UN Environment is one of the few regional offices of the UN to be based in Manama, Bahrain. As a key financial hub in the West Asia region, there are enormous opportunities for the country to lead on green finance and technology, and renewable energy investments. In meetings with the Chief Executive of the Supreme Council for Environment, the Prime Minister and His Majesty, King Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa, we discussed this and other areas of cooperation.
Cooling and efficiency is a critical issue in the region, and I was pleased to inaugurate the country’s first refrigerants reclamation facility aimed at working closely with servicing contractors and end-users of cooling systems to safely remove HFCs, dangerous greenhouse gas emitting chemicals. I was delighted to welcome Bahrain to the Clean Seas campaign and support steps to address waste management, one of the country’s biggest challenges.
From Bahrain, I travelled to the United Arab Emirates, a regional leader in innovation and entrepreneurship. I discussed collaboration with UN Environment in flagship private sector events such as the Dubai Expo 2020 to showcase the importance of sustainability. Working closely with the private sector on sustainability was also the focus of meetings and Honeywell and Majid Al Futtaim, a leading shopping retail brand in the country.
