Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi celebrates 15th year anniversary

Abu Dhabi, May 3, 2012 (WAM) - The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) will be focusing on three immediate priorities including monitoring the state of air quality and marine water as well as assessing the health of Abu Dhabi Emirate's terrestrial biodiversity in addition to enhancing its regulatory role through the implementation of the Environment 2030 Vision. This was announced by Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary General of EAD, at a dinner held in honour of EAD's partners and to commemorate 15 years since the establishment of the Agency at Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi under the theme: "A Generation of Success in Conservation and Protection." The dinner was attended by Rashid bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water, Sultan Al Jaber, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Masdar, Dr. Saif Al Ghais, Executive Director of Ras Al Khaimah Environmental Protection and Development Authority (EPDA-RAK) and EAD's first Secretary General, and other representatives from government and private organisations and agencies from EAD's partners. In her speech, Al Mubarak said "At EAD, we have 3 immediate program priorities. First, we must build on the success of our air quality monitoring program by expanding it throughout Abu Dhabi, linking it with other emirates and making the data accessible online. This program will help us better understand the relationship between air quality and health, as well as better plan and manage future emissions. Second, we will build on our marine water quality monitoring program and create effective regulation and enforcement measures that will help safeguard the integrity of our coast. Third, we are measuring the terrestrial biodiversity of the Emirate to guide conservation practices. This will also help us evaluate our success and build more effective environmental regulation." She also added "We must anticipate the fast developing issues such as nuclear energy regulation and control, climate change mitigation and the internationalisation of environmental issues and therefore must act now." She noted that this new paradigm for environmental protection is captured by the forthcoming Environment 2030 Vision plan. The Abu Dhabi Environment 2030 Vision is the environmental component of the Abu Dhabi Government's vision which along with the Economic and Social Visions will form the basis of decision-making across all sectors in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi for the next twenty years. It is made up of an assessment of the current state of the environment in Abu Dhabi Emirate and the development of future scenarios, the development of a vision statement, policy framework, and action plan that will address priority environmental concerns, and; a detailed analysis of the current institutional setting, including a gap analysis and recommendations for how best to address those gaps. – Emirates News Agency, WAM