UfM partners with AVITEM to advance sustainable urbanization and address climate change

Marseille, 21 November 2017. UfM Deputy Secretary General Ihab Fahmy delivered a keynote speech in the opening session of the conference “Méditerranée du Futur” to promote joint actions for the climate agreements, held in Marseille on 21 November 2017.

This timely Conference, taking place right after the meetings of the COP23 in Bonn, the First UfM Energy and Climate Business Forum in Cairo, and the “First UfM Regional Platform on Sustainable Urban Development” in Brussels, was inaugurated by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, H.E. Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of France and Renaud Muselier, President of the Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA), with the participation of H.E. Hachem Hmidi, Minister for Mines and Renewable Energy of Tunisia, H.E. César Abi Khalil, Minister of Energy and Water of Lebanon and Rémy Rioux, Director General of the Agence Française de Development (AFD), as well as through video messages, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations and Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations.

The Conference gathered over 600 participants including other key representatives from governments, parliamentarians, research institutes, think tanks, academia and civil society, namely, Blanca Moreno-Dodson, Director-General for Mediterranean Integration of the World Bank and Maud Fontenoy, Vice-President for Sustainable Development, Energy and the Sea of the PACA Region and Ambassador for Oceans of UNESCO.

Through a series of roundtables and workshops, the Conference delved into a number of key questions, namely, local commitments to SDGs, the importance of sustainable urbanization in the fight against climate change, green and blue economic opportunities and innovative financing for climate change mitigation projects, among others, and closed with a projection of al Gore’s latest film “An Inconvenient Sequel” (2017).

On the margins of the Conference, a bilateral meeting was held between Renaud Muselier president of the PACA region and UfM Deputy Secretary General Ihab Fahmy where they discussed future cooperation between the UfM Secretariat and the PACA Region. In addition, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with Agnès Rampal, President of the Agence des villes et territoires méditerranéens durables (AViTeM) with a view to undertaking joint actions to advance sustainable urban development in the Mediterranean region.

STATEMENT

UfM Deputy Secretary General Ihab Fahmy: “Sustainable urban development must be an integral part of global climate action. By placing urban sustainability at the centre of national climate action will help countries not only reach but exceed their national climate targets.”

MORE INFORMATION

Méditerranée du Futur:  http://www.regionpaca.fr/mediterraneedufutur/