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Climate Week Brings Together 400 Young Men, Women to Discuss Environmental Challenges

Four hundred young men and women, representing 72 countries, attended the Middle East and North Africa Climate Week (MENACW) 2023 in Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Four hundred young men and women, representing 72 countries, attended the Middle East and North Africa Climate Week (MENACW) 2023 in Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Climate Week Brings Together 400 Young Men, Women to Discuss Environmental Challenges

Four hundred young men and women, representing 72 countries, attended the Middle East and North Africa Climate Week (MENACW) 2023 in Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Four hundred young men and women, representing 72 countries, attended the Middle East and North Africa Climate Week (MENACW) 2023 in Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Four hundred young men and women, representing 72 countries, discussed issues related to achieving climate change goals and carbon neutrality, and promoting sustainable travel and tourism, during the Middle East and North Africa Climate Week (MENACW) 2023 in Riyadh.

Their participation was sponsored by the Sustainable Tourism Global Center (STGC), as the first members of the Youth Champions initiative, which was launched by the center with the aim of forming a community of 100,000 people from 100 countries by 2030.

Participants attended sessions on sustainability and the means to confront climate change challenges, as well as the opportunities available in the tourism sector.

Tourism sustainability

In light of the STGC’s partnership with universities and international institutions around the world, young people will have unprecedented access to cutting-edge research and case studies, support for advocacy campaigns, and training programs pertaining to sustainable tourism.

In this context, Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khatib said: “By providing young leaders with the necessary resources to support the tourism sector’s transition to climate neutrality, we are enabling them to play an effective role in building a more sustainable tourism and travel sector.”

“The Global Center for Sustainable Tourism, which is based in Saudi Arabia, is not only an investment in the country’s future, but rather an investment in the future of the entire planet,” he added.

Confronting the climate crisis

Gloria Guevara, President of the STGC, said that the travel and tourism sector “must undergo a comprehensive transformation in order to confront the climate crisis.”

She added that the Center firmly believes that the young generation plays an extremely important role in leading this shift.

“Their visions are essential to presenting new ideas, diverse opinions, and ambitious goals,” Guevara stated.

“The center aims to truly engage these future leaders to help build more sustainable and inclusive prospects for tourism and travel. Through this initiative, participants will gain the knowledge, tools and support necessary to use research in advocacy and awareness-building efforts,” she underlined.

Guevara stressed that the Global Center aspires to welcome around 100 concerned universities and international institutions from all over the world by 2030, pointing to ongoing cooperation with high-level academic institutions in the United States, China, France, Spain and the Netherlands to push the STGC’s vision forward.

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US Treasury Targets Russia's Gazprombank with New Sanctions

FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
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US Treasury Targets Russia's Gazprombank with New Sanctions

FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A bronze seal for the Department of the Treasury is shown at the US Treasury building in Washington, US, January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

The United States imposed new sanctions on Russia's Gazprombank on Thursday, the Treasury Department said, as President Joe Biden steps up actions to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine before he leaves office in January.
The move, which wields the department's most powerful sanctions tool, effectively kicks Gazprombank out of the US banking system, bans its trade with Americans and freezes its US assets, Reuters reported.
Gazprombank is one of Russia's largest banks and is partially owned by Kremlin-owned gas company Gazprom. Since Russia's invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has been urging the US to impose more sanctions on the bank, which receives payments for natural gas from Gazprom's customers in Europe.
The fresh sanctions come days after the Biden administration allowed Kyiv to use US ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory. On Tuesday, Ukraine fired the weapons, the longest range missiles Washington has supplied for such attacks on Russia, on the war's 1,000th day.
The Treasury also imposed sanctions on 50 small-to-medium Russian banks to curtail the country's connections to the international financial system and prevent it from abusing it to pay for technology and equipment needed for the war. It warned that foreign financial institutions that maintain correspondent relationships with the targeted banks "entails significant sanctions risk."
"This sweeping action will make it harder for the Kremlin to evade US sanctions and fund and equip its military," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. "We will continue to take decisive steps against any financial channels Russia uses to support its illegal and unprovoked war in Ukraine."
Gazprombank said Washington's latest move would not affect its operations. The Russian embassy in Washington did not respond to requests for comment.
Along with the sanctions, Treasury also issued two new general licenses authorizing US entities to wind down transactions involving Gazprombank, among other financial institutions, and to take steps to divest from debt or equity issued by Gazprombank.
Gazprombank is a conduit for Russia to purchase military materiel in its war against Ukraine, the Treasury said. The Russian government also uses the bank to pay its soldiers, including for combat bonuses, and to compensate the families of its soldiers killed in the war.
The administration believes the new sanctions improve Ukraine's position on the battlefield and ability to achieve a just peace, a source familiar with the matter said.
COLLATERAL IMPACT
While Gazprombank has been on the administration's radar for years, it has been seen as a last resort because of its focus on energy and the desire to avoid collateral impact on Europe, a Washington-based trade lawyer said.
"I think that the current administration is trying to put as much pressure and add as many sanctions as possible prior to January 20th to make it harder for the next administration to unwind," said the lawyer, Douglas Jacobson.
Officials in Slovakia and Hungary said they were studying the impacts of the new US sanctions.
Trump would have the power to remove the sanctions, which were imposed under an executive order by Biden, if he wants to take a different stance, Jacobson said.
After Russia's invasion in 2022, the Treasury placed debt and equity restrictions on 13 Russian firms, including Gazprombank, Sberbank and the Russian Agricultural Bank.
The US Treasury has also worked to provide Ukraine with funds from windfall proceeds of frozen Russian assets.