The Council of Arab Ministers Responsible for Environmental Affairs is established with the objective of advancing Arab collaboration in the spheres of environment and sustainable development*, with a particular emphasis on the following domains:
- Developing an Arab strategy for managing and protecting the environment, based on a comprehensive diagnosis and identification of the major environmental challenges facing the Arab world and the necessary actions to address them. This strategy serves as a framework for national schemes in this field and as a basis for joint Arab plans, programmes, and projects in environmental affairs, in collaboration with specialised Arab organisations and relevant Arab associations.
- Working to establish, enhance, and standardise the specifications, standards, and indicators necessary for environmental evaluation.
- Incorporating environmental considerations into all stages of planning and making them an integral and inseparable part of development. This in addition to adopting the principle of environmental evaluation for development projects and preparing the necessary studies as part of the feasibility studies for these projects, and disseminating the means to achieve this.
- Encouraging member states to establish and strengthen structures and institutions responsible for protecting, preserving, and improving the environment, with a specialised body overseeing environmental affairs and cooperating with voluntary organisations active in this field.
- Encouraging consumption patterns and production technologies that align with the real needs of the Arab citizen and are in harmony with local environmental resources, and working to reduce the use of materials and technologies with harmful environmental impacts.
- Promoting environmental awareness and urging Arab media outlets, educational institutions, and research centres to intensify their efforts to protect and preserve the environment through their programmes, with a focus on the close connection between environmental education and development goals.
- Developing a comprehensive system for environmental protection that includes the basic rules for preserving and protecting the environment.
- Devoting due consideration to the evolution of legislation, regulations, and lexicon pertaining to the environment, and endeavouring to accede to regional and global treaties that address environmental predicaments.
- - Aggregating intelligence on the environmental status quo in the Arab world, and on diverse environmental undertakings adopted by specialised entities within the League of Arab States and pertinent specialised Arab organisations, and facilitating avenues for the interchange of such intelligence, with a view to compiling a compendium of extant Arab expertise in matters pertaining to the environment.
- Coordinating Arab positions in international forums concerned with environmental issues and highlighting dangerous practices that threaten the Arab environment.
- Providing recommendations to the Arab Economic and Social Council to enhance joint Arab action in the field of the environment and its protection.
- Developing national plans to address urgent environmental challenges.
- Working to protect renewable and non-renewable natural resources in the Arab world and preserve Arab and Islamic cultural heritage.
- The council is responsible for coordinating the efforts of Arab countries towards achieving sustainable development in the Arab region. It prepares periodic reports to be submitted to the Council of the League of Arab States, which include a statement on the state of the environment and progress made in achieving sustainable development in the economic, social, and environmental arenas.*
The council is also responsible for approving its agenda and forming a technical committee of experts and advisors to provide studies, reports, and research on environmental issues that fall within the framework of the council's objectives.
* The addition of "and sustainable development" was made according to the decision of the Council of the League of Arab States Number 6404, Ordinary Session 121, Part 4, 4/3/2004.
* This paragraph was added according to the decision of the Council of the League of Arab States Number 6404, Ordinary Session 121, Part 4, 4/3/2004.
