For a cleaner Mediterranean by the year 2020This initiative is funded by the European Commission through DG EuropeAid.
For a cleaner Mediterranean by the year 2020For a cleaner Mediterranean by the year 2020Acknowledging the role and potential impact of Green Banking in the effective de-pollution efforts in the region, the Horizon H2020 Capacity Building/Mediterranean Environment Programme (CB/MEP) held a two-day national workshop in Tunis (24-25 April 2012) dedicated to this issue after a specific request from Tunisia and as a direct follow-up of last year’s regional workshop of H2020 CB/MEP on Green Banking in the Mediterranean (Barcelona, November 2011).
Mastering the tendering process and processing contracts for sustainable municipal solid waste management was the focus of the sub-regional workshop organized in Beirut on 22-23 March 2012 within the framework of the Horizon 2020 CB/MEP project. It was organised by the Association of Cities and Regions for Recycling and Sustainable Resource Management (ACR+).
Given the scarcity of water resources in the Southern Mediterranean Region, one of the highest in the world, a new paradigm is required that will consider non‐conventional water resources – mainly recycling of agricultural runoff, re‐use and storage of treated wastewater, and desalination using renewable energy - as an asset to be managed as part of the country’s integrated water resources management framework.
The capacity building component of Horizon 2020, stepped in earlier this year and organized a national workshop (25-26 March 2012) in Tel Aviv, in order to contribute to the consolidation of the process and provide new elements for the preparation of Israel’s Green Growth Action Plan. Israel’s Green Growth Action Plan is promoted by its Environmental Protection and the Industry, Trade and Labour Ministries and is planned to be implemented during the period 2012-2020. Several round tables have already been organised in order to give some inputs to the 3 major areas of the Action Plan: green innovation, green production and green consumption. It will be adopted later this year.
The Steering Committee of the Horizon 2020 Initiative to de-pollute the Mediterranean by 2020 met in Barcelona on 19 April 2012 for its 5th meeting since 2008, bringing together the majority of the participating country representatives and the key regional environmental actors such as the European Commission, the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat, the Mediterranean Action Plan of UNEP and its Regional Activity Centers, the European Investment Bank, regional associations of local authorities, NGOs, and others.
Split, Croatia hosted a Horizon 2020 workshop on “Linking waste water management to ICZM and IWRM with emphasis on karstic coastal areas”. More than 30 professionals from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro gathered in the area known as the “home of the karst” to participate at the four-day sub regional training on 19-22 March 2012.
The Horizon 2020 Capacity Building/Mediterranean Environment Programme in cooperation with Seas At Risk and Waste Free Oceans, within the framework of the European Maritime Day, will hold an event under the title “Reducing marine litter for the sake of the environment... and blue growth?” The event will focus on the economic implications of marine litter and will shed ample light on the ways marine litter affects key sectors that rely on the marine environment.
As a world leader of olive cultivation and oil production, the Mediterranean has achieved substantial progress towards minimizing the negative environmental impacts of this sector. To showcase best environmental practices in olive mill waste management and related new technologies, while reaffirming the magnitude of the environmental pressure imposed by this activity in the region, the EU funded Horizon 2020 CB/MEP project organised a regional workshop in Greece from 19-21 March 2012.
