part of our holistic approach to enhancing environmental consciousness and promoting eco-friendly practices throughout society. This effort is crucial in supporting the Ministry and related entities to achieve climate and environmental sustainability goals and to pave the way for a resilient future for the UAE.”
Umm Al Emarat Park to organize ‘recycling workshop’
In line with Earth Day, Umm Al Emarat Park reaffirms its commitment to sustainability. Serving as a haven of greenery and diverse activities, the Park stands as a symbol of environmental stewardship…reports Asian Lite News
Umm Al Emarat Park joins forces with Vine Communities, organizing a recycling workshop as part of the celebration of Earth Day (22nd April).
Taking place at the Park’s Little Farm area on Sunday, 21st April, the workshop aims at instilling a profound understanding of environmental conservation.
Open to children aged 7 and above, this workshop offers an immersive and educational experience focused on the importance of recycling and sustainability. Participants can anticipate an interactive session filled with engaging activities and insightful discussions.
From transforming ordinary materials like plastics, cans, bottles and paper into innovative creations to crafting personalised wallets using recycled resources, young attendees will not only cultivate their creativity but also deepen their commitment to environmental stewardship.
In line with Earth Day, Umm Al Emarat Park reaffirms its commitment to sustainability. Serving as a haven of greenery and diverse activities, the Park stands as a symbol of environmental stewardship. Through eco-friendly initiatives and educational programmes, it encourages the community to adopt greener lifestyles.
InSinkErator joins Tawazon on World Earth Day to achieve sustainability
InSinkErator is a business unit of Emerson and a manufacturer of food waste disposal solutions and Tawazon Platform is an incubator dedicated to promoting balance in all aspects of life…reports Asian Lite News
InSinkErator, a business unit of Emerson and a manufacturer of food waste disposal solutions and Tawazon Platform, an incubator dedicated to promoting balance in all aspects of life, have formed a partnership to create a more balanced and sustainable world.
Mohamed Karam, Senior Business Development Manager Middle East and Africa at InSinkErator: “A unilateral approach hinders progress and obstructs development when it comes to achieving greater balance and sustainability. We are delighted to cooperate with Tawazon platform, which since its launch has gained significant attention. We are confident that this agreement will support our shared sustainability goals.”
Hanane Benkhallouk Co- founder of Tawazon: “We are delighted to collaborate with InSinkErator, one of the largest companies to provide environmental solutions for disposing of food waste without the need for landfills, which is a major source of gas emissions and global warming. We are closely aligned with Emerson’s goal and Purpose to drive innovation and provide solutions that contribute to healthier, safer, smarter, and more sustainable world. We look forward, through this partnership, to strengthen our contribution to create a more balanced planet. We call on everyone in society to collaborate and adopt responsible environmental practices to preserve and save the planet.”
Tawazon platform, which was launched in December 2021, at Expo 2020, is an incubator dedicated to promoting balance in all aspects of life by creating safe spaces where individuals explore and exchange ideas and initiatives that contribute to creating a more balanced world for everyone.
Waqas Nakhwa, Founder and CEO of AqarChain states, “We are integrating our core business model principles at Aqarchain with real world and digital forests…reports Asian Lite News
Earth Day started in 1970, and after 51 years Earth Day is getting a salute from the Metaverse with AqarLand and India’s “Forest Man”.
AqarLand, a Virtual Land Metaverse with an NFT Marketplace, part of AqarChain the pioneer in Fractionalizing NFT of real world real estate assets, is working to bridge the physical environment with the metaverse in an effort to help reforestation and restoration of lands by planting trees in a Digital Forest.
For Earth Day, AqarLand is partnering with Jadav Payeng, better known as the forest man of India, who spent his entire life single handedly erecting a forest, the Molai Forest in India. The Forest now houses Bengal tigers, Indian rhinoceros and over 100 dear and rabbits, monkeys and a variety of birds as well as several thousand trees including Bamboo trees which cover over 300 Hectares.
By bridging AqarLand Metaverse with Jadav’s efforts in Molai Forest, Aqarchain hopes to use its commitment to technology and the environment to help make the world a better place to live, whether one visits it virtually or physically.
Waqas Nakhwa, Founder and CEO of AqarChain states, “We are integrating our core business model principles at Aqarchain with real world and digital forests. While in Aqarchain whenever you buy a real life property using fractional NFTs, you get a virtual property in AqarLand, whenever you plant a tree in the Digital Forest in AqarLand a real tree gets planted in the Molai forest.”
He adds, “In addition to being able to participate actively for environmental sustainability, buyers also can make returns on their investments. We have added DeFi staking rewards, where NFT buyers can monetize their support. So for example if a Bamboo tree is planted in the AqarLand Metaverse, the revenues from real Bamboo tree which will eventually be sold after it has reproduced hundreds of Bamboo trees, will be shared with NFT holder.”
NFT holders will be able to stake the NFT token for returns in AQR token on the AqarChain staking platform. AqarChain has jumped started the project by purchasing 100 digital trees in the Digital Forest, from the total supply and donating the proceeds to Sacred Jambudweep Foundation.
Jadav Payend explains, “ After all the achievements I have accomplished, I am looking to engage the youth of today further, and the best way to do that is by moving into the digital realm. So I will plant a digital forest in the metaverse on AqarLand and map it to a real forest that I will plant, thus connecting the two worlds using technology.”
What Digital Forest brings to the global ecosystem is more trees in the environment that are mapped to the Digital world via NFT and data stored in the blockchain from sapling to a full grown tree. The trees that will be planted will be Bamboo trees in the same area where the forest man has been planting trees for the past almost 40 years now.
Today AqarLand and The Forest man are collaborating, but in the future this can be expanded to other farming projects around the globe. The possibilities are endless when the world can combine the virtual and physical.
Protests held in capitals across Europe and calls for end to Russian oil and gas imports
Climate change activists around the world staged a wave of protests for Earth Day, pushing demands such as an immediate halt to European imports of Russian oil and gas and an end to building fossil fuel infrastructure.
In Europe, activists in Berlin, Warsaw, Brussels and elsewhere held rallies outside German government and embassy buildings, where they handed out red-stained notes of Russia’s rouble currency to symbolise blood, saying Russian money was fuelling both climate change and the bloody invasion of Ukraine.
Germany is among several European Union countries that are opposed to a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas for fear of damage to their national economies.
About a dozen activists in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv – where Russian missiles killed seven people this week – also planned to take part in the Earth Day protest.
“When Germany continues buying gas and oil from Russia, it means that they are paying their money to construct new military machines, new bombs, which are killing Ukrainians,” Natalia Gozak, head of the EcoAction civil society group, said from Lviv.
Gozak said European politicians need to choose between the economic “inconveniences” of an embargo and the deaths of Ukrainian people.
In the United States, activists from the Extinction Rebellion group blockaded a New York newspaper printing facility and called for more media coverage of climate change issues.
Youth protesters also gathered in locations including the Thai capital, Bangkok, and Stockholm, where Swedish activist Greta Thunberg joined the school strike – a weekly protest she began as a solitary student in 2018 to highlight the need for urgent action to address climate change.
The Earth Day rallies come just weeks after a UN climate scientist report warned there is little time left to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to prevent the worst impacts of a changing climate.
Earlier this week, a survey by Ipsos found that two-thirds of approximately 20,000 people queried in 31 countries said they were worried about a climate-altered future.
Europe under pressure
The EU receives 40 percent of its gas supply from Russia and since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, the EU has spent more than 38 billion euros ($41.2bn) on Russian fossil fuel imports.
The bloc’s 27 countries have agreed to ban Russian coal imports from August, as part of sweeping sanctions also targeting Russian banks and business tycoons.
Countries including Italy and Germany have said they can wean themselves off Russian gas within a few years, and some European companies are already shunning Russian oil voluntarily to avoid reputational damage or possible legal troubles.
Pic credits @vonderleyen
But the EU states are split over whether to impose an immediate and full embargo on Russian fuels, which Germany and Hungary say would hurt their economies.
The European Commission is assessing the costs of replacing Russian oil with imports from elsewhere, in an effort to persuade reluctant EU nations to accept an embargo, an EU source told Reuters this week.
Rather than organise massive street protests that drew hundreds of thousands in past years and helped draw international attention to climate change, Warsaw-based climate activist Dominika Lasota, 20, said the youth movement Fridays for Future would be changing its approach to protest by holding smaller actions targeting specific governments that are opposed to fossil fuel sanctions.
The group wants to highlight the role that fossil fuels are playing in funding the Ukraine conflict, she said.
“It’s wartime. We have to brace for a longer marathon,” Lasota said.
“The war will not stop with the last bomb that will fall … it will end once we end the [fossil fuel] industry and the system behind it.”
Ukrainian NGOs also planned to send a letter on Friday to Germany’s parliament demanding the country stop buying Russian oil and gas.
“Germany is one of its main consumers and thus is the main sponsor of war in Ukraine,” said the letter, seen by Reuters.
“You only need some political will and humaneness to impose a full embargo on Russian oil and gas.”
Biden sets tone
United States President Joe Biden on Thursday reclaimed global leadership on the climate crisis, kicking off the two-day virtual Earth Day Summit with a pledge to halve US emissions by the end of the decade.
“Time is short, but I believe we can do this,” Biden said in his opening remarks. “We will do this.”
On this Earth Day, I signed an Executive Order to strengthen our forests on federal lands and make them more resilient in the face of threats like wildfires. pic.twitter.com/fnbZF2VOou
The new US commitment, announced by the White House promises to slash the nation’s carbon emissions by at least 50 percent by 2030 based on 2005 levels.
The aggressive goal set the tone for a summit that gathers leaders from some 40 nations as the coronavirus pandemic rages on several continents along with economic uncertainty.
The purpose of the Earth Day gathering, US officials say, is to highlight the urgency of climate action and underscore the economic benefits to be reaped from investing in renewable energy as well as minimising the catastrophic impacts of global warming.
In addition to the US, officials from a handful of other major emitters are expected to announce new pledges on the road to COP26, the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland, scheduled for November.
Following opening remarks by Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres started his address to the gathering by thanking the US for helping the world focus on the “existential threat” of climate change.
“Mother Nature is not waiting,” said Guterres, according to a prepared statement released in advance of his live remarks. “The past decade was the hottest on record. Dangerous greenhouse gases are at levels not seen in three million years.”
MDX joins Light It Forward UAE to illuminate Dubai skyline on World Earth Day
On 22 April 2022 to mark World Earth Day, Middlesex University Dubai (MDX) is launching a landmark partnership with Light It Forward UAE by illuminating Dubai’s skyline with a call-to-action urging world leaders to ‘Invest In Our Planet’…reports Asian Lite News
Created using 500 solar-powered lamps, the solar artwork will be unveiled this evening at sunset at the University’s flagship campus in Dubai Knowledge Park to celebrate the beginning of an ongoing collaboration through this award-winning initiative. Many lamps have been hand built by MDX students and faculty who came together as a community in support of the campaign.
With the UAE hosting the UN Climate Change Conference (or COP28) in 2023, the solar message has been designed to build on Expo 2020’s commitment to act to protect the planet. In addition, the artwork will serve as a reminder to world leaders, who will be in attendance at COP28 next year, about their responsibility to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals and take urgent climate action.
Today’s event is the second campaign the British higher education institution has partnered with the Light It Forward UAE to organise in recent weeks, following a highly-successful activation in the Opportunity District at Expo 2020 in March. Led by MDX’s research centre the Institute of Sustainable Development (ISD), a group of students spelt out an inspiring message of ‘This Is Our Time’, encouraging Expo visitors to consider the immediate impact of climate change on their lives and the environment. Further activations and initiatives focused on building awareness of sustainability across the UAE are set to take place in the near future.
Light It Forward is the initiative of Liter of Light, an innovative, global grassroots movement founded by social entrepreneur Illac Diaz that is taking sustainable building solutions to the people who are most in need of low-cost infrastructure.
Spearheaded by the Light It Forward campaign that begun in the Philippines, Liter of Light is committed to providing affordable, sustainable solar light to people with limited or no access to electricity. This flagship initiative has already made a significant impact globally, holding the record for the Largest Climate Action in Asia in 2020, when more than 4,000 participants built solar lamps safely from their homes during the pandemic. It also holds the Guinness World Record for the Largest Sustainable Lesson in the World in 2018.
Illac Diaz, Founder of Liter of Light: “The climate change conference in the UAE will be one of the most important opportunities to make a better future for people and planet, especially inspiring youth to be part of this historical moment as we head for COP28. We began this journey with the Middlesex community to make a hand-built solar billboard with this year’s Earth Day theme, Invest in the Planet.”
Alison Burrows, Campus Programme Coordinator Education and Early Childhood Studies at Middlesex University Dubai: “As the UAE counts down to hosting COP28, we are proud to have partnered with Illac Diaz and the Light It Forward campaign to promote awareness of the local education community’s vital role in combatting climate change and promoting sustainable development. This activation on World Earth Day is part of our ongoing collaboration and symbolises the hope our student community has for their future, which we are committed to safeguarding with the UN Sustainable Development Goals as our guiding principles. Middlesex University Dubai would like to thank Dubai Knowledge Park for supporting this initiative and allowing us to share the important message of ‘Invest in our Planet’ with the world.”
This ongoing collaboration between Dubai’s largest UK university and Light It Forward UAE builds on an existing series of sustainability awareness campaigns and initiatives the British institution has pioneered across the UAE’s thriving international education landscape.
Led by ISD, the University engages with students, educators, companies and governmental organisations in the UAE and across the globe to foster the advancement of sustainability in education, the local community and in professional best practice through outreach, training and research.
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MDX became the first university in Dubai and the second in the UAE to join the UN Global Compact, a global pact encouraging businesses to adapt sustainable and socially responsible principles and report on their implementation. MDX also joined the UN Global Compact’s Target Gender Equality accelerator programme, which builds on the University’s role as a signatory of the UN’s Women Empowerment Principles.
The University also focuses on sustainable development through its extensive programme portfolio, offering a specialist MA Global Governance and Sustainable Development. Sustainability is also a core focus of MDX’s BA Honours Fashion Design, with three groups of Fashion students having reached the Fashion Revolution UAE Student Catwalk & Awards Ceremony, which is taking place this Sunday to promote an equitable and just fashion industry.
Recent ISD industry collaborations include an event with Water Alliance UAE, which saw Andrew Mackenzie, Head of ISD, and MDX alumni ambassadors deliver a workshop about the RE-New Student Water Innovation Challenge to UAE school students. ISD also collaborated with logistics giant DHL to deliver a sustainability training and development series for managers across 11 MENA countries.
