The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) has participated at the ABIS ANNUAL COLLOQUIUM 2015: GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGY – New models and approaches to achieve sustainable living, hosted by the Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, on 20-21 October 2015.
PAM Secretary General, Amb. Sergio Piazzi, addressed the Plenary Session dedicated to the definition of a global sustainability strategy, during which a group of international leaders discussed societal, market-based and political strategies to advance the global sustainability agenda, and how to overcome conventional barriers to progress and change.
In his intervention PAM Secretary General recalled that Sustainable Development represents a priority for the Assembly, which has tackled this issue from several angles, due to the large variety of implications that the concept of “Sustainable Development” has.
“There are many stress factors for the Mediterranean region: population is rapidly growing, and it is necessary to feed this population, using the available soil. The features typical of our region, for instance water scarcity, desertification and the tendency of the population to live in urban areas, increase the complexity of the challenges that we have to face”, Amb. Piazzi said. In addition to this, one has to take into account the wars and the consequent unprecedented migratory flows that are wounding the Mediterranean. For PAM it is a priority to foster cooperation at the regional level in order to guarantee, to the peoples of the Mediterranean region, an adequate access to food supply, potable water and energy resources through a sustainable development strategy. These issues undermine the wellbeing of the Mediterranean citizens, as well as the political and social stability of the region.
Since its establishment, PAM has constantly addressed this issue, underlining the strong commitment of the region’s parliamentarians to play their role of legislators at the national level, but also to give their contribution at the international level, for example within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Already in 2009, PAM gathered representatives of parliaments from the entire world and produced the “Malta declaration of the commitment by Parliamentarians to COP15 and beyond”, which was presented at the Conference of Parties in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, the results of the COP15 were not those that the world was aiming for.
PAM is already planning a parliamentary event, in spring 2016, to discuss the implications of the decisions that will be taken at the Climate Change COP21 Conference in Paris, for the Mediterranean region, which is particularly vulnerable to the effects of Climate Change.
“In this framework, our parliamentarians are fully committed to support, through their legislative prerogatives, the efforts of all relevant international actors in this crucial sector for our region”, PAM Secretary General said.
In his concluding remarks, Amb. Piazzi said that in New York, on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Wu Hongbo, Under-Secretary-General for Economic e Social Affairs, has sought the cooperation of PAM in order to get the assistance, at the legislative level, of the 28 member parliaments in support of the implementation of the Post 2015 agenda. The PAM delegation in New York accepted this request, and will be working closely with the UN Department on Economic and Social Affairs on this topic.