Punishments for environmental laws

There could be a crackdown on those who flout environmental laws and are cruel to animals. The head of the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME), Prince Turki bin Nasser, announced on Sunday that the recently established Environment Council is currently studying all the Kingdom’s green laws and regulations. A decision will be made on whether to impose harsher prison sentences and fines on those who break them. “These laws have remained stagnant for more than 20 years. It is time they are reviewed,” Prince Turki told a press conference at the PME headquarters in Jeddah. The press conference was held to brief the media about the first GCC conference on the environment and sustainable development, to be held at the Jeddah Hilton hotel next month. An international exhibition on environmental protection and sustainable development will be held in tandem with the forum. “The PME, with the partnership of the private sector, will soon launch a number of large projects to preserve the environment and wildlife. The public and private sectors’ expertise will be called upon to help implement the Kingdom’s strategy of protecting the environment and preserving wildlife,” Prince Turki said. He added that the PME has plans to engage with industrialists and traders on how to make their premises more environmentally friendly. The forum will focus on a number of issues including the role of trade, industry and energy in preserving the environment, sustainable management of water resources and sanitation, oil and renewable energy, legal frameworks to protect the environment and developing partnerships between the public and private sectors. Meanwhile, a four-day climate-modeling workshop got under way at the PME headquarters in Jeddah on Sunday. The PME Strategic Program Fund and UK-based Hadley Center are running the regional workshop on climate predictions. It is the first of its kind in the GCC and the Middle East. The Hadley Center, which is also sponsoring the workshop, is a world leader in the science of climate in the preparation and development of mathematic applications in the field of climate change on both regional and international levels. During the workshop the Hadley Center consultants will present the latest version of the PRECIS model for regional climate change scenarios, which will help GCC countries in developing more detailed, and high-resolution climate scenario predictions. The PME technical team, led by workshop chair Dr. Taha Mohamed Zatari, and with the support of a number of consultants, had already developed the first national communication using the mathematic regional climate prediction model to prepare for future scenarios in the Kingdom. Although the results were acceptable and compatible with the global predictions, the details of the analysis were not accurate since it gave the same predictions for an area of 550km x 550km without accounting for differentiation between mountains, valleys and deserts. Over 60 exhibitors will participate in the 3,000 square meter exhibition while prominent local, regional and international personalities have been invited to the conference, which takes place March 7-9.