A conference entitled “Dubai International Conference on Sustainable Construction” along with an exhibition on Green Construction Technology will kick off on Sunday (tomorrow) at the Dubai Police Academy under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. “Prominent among the subjects that will be covered at the conference include making the world's mega-projects sustainable, sustainable construction practices and the challenge of climate change and policies for sustainable construction and urban development,” said D. Meshgaan Al-Awar, director of Research & Studies at the Dubai Police Academy. The conference is being held a day before the Zayed Prize awarding which was established in 1999 by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, as a tribute to the environmental achievements of late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan. The $1 million Zayed Prize is considered among the most prestigious environment-related awards in the world at present. The Zayed International Prize for the Environment recognizes and encourages environmental achievements that support and promote the implementation of Agenda 21 in line with the vision and philosophy of the late Sheikh Zayed. The founder and Patron of the Zayed Prize, Sheikh Mohammad further envisioned the prize to support the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation for Sustainable Development. It was the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in 2002 that adopted the Johannesburg Plan and Agenda 21. It all began with the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI), a pioneering initiative designed to assess environmental data quality, data gaps between developing and developed countries, and data availability at the national, regional and global levels. This was unveiled at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg. Agenda 21, the global program for sustainable development was agreed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. It argued for providing better information, and highlighted the importance of integrating environment and development in decision-making. AGEDI was a direct response to the unfulfilled objectives of Chapters 8 and 40 of Agenda 21. It is also expected to help the global community to measure progress towards environmentally sustainable goals. A partnership agreement was concluded by the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to launch the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative (AGEDI), aimed at innovative implementation of the environmental data provisions of Agenda 21 and the Millennium Development Goals. This was intended to bridge the environmental data gap between and within the developing and developed countries. Other partners would be sought for the Abu Dhabi initiative from among governments, international organizations, private sector, research centers, the academia and civil society organizations. The initiative was intended to catalyze worldwide action to provide high quality, updated, relevant and comprehensive environmental data at an appropriate scale for decision-making at community, national, and global levels. In launching the initiative, the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency of Abu Dhabi (ERWDA) announced that it had committed a US$5 million to the initiative and was planning to jointly mobilize resources with UNEP through other donors for a total of $30 million. The eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education. All by the target date of 2015 - form a blueprint agreed to by all the countries and leading development institutions. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the world's poorest. __
