A1SaudiArabia.com

JEDDAH – Arabian Travel Market 2010 closed on a high note on Saturday as four days of the Middle Easts premier travel and tourism event clearly reflected the industrys built-up momentum for growth.

With significantly increased number of participants and visitors maximizing every opportunity at further developing renewed business opportunities, brought about by steadily recovering economies previously affected by unfavorable global economic conditions, the show lived up to its billing as the most important to date.

Onsite statistics recorded an overall visitor increase of three percent. Arabian Travel Market also witnessed an increase in GCC visitors. Turkey registered the largest visitor increase amongst participating countries. Most importantly there was an increase in quality visitors with participants returning day after day to conduct business.

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MANAMA – Leading experts will gather in Bahrain on Wednesday to discuss opportunities, challenges and benefits of using green technologies in new design and construction projects.

The strong speakers line-up confirmed for the Green Building Forum – whose theme is Innovating to protect the Environment – reflects the increasing importance afforded to the issue of green building technologies in the Gulf Cooperation Council region.

Housing Minister Shaikh Ibrahim bin Khalifa Al Khalifa will open the forum at Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre (BIEC) and deliver the keynote address.

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SHANGHAI – Fireworks illuminated the Shanghai skyline in a blaze of color as China kicked off the six-month World Expo late Friday with a lavish star-studded opening gala attended by a host of world leaders.

Still basking in the glow of its successful staging of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China is treating the Expo as an equally important showcase for its growing political and economic clout.

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NAIROBI, Kenya – The head of the International Monetary Fund on Monday proposed a plan for the worlds governments to pool together to raise money needed to adapt to climate change, a rare step for an organization that normally does not develop environmental policies.

IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the Fund is concerned about the huge amount of funding needed and the effect that will have on the global economy. He added that the proposal may help efforts to reach a binding agreement on climate change later this year.

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DAVOS: World trade talks are unlikely to be completed this year because the economic slowdown has raised Western fears about the impact of trade liberalization, Egypts Trade Minister said on Wednesday.

The G20 has called for an outline deal in the talks – launched in Doha in 2001 with the goal of helping poor countries prosper through trade – to be reached by the end of the year. To complete Doha in 2010, Im not very optimistic. I dont think it will happen, Rachid Mohamed Rachid said. We have to get to a starting point before mid-year, and the window is closing. Its obvious that with unemployment in the United States and Europe, it is going to be tougher to have discussions on free trade, he told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos.

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ABU DHABI: Copenhagen 15 was over-hyped by the media, expected too many national freedoms to be given up but left a window for progress open. So opined Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, UAEs minister of environment and water in a tough-minded address at the plenary session of the World Future Energy Summit (WFES) in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.

He asked the delegates to admit the 15th conference failed to achieve the desired international conformity with respect to facing climate change. Moreover, the outcome was disappointing judging by the opinions of many participants and observers.

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ABU DHABI – World leaders raised a fresh alarm on global warming, urging international action to increase use of clean energy at a four-day forum that opened in the emirate on Monday.

“If we dont act now, our coral reefs and rainforests will die, desert countries will become unbearably hot and low lying countries like the Maldives, will slip beneath the rising seas,” said the president of the Maldives, Mohammed Nasheed.

“Tackling climate change is not like dealing with other global issues, such as trade or disarmament. We do not have the luxury of time to meet, year after year, in endless negotiations,” the leader of the low-lying Indian Ocean nation told participants at the World Future Energy Summit.

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ABU DHABI: In a passionate speech that defined the mood of the keynote addresses and the entire World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi on Monday, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed said: We do not have the luxury of time to meet year after year in endless negotiations. And the science of climate change means that we cannot accept a watered down minimalist treaty. We cannot negotiate with the laws of physics. You cannot cut a deal with Mother Nature.

The Copenhagen climate conference, he said, had secured some positive outcomes but the Copenhagen accord in its present form would not prevent catastrophic climate change. Changes had to be radical and immediate. If we dont act now, our rainforests will die, deserts become unbearable to live in and low level countries like the Maldives will slip beneath the rising sea.

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PARIS – The French governments first job for 2010 is to revise its planned carbon emissions tax, raising fears among businesses they will be hurt by changes to the environmental measure.

President Nicolas Sarkozy made the tax a pillar of his 2010 budget, aiming to reduce emissions by taxing them and redistributing the revenue to reward households that cut carbon fuel consumption.

But while pursuing environmental reforms on the one hand, Sarkozy risks jeopardizing another of his major priorities: making French businesses more competitive.

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JEDDAH – World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi is one of the global drivers of renewable energy development around the globe in pursuit of environmental sustainability, Dato Sri Mohd Najib bin Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia said on Monday.

He said the World Future Energy Summit will play a significant role, alongside Copenhagen, in accelerating the uptake of renewable, the future of the energy sector. He will be one of the speakers the Plenary Welcome Session that will open the World Future Energy Summit for the third year on Jany. 18-21, 2010. Other speakers in the session will include President Karolos Papoulias, President, Greece; Mohamed Nasheed, President, Maldives; The Crown Prince Felipe de Borb?n y Grecia, Spain and The Crown Prince Frederik André Henrik Christian, Denmark.

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