Under the title “Our Environment is a Legacy.. Our Homeland.” The Friends of the Environment Center organizes the Second Environmental Forum 2023

The Friends of the Environment Center of the Ministry of Sports and Youth organized the second environmental forum 2023, under the title: "Our environment is a legacy… a home" In cooperation with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, to discuss global environmental challenges and the impact of climate change on the State of Qatar and to make recommendations in this regard to specialists to take whatever they see fit. The forum, which represents a platform for experts, researchers, academics and specialists to present solutions and set priorities for what faces the Qatari environment, began with a symposium entitled "Climate change: challenges and ambitions"It was attended by a group of officials, experts and those interested in environmental affairs. The speakers at the first symposium of the forum discussed a set of climate change challenges at the local and global levels, the impact of these changes on food security, and the efforts of the State of Qatar in this field, especially with the adoption of the State of Qatar’s recently launched National Climate Change Plan, which identified more than 35 initiatives to reduce climate change. From emissions, and more than 300 initiatives to adapt to the effects of climate change, leading to experts issuing a set of recommendations to confront climate changes and their impact on the planet. The participants in the symposium unanimously agreed on the need to enhance social responsibility towards environmental issues, through the expansion of associations, centers and organizations that support efforts to confront climate change, while developing training programs for the private sector and creating partnerships, to benefit from the efforts of government institutions in this field, in addition to supplying all relevant agencies. To use this information in various climate researches and to educate young people about the seriousness of environmental pollution and waste in the use of energy and resources. They pointed out that the State of Qatar was affected by global climatic changes during the past ten years, as the temperature inside cities rose as a result of the large number of buildings, their heights, and the materials used in their construction, while it remained outside it at its natural limits, noting that this effect appears in the shrinking of the difference between the maximum and minimum temperatures in Mostly between day and night, especially during the summer. They added that Qatar is part of this world affected by what is affected by it, and that the State of Qatar is a peninsula located in a dry desert environment, which makes global climate changes severely affect it, so the country has taken a set of important steps within the framework of limiting climate changes, including the development of policies to reduce gas emissions by 25 percent by 2030, as well as the establishment of the Kharsaa project for renewable energy, the expansion of the construction of green and sustainable buildings and environmentally friendly transportation, and the launch of a project "Rationalization" And others, not to mention involving young people in climate-related meetings and conferences and using them to launch environmental initiatives to qualify them to lead the helm in the future. In this context, Mr. Farhoud Hadi Al-Hajri, Executive Director of the Friends of the Environment Center, confirmed that the success of the first environmental forum last year encouraged the center to organize this edition, which focuses on climate change and its impact on the State of Qatar and the world, due to the risks it poses to humanity, whether in terms of disasters. Natural disasters and their devastating effects or the rise in temperatures and the melting of ice in the North and South poles, and thus the rise in water levels in the seas and oceans and their threat to beaches and coastal cities. He referred to the efforts of the State of Qatar in this field, as the State of Qatar sought to issue a number of legislations that contribute to protecting the environment and reducing greenhouse emissions by 2030 by up to 25 percent, within the framework of the national plan for climate change, as well as the participation of the State of Qatar in many International conferences, and its accession to all international agreements that contribute to and protect the environment. For his part, Dr. Muhammad bin Saif Al Kuwari, environmental expert and engineering consultant at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, director of the symposium, pointed out that the climate changes witnessed by the planet, represented by the increase in the proportion of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere "Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases" Caused by human activity, indicating that these gases caused the ozone hole, so international efforts to protect the planet from harmful radiation doubled, and the world agreed on carbon zero in 2050, according to the Paris Climate Agreement 2015 signed by all countries of the world. The environmental expert explained that climate changes caused many environmental disasters such as: floods, hurricanes, strong winds, desertification and drought, but the most severe and destructive disaster, according to scientists, is the melting of ice as a result of the planet’s temperature rise, which causes a rise in sea level and thus warns of serious disasters.