Ministerial meeting on UNEA's sidelines tackles environment

A ministerial meeting was held here on Thursday on sidelines of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA), tackling environment protection as one of the bases of economic growth.
Economic growth and environment protection are among top issues preoccupying states of the globe, said Yaagoub Al-Sanad, the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Kenya and the top non-residential diplomat to Tanzania, in remarks to KUNA.
States devote particular attention to population growth, development and construction, in tandem with other basic issues namely environmental preservation and spreading construction, said the ambassador, who headed the Kuwaiti delegation at the ministerial meeting.
Despite terrorist threats in Kenya, delegations of 162 countries, out of the 193 UN member states, were keen to take part in the meeting.
The ministers who convened here today affirmed necessity of sustainable development, discussed misuse of natural resources and transfer of technology to developing countries.
They also discussed draft resolutions related to the UN environmental program, he said, adding that the West Europe states called for slashing the program budget.
The G77 countries and China called during the meeting for activating programs to protect the environment against desertification, wood's protection, containing poverty and obliging wealthy nations to aid developing ones.
The ministers tackled various other issues namely increase of waste due to increasing consumption, laws as a necessity to safeguard the environment and protecting animals against extinction.