The undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment, Water and agriculture for the environment, Dr. Osama Fakiha, stressed that the Kingdom adopts a clear vision and a deep understanding of the environmental changes sweeping the world, and realizes the scale of challenges related to the loss of food and water that affect many countries around the world.

This came during his participation in a dialogue session entitled (cooperation on shared resources water, food, land and Oceans), held as part of the work of the climate week for the Middle East and North Africa for the year 2023, currently hosted by the kingdom in cooperation with the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change (UNFCCC).

He highlighted the strategies and initiatives launched by the kingdom in the fields of Environment, Water, Agriculture and food security, including the national environmental strategy and the Saudi Green initiative, which represents a strong example of the kingdom's commitment to environmental protection, pointing to the Middle East Green initiative and the kingdom's contribution to regional and international efforts in the field of sustainable development and food security.

Dr. Osama Fakiha pointed out that there are global environmental challenges facing us, such as the increasing rate of water and energy consumption at the individual level, and the harmful impact of bad environmental habits in communities, especially that more than 99% of the food we consume around the world is produced using agricultural resources, which confirms that land degradation will significantly affect the availability of our food needs.

The Environment Undersecretary pointed out that environmental challenges represent urgent global challenges, as about 60-70% of biodiversity loss is related to habitat loss and land degradation, and about 5-10% is related to climate change, explaining that about 24% of greenhouse gas emissions are related to various activities related to land use, and 15% belong to the transport sector.

He pointed out that 75% of fresh water around the world comes from areas surrounded by vegetation, stressing the seriousness of plastic pollution, which negatively affects the environment and harms the oceans, adding that the world has lost about 30% of coral reefs, which are one of the most important elements enhancing biodiversity, fish resources, and the sustainability of life for marine organisms.

He explained that the rate of food loss and waste globally is estimated at about 30%, and that the kingdom has launched a food security strategy, in addition to the establishment of the General Authority for food security; with the aim of reducing food loss and waste by 50%.

In conclusion, he called for strengthening the role of experts, academics and specialized scientists in contributing to increasing community awareness towards these challenges, and the need to develop and implement policies and strategies and involve the private sector, stakeholders, governments, entities and non-profit institutions to participate in the development of policies and strategies, transfer and localization of knowledge, support and enhance technical solutions and cooperation between countries in this field to avoid environmental risks and stop the waste of environmental resources around the world.