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Students air views on environmental issues

A one-of-a-kind event that brings together young talent from the region, it provides a platform to voice views on environmental issues.

Dubai: The Emirates Environmental Group (EEG), under the sponsorship of Unilever and support of Dubai International Academic City, hosted the 14th Annual Inter College Environmental Public Speaking Competition recently.

As the first pan-Arab environment competition of its nature, the event saw the participation of 58 teams, the highest number of involvement since inception of the competition.

A one-of-a-kind event that brings together young talent from the region, it provides a platform to voice views on environmental issues.

Habiba Al Marashi, chairperson of the EEG, said: “Since the inception of this programme in 2001, the path to growth has been a consistent effort towards building cooperation.

We began this programme with just 16 UAE teams. In 2006, we began including institutions from some countries of the GCC, such as Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, until all countries of the Council became involved.”

This year, students were asked to put forward their thoughts and concerns on four highly relevant exciting topics — “Who is responsible for food wastage?”, “How can a curriculum protect our environment?”, “Green Economy: Commitment and Responsibility”, and “The more technology we develop, the more pollution we create?”

Highlighting the need to tap into today’s young talent in providing futures solutions towards growing environmental concerns, Sanjiv Kakkar, chairman of Unilever Mena, said, “At Unilever, we believe that the youth hold the key to unlocking solutions to many of today’s challenges. .”

He added: “Every individual on this planet has the right to live well. But it must be done within the natural limits of our planet. Achieving this goal is a big challenge that will need to be overcome by innovative sustainability solutions, increased partnerships between the private and public entities like Unilever and EEG, but most importantly the commitment of our youth.”

muaz@khaleejtimes.com