"Cooperation in Climate Change" at the Forefront of Discussions at the 15th Sectoral Meeting between the League of Arab States (LAS) and the United Nations (UN)

At its headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, the League of Arab States (LAS) hosted its 15th Sectoral Meeting under the theme "Cooperation in Climate Change". The meeting aimed at discussing potential areas of collaboration in environmental and climate adaptation topics, between LAS and the United Nations (UN) and their specialized organizations.

The meeting was attended by several UN organizations including Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO); United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and others.

The meeting was chaired by H.E. Ambassador Ali Bin Ibrahim Al-Malki, Assistant Secretary-General, Head of the Economic Affairs Sector, who emphasized in his opening remarks that as the world grew in complexity, cooperation is more and more needed and could be very impactful, including in areas such as food security, water, climate security, financing sustainable development and energy. 

The discussion points during the meeting explored several areas including: the need to improve adaptative actions and funding; the importance of innovations for improving irrigation efficiency, particularly to support smallholder farmers; the importance of organizing international cooperation to develop joint projects related to water-food-energy; the importance of addressing the drought challenge and that national strategies should be in place in this regard, with a focus on climate-smart agriculture. The participants also called on all riparian countries to adhere to international water law, bearing in mind that 60% of water resources in the Arab region comes from international sources.

The meeting concluded with several recommendations including:

•  All UN and LAS agencies should commit to inviting others when there are opportunities for collaboration.
• Developing regional projects that could be jointly implemented among the Arab countries should be a priority of LAS-UN cooperation.
•  The UN and LAS should consider a funding mechanism to bring innovative ways to implement joint projects.
• The UN and LAS should support Arab countries in accessing climate financing, including through capacity-building.
• Efforts should be undertaken to raise awareness among Arab countries of the new loss and damage fund and how it can be accessed.
• Workshops should be organized to identify available funding mechanisms.
• Research focused on the region and including gender-disaggregated data should be prioritized.
• Efforts to reduce the risk of climate-related conflict should focus on early action, identifying points of consensus and building coalitions.
• Enhancing irrigation efficiency and water use efficiency and supporting the deployment of renewable energies at the local level through the linkage between strategies and programs that focus on water, energy and food security.
• Transferring the results of research and studies into applications and moving from pilot projects to main projects at the national level.
• Transforming scientific information and studies into practical applications through the effective link between science and policies.