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 2020The creation of green jobs to reduce sources of pollution in the Mediterranean was the focus of a Horizon 2020 regional workshop which attracted 43 professionals from 13 countries. Currently, the cost of environmental degradation for South-East Mediterranean countries has reached 3-6% of their GDP, constituting the shift towards a Green Economy pivotal, especially when considering the increased pressures from an ever growing population. The workshop, which took place on 3-5 April 2012, was organized by the Regional Activity Centre for Cleaner Production of the Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP CP/RAC) with the support of the Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE) within the framework of the EU funded Horizon 2020 Capacity Building/Mediterranean Environment Programme.
Two weeks before the leaders of the world gathered in Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) where Green Economy in the context of sustainable development was a central theme, the Horizon H2020 Capacity Building/Mediterranean Environment Programme organized a two-day workshop in Rabat (6-7 June 2012) in support of mainstreaming the concept of Green Economy in Morocco.
In the framework of the European Union (EU) funded project “Towards a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) in the European Neighbourhood” (ENPI-SEIS project) implemented by the European Environment Agency (EEA), and the follow up on the implementation of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) project on building capacities in environment statistics, indicators and accounts (2007-2010), the EEA, UNSD and UN-ESCWA held a Workshop on Water Accounts and Statistics for Mediterranean Countries at the UN House in Beirut, Lebanon, 20-22 March 2012.
Building on the output of the ENPI-SEIS country visits and the follow-up from the Horizon 2020 Review, Monitoring and Research Sub-group meeting held on 30-31 March 2011, the ENPI-SEIS Working Group on Environmental Indicators, established in early 2012, held its first meeting in Barcelona, on April 18th, the day before the H2020 Steering Group Meeting. The objective of the Working Group (WG) on Environmental Indicators is, whilst focusing on selected indicators at the heart of the countries’ pilot exercises to advance on SEIS developments, to also identify and develop an articulated list of potential indicators which could provide a consistent baseline of information from across the region to measure and compare progress made under the Horizon 2020 initiative thus supporting the process of regular reporting on the Mediterranean.
