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Israeli to Hold 1st Event on Climate Tech and Scarcity with Abraham Accord Nations

Sep 22, 2022
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Next month, the southern city of Eilat will host the first conference focused on the concerns of climate and food scarcity, attended by those who signed the Abraham Accords.

The Agriculture Ministry is behind the initiative and the event will take place from October 18th to October 20th.

Representatives of two countries who signed the Abraham Accords will attend, which are Morocco and Bahrain, along with Mediterranean countries like Malta and Cyprus as well as Jordan.

The challenges

The agriculture and rural development’s minister, Oded Forer said that the entire world was currently dealing with issues of climate change and food security.

He said that there was a lot of opportunity of developing advanced technologies that will determine food growth in the future, thanks to the connection between the sea and the desert.

He stated that when it comes to this field, Israel has a lot of potential and was already heading relevant technology development and research.

The minister said that the conference would allow them to start cooperating with countries that are facing similar climates and challenges across the region.

Improving ties

The Food from the Sea & Desert Summit is the first international one of its kind and its goal is to help Israel in improving agricultural and economic ties with its Mediterranean and Arab neighbors.

Apart from that, the event also sheds light on the rising cost of climate that are currently being faced by countries in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

According to estimate from the World Bank, water scarcity due to climate change will result in countries in the Middle East lose about 6 to 14% of their GDP.

Food scarcity is another issue. The World Bank said in 2020 that even though North Africa and Middle East only make up 6% of the world’s population, they account for 1 out of 5 people who are food insecure.

Climate change

The city of Eilat is also dealing with the impact of climate change, which is located in northern Israel close to the Red Sea and is a tourist hotspot.

Other seaside locations, such as Aqaba in Jordan and Egypt’s Red Sea Riveria are also dealing with similar challenges.

Eilat is making efforts to establish itself as an international hub for foodtech and agritech. Last year, it implemented a development plan to do so, which was worth NIS 170 million.

But, earlier this year, Israeli researchers published a study showing that due to extreme climate patterns, the number of domestic and international tourists to outdoor recreational sites in the country will decline by 2050.

The changing climate has recently had an impact on South Asia as well as the entire Middle East. Over the summer, large areas of Iran and Pakistan were devastated by massive floods.

The latter saw its worst monsoon floods in about a decade, which left almost one-third of the country underwater. Other areas have also seen such devastation, which makes it a priority to address this matter.

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