Najib Saab
Secretary-General of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) and editor-in-chief of Environment and Development magazine

The Arab Fund... for Environment and Climate

The conference on Climate Action, hosted in Kuwait by the Arab Fund for Economic & Social Development (AFESD), was a milestone in Arab environmental action; going beyond recognizing and describing the problem, to proposing practical solutions, with the participation of major Arab development…

Neither the End of Pandemics nor the Last of Wars

The world has faced massive crises in the last few years, starting with the Corona pandemic, which the World Health Organization declared weeks ago no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern, to the ongoing war in Ukraine. This caused major disruptions in supply chains…

Collaboration in the Shadow of Conflicts

The need for Arab cooperation in times of war and peace was behind the establishment of the League of Arab States in 1945, preceding the European Union and most other regional groups in the world by decades. While regional alliances were a sound option at that time, they are an obligation today, as…

Changing Lifestyle to Preserve Life

The solution to addressing the problem of depletion and exhausting natural resources has traditionally been to search for new resources, by adopting innovative technological methods. But it turns out that limiting the solution to increasing production in order to meet increased consumption puts the…

E-Fuels for German Racing Highways

The German car industry succeeded in amending the European Union's plan to ban the sale of cars running on internal combustion engines by 2035. Simultaneously, a new Dutch pro-farmers party is threatening to derail the government's plan for large reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the…

A Ministry is not an NGO

An environment minister once told me: "We are the Ministry of Environment, so we don't deal in politics." I immediately realized that his ministry would not succeed in making any serious progress, because the ministry is indeed a political entity, whose mission is to set legislation and laws that…

Climate and the Culture of Fear

The report issued a few days ago by the international scientific body advising the United Nations on climate change brought nothing new, except for confirming what has been known for years: that the climate is changing faster than expected, and the impact will be multiplied should there be no…

Laws that Regulate not Obstruct

Protecting the environment begins with the rational management of natural resources. Outside this framework, treatments are circumstantial and target symptoms only, without addressing the root of the problem. Water management begins with enhancing efficiency, putting an end to waste and preventing…

Oil for Climate Action

The appointment of Sultan Al Jaber to lead the 28th climate summit this year unleashed criticism of some Western media, especially in Britain, and fueled skepticism among environmental activists. While the reaction of most environmental and climate action groups is driven by genuine concern, the…

Reforming Regimes Must Precede Greening

A recent international report placed Lebanon among top countries that have made progress in switching to solar energy to produce electricity, by increasing capacity exponentially within three years. Some considered this an international recognition of a great national success, overlooking the fact…