Governo Italiano
On the sidelines of the UN Water Conference, various discussions on green issues and Memorandum signing. Italy joins the IDRA Alliance.
Rome March 24 – On the sidelines of the work of the 2023 United Nations Water Conference in New York, the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto held a series of bilateral international cooperation meetings. During the busy agenda of meetings, the Minister recalled the intense international cooperation activity carried out by MASE, underlining that in 2022 only, Italy financed cooperation initiatives with over fifty bilateral projects, worth 69 million Euros, in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
The Minister met with the president of the General Assembly, Csaba Korösi, underlining the importance of the Italian climate fund, which will soon be operational with an allocation of 840 million Euros per year, until 2026. Pichetto underlined the strategic nature of the fifty ongoing bilateral cooperation projects with African, Latin American and Asian states. At the same time, the meeting was an opportunity to highlight the commitment to fight desertification, which includes projects in Burkina Faso, Ghana and Niger.
In the confrontation with the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention against Desertification, (UNCCD), Ibrahim Thiaw, Minister Pichetto instead communicated Italy's adhesion to the "IDRA" Alliance against drought. The bilateral meeting also provided an update on cooperation activities within the framework of the Convention, to which Italy contributes six million Euros, in particular those underway in the Sahel region for the fight against desertification and for the promotion of economic opportunities for the local communities. The Minister reiterated what he had already declared during his speech at the General Assembly, namely that the commitments undertaken by the countries are aimed at preventing entire populations from being forced to move in search of water and acceptable living conditions.
Pichetto confirmed Italian support and solidarity to Ukrainian Environment Minister Ruslan Strilets, reiterating the commitment to strengthen the cooperation in the field of environmental protection, in the context of the country's reconstruction.
During a meeting with the Tunisian Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries Abdelmonaem Belaati, Pichetto said he was ready to help Tunisia in the various challenges it is called to face, even as part of the Mediterranean ecosystem itself, giving the dicastery's availability to sign a new memorandum on sustainable development. A tool "that will be able to give continuity and strengthen technical cooperation in the environmental sector”.
In the meeting with her counterpart from Chile, Maria Heloisa Rojas, the excellent relations between the two countries were confirmed also in the sector of environmental protection, sustainable development and energy transition: the two ministries are working to define the text of a technical memorandum of understanding to strengthen the cooperation on sustainable development issues.
The Water Conference was also the occasion to sign a new "Memorandum of Understanding" for cooperation in sustainable development between MASE and the corresponding Ministry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Minister Pichetto wanted to remind Minister Eve Bazaiba Masudi the important results achieved in key sectors such as the fight against climate change and access to clean energy in remote areas of the country. Now, with the new protocol, it will be possible to continue and strengthen the work.
At the end of the Conference, during the meeting with the CARICOM ambassadors, the important extension of the signing of the new Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation to five new Caribbean states was recorded. Pichetto, who recalled Italy's traditional commitment to small island developing states, welcomed signatures from Dominica, Guyana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Haiti. These are in addition to the subscriptions made, on the occasion of the Cop27 in Sharm El Sheik, regarding Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia. Go to the gallery
