Deputizing for His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal

 

HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan Participates in a Panel Discussion on Climate Change Organized by TAG-Org and the French Embassy  

 

AMMAN ------ September 17,  2015 ------ Deputizing for  His Royal Highness Prince Hassan Bin Talal, Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan, President of the Royal Scientific Society sponsored a panel discussion on the climate change organized by Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org) and the French Embassy in Jordan represented by the French Ambassador to Jordan HE Ms. Caroline Dumas at Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Knowledge Forum.

 

The Princess stated “It is the time to commit to the agenda of economic growth and sustainable development. Since many organizations and individuals around the world seek to adopt projects and models of their experiences in tackling climate change, we must welcome any effort in this field, invite investments and set out a specific agenda for all the stages.” 

 

“Jordan is one of the water-poorest countries in the world. Population of the country increases as a result of hosting many refugees who were disregarded by the world,” she added, pointing out that the continuation of the status quo will aggravate the problems. “So we need to cooperate with the neighborhood countries to solve this problem in the short term and take procedures for protection in the long term,” she continued. 

 

Her Royal Highness also drew the attention toward how difficult it is to speak about sustainability without mentioning the helpless refugees of women, children and elderly especially who flee from the climate change and whose number is expected to increase in the next few years. She also pointed out that number of refugees in 2050 is expected to reach 200 million in the world as a result of climate change. 

 

Her Royal Highness also said: “Climate change effect requires assuming joint responsibility and employing talent, creativity, technology and creative policies to create a brilliant future.” 

 

Meanwhile, French Ambassador to Jordan Ms. Dumas thanked His Royal Highness Prince El-Hassan for the sponsorship and Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya Al-Hassan for deputizing. She also thanked His Excellency Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh for hosting the panel discussion. 

 

She stressed that Jordan is among the first countries in the application of treaties related to climate change, pointing out to its active partnership in Paris Climate Change Conference that will be held at the end of this year. 

 

The Ambassador stated “The French government supported Jordan with more than one billion dollars in all the fields of eco-friendly projects and sustainable development”, pointing out to France’s commitment to this support. 

 

His Excellency Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh thanked His Royal Highness Prince Al-Hassan bin Talal for the sponsorship of the conference and as the godfather of the climate issues and Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya Al-Hassan for her presence; praising the tireless efforts in promoting innovation. 

 

He also thanked Her Excellency Ambassador Dumas and Mr. Stephane Gompertz, the French Special Envoy for Africa and Middle East on climate change. In addition, he stated that development and employing IT in climate change was the main concern to which all the work and efforts have been dedicated for many years. Those efforts were used to be met with resistance of the political will for change. However, perseverance and determination will continue until the point of sustainable development in this field is successfully reached.  

 

He added: “The partnership between TAG-Org and the United Nations represented by the UN-Habitat in the field of civil sustainable urbanization aims to provide a forum for collaborative activities that may add value to the existing initiatives, help enable countries and cities to use digital technologies in policy making, plan for sustainable urbanization, establish platforms to share knowledge, carry out collaborative training in digital technologies used for cities development and submit recommendations and ideas on achieving the aim of expanding the sustainable urbanization including “making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, flexible and sustainable”.

 

French Special Envoy to Africa and Middle East Mr. Gompertz stated “There are three main facts, namely: we have to save the world, this can be achieved and we are in need for every citizen in the world to achieve it.”

 

He also added “Previously, scientists had been talking about climate change. A year after year, we started to notice those assumptions they were talking about. Therefore, there must be binding, global and comprehensive agreements approved by all those concerned and the countries which recognize the need for such."

 

 

 

Representative of the Minister of Environment, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Environment Mr. Ahmad Al-Qatarna stated: “The environment of Jordan has faced many problems because of refugees. It also faces a major challenge in water shortage and supply of energy resources”. He also reviewed a number of the Ministry’s achievements in facing climate change and emission reduction.

 

Minister of Transportation HE Lina Al- Shbeeb reviewed the percent of the emission pointing out that the highest percent is for the transportation sector. She also reviewed the future plan of the Ministry for establishing a train network, the rapid bus network in addition to developing mechanisms of transport networks in order to reduce the use of private cars and increase the percent of the public transportation’s use which does not exceed 13% nowadays.  

 

On the other hand, a Representative of Amman Mayor Eng. Fawzi Mos’ad stated “cities are steadily increasing. Percent of cities population is expected to reach two-thirds of the population in 2015.” From WANA Organization, Ms. Laila Reqoyak reviewed some results of studies and researches conducted in Jordan, West Asia and North Africa.