Environment and Habitat

The Presidents of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Ilham Aliyev, have both addressed the opening ceremony of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week summit as the UAE leads up to COP28 later this year.

In his speech on Monday (16 January), President Tokayev of Kazakhstan spoke about his country's commitment to achieving climate neutrality.

According to UNICEF, the number of children suffering dire drought conditions across Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia has more than doubled in the past five months. Currently, an estimated 20.2 million children are facing the threat of severe hunger, thirst and disease, which is a stark increase from the 10 million reported in July. Climate change, conflict, global inflation and grain shortages have all contributed to the devastating conditions in the Horn of Africa.

The European Union has reached a provisional deal to prohibit the import and sale of products that are linked to deforestation. This would apply to items such as beef, timber, rubber, coffee, soy, cocoa, and palm oil and their derived products.

The European Union and Egypt have taken a further step to boost their long-term cooperation on the clean energy transition by establishing a strategic partnership on renewable hydrogen and preparing the ground for a just energy transition in Egypt. Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal Frans Timmermans signed a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding with Egypt's Minister for Petroleum Tarek El Molla and Minister for Electricity and Renewable Energy Mohammed Shaker El-Markabi at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh.

In dozens of different places off Europe's Atlantic coast, fishermen with fishing gear towed along the seabed are no longer welcome. The European Commission has closed different places to them to protect fish and other marine life there.

Fishermen are no longer allowed to cast their bottom nets in 87 sensitive zones along the coast of Ireland, France, Spain, and Portugal. These are areas where the ocean is between 400 and 800 metres deep. Bottom fishing in deeper water has already been banned in those parts of the Atlantic since 2016.

West African countries have come together and made the fight against climate change a common challenge. A common strategy for the year 2030 was therefore set by the eleven member countries of ECOWAS - the Economic Community of West African States - on 30 April 2020.

Ethiopia has started energy production on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the largest hydroelectric dam on the continent, on Sunday (20 February), following years of delays and international pushback.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed travelled to the western town of Guba to inaugurate the GERD,  hailing the project as the “birth of a new era” in the East-African country's history.