Nasr, vice president of Engineering Services. "However, within the context of this conference, the company comes to highlight clean-development mechanisms in the Kingdom in both public- and private-sector activities." Al-Nasr detailed several activities in the field of environmental protection that started in 1963 and continue today, from refuse recycling to management of greenhouse gases. "We have held several environment conferences, such as Carbon Management Conference held recently in Dhahran, and discussed the best methods to deal with carbon dioxide," he said. Al-Nasr takes the view that environmental protection depends on various sciences, starting with engineering - the first line of defense in environmental protection. "If we go back to most of the consultants and experts in Environment Protection in Saudi Aramco, we find that most, if not all of them, started as engineers and then adopted a specific line parallel to interest in environmental affairs," Al-Nasr said. "Therefore, we currently find that the environment protection mechanism is either achieved by preventing contamination or cleaning up its traces. Both underscore the need for engineering solutions to activate environment protection." The conference concluded with recommendations to expedite clean development mechanisms in the Kingdom. Dr. Mohammad S. Al-Sabban, Environment Affairs consultant at the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, called for a national committee to be formed, composed of representatives from concerned government entities and the private sector, to promote the mechanism and organize a series of workshops in cooperation with the United Nations and with participation from public and private sectors of the Kingdom and other GCC states. "The Clean Development Mechanism is a project-based flexible mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol," said Al-Naimi in the conference brochure. "It is designed to assist developing countries in achieving sustainable development and to make it easier and cheaper for industrialized countries to meet their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets."
