The EU funded Horizon 2020 Capacity Building / Mediterranean Environment Programme closed the first half of 2013 with a much anticipated national workshop in Tel Aviv, Israel on a leading instrument for environmental decision support, namely the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The two-day workshop, held on 18-19 June 2013, was entitled “Life Cycle Assessment: Data Collection and Databases” and was attended by more than 50 participants aiming to improve their knowledge of this integrated approach and also contribute to the development of an LCA strategy currently underway by the Ministry of Environment.
More than 40 representatives of Ministries of Education, Ministries of Environment, regional and international organizations and NGOs from 14 Mediterranean countries met in Zagreb, Croatia on 17-18 June to work on the final draft of the Mediterranean Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The Mediterranean Strategy on ESD is expected to be adopted at Ministerial level in October 2013 in Monaco. The meeting, entitled ‘Strengthening Education for Sustainable Development policies in the Mediterranean’ was organized within the framework of the EU-funded Horizon 2020 Capacity Building/Mediterranean Environment Programme in cooperation with the Croatian Ministry of Environmental and Nature Protection, the Mediterranean Information Office for Environment Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE) and the Mediterranean Education Initiative for Environment and Sustainability (MEdIES).
Linking economic growth, environmental protection, business innovation and job creation was the objective of the latest national Horizon202 workshop held in Egypt within the framework of the EU funded Horizon 2020 CB/MEP. The workshop was launched with the address of the Minister of State for Environmental Affairs, Dr. Khaled Fahmy, delivered by the Under Secretary, Dr. Salah Al Sharif. The importance of enhancing the skills of Egyptians towards the reduction of pollution in the Mediterranean basin and the essential contribution to this end of Horizon 2020 was underlined. Dr. Mostafa Kamal Tolba, former Executive Director of UNEP and leading international environmental expert, stressed the relation between an educated workforce and the effective protection of natural resources while recognizing the need to raise environmental awareness in Egypt through regional initiatives and programmes such as Horizon 2020.
The protection of rivers, lakes and the sea from industrial effluent and wastewater was the main objective of a two-day national workshop held in Tel Aviv on 29-30 May 2013 within the framework of the Horizon 2020 Capacity Building / Mediterranean Environment Programme. Participants, 38 in number, came from various ministries, the private sector, trade associations and NGOs to explore existing European regulations as well as a plethora of successful case studies from the Mediterranean region.