Kuwait on Sunday said it supports local and international efforts to mitigate the destructive effects war and armed conflicts have on the environment, while simultaneously backing the international community’s fight against clime change.

Environmental “sustainability” is a core concern for Kuwait’s political leadership, the Kuwaiti foreign minister’s representative, advisor Abdulaziz Al-Jarallah, told a local gathering co-organized by the Kuwait Environment Protection Society (KEPS) and state-owned Kuwait Oil Company (KOC).

Against the backdrop of the “International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict,” KOC CEO Khaled Al-Otaibi said environment protection is a collective endeavor that brings together a number of state bodies.

The environment suffers immensely in the event of an armed conflict, where some 40 percent of such wars usually lead to environmental degradation in the aftermath of the destruction, the head of the International Organization for Migration’s delegation in Kuwait Mazen Abulhassan pointed out.

Given the importance of the matter, Kuwait has assembled a “youth initiative” aiming to protect some of the country’s “environmental treasures,” according to KEPS chief Wajdan Al-Oqab, recalling the catastrophic impact the 1990 Gulf War had on Kuwait’s environment.

Source: Kuwait News Agency