Workshop on climate change begins at AGU

Arabian Gulf University (AGU) President Dr Khalid Al Ohaly yesterday opened a training workshop on climate change, organised by the university in co-operation with the United Nations Environment’s West Asia Office. The workshop aims to discuss the climate change and the obligations of developing countries to fulfil the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement.

In the opening ceremony, Dr Al Ohaly expressed and conveyed AGU’s delight to constantly host such training workshops, which add to the knowledge and expertise of the participating delegations from different GCC States, including Kuwait, Oman, the UAE and the Kingdom of Bahrain. Dr Al Ohaly also reiterated on the university’s rich history in the area of training experts and specialists in many academic and scientific fields, including the preparation and issuance of climate change reports. He welcomed the participating delegations saying: “The university’s doors are open to cooperate with governmental institutions, ministries and specialised bodies in all GCC countries, enabling them of addressing all issues of concern across the GCC region.

The university is proud to contribute to the preparation of environmental and climatic reporting specialists.” On her part, Head of the Geoinformatics Department in AGU’s College of Graduate Studies Dr Sabah Al Jenaid, who is also the coordinator of the workshop, affirmed that hosting the workshop by AGU reflects the continuous cooperation between the Kingdom and the United Nations Environment Programme to support all environmental causes in West Asia, especially climate change, which is considered to have the greatest impact on the  countries of the region.

Dr Al Jenaid said the workshop will be focused on the commitment of developing countries to the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, as it discusses the updated periodic reports to be delivered by the signatories of the Convention and the obligatory national contributions mentioned in it. She added that the workshop includes intensive training sessions that assist the participating countries to prepare the required studies and main requirements of the convention. The workshop will be presented and supervised by UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol Compliance Committee Member Mohammed Al Aalim and the World Programme for Development Management Co-ordinator Vincent Yu.