Beirut- The conference called upon Arab governments to allocate a higher priority to agricultural rural development as a strategic policy objective to achieve food security, alleviate rural poverty, and reverse years of neglect. It also urged governments to introduce a policy shift towards water demand management that would regulate water access, improve water use efficiency, and prevent water pollution, in addition to introducing fair water tariffs that rationalize water use, achieve cost recovery in a gradual manner, and promote equity through targeted subsidies.
The conference stressed the need to adopt national and regional strategies for energy efficiency, demand-side management, cleaner energy, and renewable energy, to introduce municipal zoning regulations, and to develop a national industrial policy that provides appropriate and favorable institutional and regulatory framework for low-carbon industries and research and development (R&D) capabilities. It called upon private developers and regionally based professionals in architecture, construction, building materials, and engineering to increasingly accord energy and water efficiency a high priority and make use of green solutions in buildings. It also asked governments to make sustained investments in mass public transportation in Arab cities, to adopt a resource management approach to municipal solid waste that seeks to capture value from waste materials through reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery. Governments should promote investments in converting organic food waste into compost and biogas, as well as waste-to-energy strategies. They should also develop a package of policy instruments to implement sustainable tourism practices in travel, hospitality, and recreational services, as well as community-based cultural tourism, to help in nature conservation and to support local economies.
The conference called upon regional organizations and governments to activate the Arab Environment Facility and establish regional green economy initiatives, covering: Research and Development, Renewable Energy Solutions, Sustainable Communities, Cleaner Production, Sustainable Agriculture, Regional Transport Networks.
