A 47-nation survey finds global public opinion increasingly wary of the world's dominant nations and disapproving of their leaders. Anti-Americanism is extensive, but also the growing global concern of environmental threats. The Pew survey finds a general increase in the percentage of people citing pollution and environmental problems as a top global threat. Worries have risen sharply in Latin America... [read more]

Source: Reuters   The date palms that have provided nourishment to desert caravans across the centuries could soon be fuelling cars. Omani entrepreneur Mohammed bin Saif al-Harthy and his associates at the Oman Green Energy Company have come up with a way to transform extracts from the region's ubiquitous date palm into biofuel. He knows it works, because he has been using the fuel to run... [read more]

Source: Oxford Business Group   A Jordan-Russian joint venture in the field of renewable energy was registered in the Mafraq Special Economic Zone this week, with the aim of reducing the percentage of traditional energy consumption in the kingdom. The new joint company specialises in designing and selling solar panels and auxiliary equipment across the Middle East and North Africa, with the... [read more]

(MENAFN - Arab News) Dr. Mohamed A. Ramady   It became obvious that tackling global climate change was one of the key issues of the recent G-8 summit in Germany with talk of emission targets and new global treaties, although the final agreement fell short of expectations. The issue of environmental control is no longer a subject that affects far away people and countries as the recent devastating... [read more]

Source: AME Info   Half of the world's top 250 companies today have active Corporate Social Responsibility programmes that focus on the social impact of their business. Mammoth multinationals such as Nike and Coke, to regional leaders such as Al Safi Danone and Oryx (Al Maha Enterprises), are all recognising the importance of CSR. 'The beginnings of CSR in Europe and North America, were... [read more]

Source: Arabian Business 23 June 2007   By: Angela Giuffrida   Contractors in Abu Dhabi will face fines for using hazardous building materials in government projects under a new contract introduced by the Abu Dhabi government. This is the first time the emirate has included a clause governing building products in its construction contracts and will form part of the new Abu Dhabi Law... [read more]

Source: Jordan Business June 2007   By: Nina Robertson   When Khaled Bushnaq decided 16 years ago to set up a firm that would provide technical consultancy in the field of energy conservation, most people were more than a bit skeptical. Energy conservation was almost entirely unheard of in the Middle East, and businesses were certainly not factoring energy-saving measures into their... [read more]

This is a mouth watering article published in June issue of the Jordanian magazine "Jordan Business" describing new ecological architecture innovations in the United Arab Emirates By: Naseem Tarawnah Without a doubt, one of the most dominant issues that plagues the world today is that of energy, or rather the lack thereof. The search for alternative sources of energy has been ongoing in various circles... [read more]

Source: Khaleej Times BY RAVINDRA NATH June 22, 2007   Work on the Arab region's first 'bio-refinery', that will produce ethanol mainly from date palms for use in motor vehicles as a substitute for petrol and diesel, is due to start in Oman's Batinah region town of Sohar soon. The 11 million riyal plant, to be imported from Brazil, will immediately create 4,000 jobs for nationals,... [read more]

Press Release from UNEP:   Climate change worries coupled with high oil prices and increasing government support top a set of drivers fueling soaring rates of investment in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries, according to a trend analysis from the UN Environment Programme.   The report says investment capital flowing into renewable energy climbed from $80 billion in 2005... [read more]

Probably the first of its kind in the Arab World.   Source: Yemen Observer June 19, 2007 Written By: Jennifer F. Steil Three years ago, Jamil Hindi, the owner of Al Mankal restaurant on Amman Street in Sana’a, suffered from a plethora of troubling health problems.  “I was very fat, very lazy,” he said. As a result, he suffered from high blood pressure, high blood sugar, and a host... [read more]

Source: Reuters June 18 2007 By Bonny Apunyu   Algerian environmentalists on Sunday urged the Algerian government to protect a major Mediterranean wetland threatened by the construction of a $11-billion (around R78.1-billion) highway seen by the authorities as key to boosting Maghreb trade. news sources said the environmentalists warned in a petition to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika... [read more]

Source: Arabian Business By Conrad Egbert 16 June 2007   With global warming showing no signs of abating, this month's Cyclone Gonu in Oman has reinforced the need for waterfront and offshore construction projects to account for severe weather conditions and the possibility of drastic environmental changes in the near future. One such example is The Wave, Muscat, a mixed-use development... [read more]

Source: Gulf Daily News By: Rebecca Torr   BAHRAIN is taking strong measures to combat desertification following its loss of agricultural land to development projects, it emerged yesterday. "We have been losing agricultural land for the last 30 years due to development," Municipalities and Agriculture Ministry Under-Secretary for Agriculture Kadhem Hashim Al Hashimi told the GDN. "We... [read more]

Source: Environment & Development Magazine   By: Nadine Haddad El-Hajj & Lea Kai Have you ever heard of A Town where the public phone booth was installed before people received water to their houses? No, it is not a scene from one of those back-to-past movies, where the hero goes back to the Middle Ages with a piece of technology from the 21st century; it is the true story of the suffering... [read more]

A great article provided to Arab Environment Monitor by Mr Wael Hmaidan. I thank him for a very sharp insight.   By Wael Hmaidan IndyAct Executive Director   More than 200 environmental and social activists from around the World met in London on the 12th and 13th of May to discuss a global campaign on climate change. The discussion was not about the importance of the issue or the need... [read more]

Nomination is opened for the 3rd Award 2006-2008 of the Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water: This international scientific prize is a significant contribution from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the global water issues which represent one of the most pressing human, economic and political concerns worldwide.  The Prize is intended to support water scientific research worldwide... [read more]

The LIFE-Environment project “A cost-effective decision support system for management of boreal river basins” (LIFE98 ENV/FIN/573) was developed to maintain or improve the clean status of Finnish rivers and to promote ecologically sustainable land-use, develop assessments of river status, and improve environmental awareness of the ecological impacts of land-derived loading on river ecosystems. Known... [read more]

The involvement of Parliamentarians in environmental policies is considered, in theory a major contributor to better lefgislation and policies aiming at environmental sustainability. However this involvement has not been subjected to an impact analysis yet.   Recently, The 6th Meeting of the Circle of Mediterranean Parliamentarians for Sustainable Development (COMPSUD) took place on 3-4 May... [read more]

Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has recently launched its Digital Library,(http://idl-bnc.idrc.ca/dspace) which is the first Open Access Institutional Repository established by a Canadian research-funding organization. The IDRC Digital Library provides full access over the Internet to IDRC’s rich research archive. In addition to making information more freely available, this... [read more]

It is very unfortunate that the Arab World is still lagging behind all regions in CDM projects. In a quick survey of UNEP Risoe website that contains database of pipeline CDM projects is is shocking to see that only few Arab countries are actually developing adequate CDM projects. The vast majority of projects (97%) are in Latin America and Asia and the Pacific. No Arab country appears in the... [read more]

An interesting regional project is trying to incorporate the values of biodiversity conservation in ecotourism projects in three Arab countries: Jordan, Syria and Lebanon through the replication of the Dana Wild life Reserve- Ecotourism model in Jordan. The aim of the BCTE project is to contribute to biodiversity conservation and at the same time to contribute to poverty alleviation through employment... [read more]

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Source: Jordan Times 7-6-2007   By Hana Namrouqa  AMMAN — Demographic changes and migrations have created an imbalance between available water resources and demand, Minister of Water and Irrigation Thafer Alem said on Wednesday. In his remarks at the opening session of a regional forum on local water governance entitled “Water is everybody’s business,” Alem said per capita water supply... [read more]

Source: Jordan Times 8-6-2007   By Dalya Dajani  AQABA — Beneath the pristine waters of this Red Sea resort, a concrete paradise is giving Mother Nature and the local fishing community a helping hand. Emerging from a featureless sandy bed in the northernmost tip of the Aqaba coast, an artificial reef has been steadily thriving over the past two years as a safe haven for the fragile marine... [read more]

Enforcement of, and compliance to environmental legislation is a major determinant factor in proper environmental management. The MENA region and the Arab World have managed to develop some modern environmental legislation in the past few years but still experimenting with enforcement and compliance. One of the main resources and networks that provides technical assistance in this issue is the International... [read more]

Source: Jordan Times 7-6-2007   The Jordan Biogas Company in Ruseifa is currently conducting negotiations with the government of Finland to sell biogas generated from the Ruseifa landfill, the company's director, Hatem Ababneh, said on Thursday. "Selling the biogas to Finland is an outcome of Jordan signing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol, which... [read more]

This is a press release from "Environment & Development" magazine:   Beirut, 6 June 2007   Youth Environment Parliament (YEP) celebrated World Environment Day in a ceremony held at the premises of Environment & Development magazine in Beirut. Hundreds of students and teachers from schools all over the country participated, along with representatives from the Ministries of Environment... [read more]

Mitigating the impacts of climate change and lowering the greenhouse gas emission need not to be a tediousm complex and politicized issue. There are plenty of simple ways to be conducted at the household and community level to participate in living a sustainable lifestyle. Here are 20 simple ways published by Kyero Media www.kyero.com/articles/lower-your-carbon-footprint.php   [read more]

The option of developing market mechanisms for water resource management has been advocated by a lot of international development organizations with an economic liberalization state of mind by led by the World Bank and the World Water Council. This approach has been criticised by the other spectrum of development organization with more interest in social democracy, pointing out that this approach... [read more]

Source: Arabian Business 30-5-2007 By: Tom Daly   An environmental expert has called on the region's municipalities to consider introducing a scheme whereby residents are charged for the amount of waste they generate, much like they are charged for power and water today. Addressing a waste and water conference in Dubai this week, Professor Dr. Ismail Mohammed Al-Madani, a director general... [read more]

Source: Arabian Business Friday 1-6-2007 By: Becca Wilson   Emirates Green Building Council (EmiratesGBC) will use the FM Expo as a platform to inform people about its new rating system for green buildings. The system, which will be based on the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) system developed by the United States Green Building Council, is due to be rolled out... [read more]

Iwould like to think that this initiative is a genuine example of "corporate environmental responsibility" and not another public relations efforts. Only time and action will tell, and we will monitor the news.   Sama Dubai, the international real estate investment and development arm of Dubai Holding, has put environmental protection at the heart of its development efforts by becoming one of... [read more]