As youth are the highest category affected by the consequences of current environmental problems. The advisors for special projects unit organized the Second Arab Environmental Youth Convention during the period of 25-28 October 2009 to discuss different environmental problem in the Arab countries . This conference is a continuation of the Arab Environmental Youth Convention serious starting in 2007 and it is held every even year.
These serious of conferences come after following the Arabic e-learning course of “Preventative Environmental Management” via Internet (www.yesbu.org). This course aim to identifying and studying Arab environmental problems. Youth with their teachers, from different Arab countries were invited to participate in this e-learning course and in the convention held in October 2009.
Youth, 13-20 years old, from Egypt, Emirates , Saudi Arabia and Tunisia were invited to discuss their projects and their views to solve environmental issues. It was a good chance to strengthen the participation of youth in environmental protection and in exchanging their views and projects.
The proposed projects tried to solve environmental problems for the following themes:
- Water
- Wastes
- Energy
- Sustainable development
- Food and agriculture
- Climate changes
- Desertification
International speakers were invited as keynote speakers in this conference. Prof. Mostafa Tolba, Former Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) had a speech about “Climate Change in Egypt“. He has focused his speech about different causes of climate changes and measures that should be taken for adaptation.
Also, Dr. Ibrahim Yassin , Ministry of Electricity and Energy , discussed how climate change can affect the energy in Egypt.
Forty projects were presented in this conference that were judged by a special committee of experts. Prizes for the first three places were presented in order to encourage youth to participate in solving the Arabic environmental problems that will affect their generation.