Environment Perspectives and Workplan for UfM Outlined by DSG Husseini at MISTRALS Meeting in Malta

This included water scarcity and drought, which will be exacerbated by climate changes in the near future. Husseini, who was an invited speaker at the MISTRALS International workshop attended by over 150 prominent scientists from the Mediterranean region, outlined the UfM Secretariat workplan for Environment and Water, including the H2020 initiative to depollute the Mediterranean Sea and the collaboration on advancing a Water Strategy for the region. He also described some of the criteria for regional, sub-regional or trans-national projects to be identified, developed and branded by the UfM in the Water and Environment fields, including being innovative, cost-beneficial/cost-effective, piloting cutting-edge technology and utilizing, whenever possible, green, clean and renewable energy.

“The UfM is an opportunity”, Husseini added, “especially now when many Arab countries are emerging as true democracies… The innate wish of the people from north and south of the Mediterranean is to cooperate and coordinate their future together… UfM can be a win-win situation!”

MISTRALS, the Mediterranean Integrated Studies at Regional And Local Scales, aims to identify and develop the priority scientific issues in order to fulfill the needs and societal challenges of the region, through the construction of an international and pan-Mediterranean partnership dedicated to the future of the region.