Congratulations to Prof.Dr. Fouad Beseiso Scientific Contributions in Jan.2023 Green Economy as a refuge in Adapting to Climate Change Human disastrous Impacts

My Contribution

Prof.Dr. Fouad Beseiso Scientific Contributions in Jan.2023

Green Economy as a refuge in Adapting to Climate Change Human disastrous Impacts

As a founder and active member I participated in the Arab Society for Economic Research (ASFER) in its initiated first public lecture of its scientific and cultural season for the year 2023, presented by Prof. Dr. Atef Coprusi, Professor Emeritus of Economics at McMaster University, Canada, and Board Member in the Arab Society for Economic Research. This lecture which has been presented on 25/1/2023 gave illustrations on "The challenges and human disastrous impact of climate change on Arab countries development and the potential for sustainable development in light of the twenty-seventh Egypt Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27)"

I gave some comments related to the green economy role and its determinants related to the production aspects with relation mainly to the financial sector led by Central Banks in playing its human sustained role in adapting to the climate changes.

I refer in the following to some of the main addressed issues related to the lecture topic and my contribution to this issue.

First: Dr. Kobrosi highlights:

Climate Change and Arab Development

As the climate change has been emerging as a basic human wellbeing crisis impacting even the political, economic and social stability on national, regional and international basis, issues of adapting to the disastrous human impact caused by the climate change have become a priority for national and global action programmes.

Climate disasters increase political and social instability, and increase economic and financial imbalances, in addition to reducing per capita income, job opportunities, and growth.

Arab countries are suffering more than the world standards of suffering from the climate changes. Following indicator gave illustration on this serious climate change and environmental crisis.

• ·       Fresh Water use exceeds 400%of the available renewable fresh water. More 70%of water is used in agriculture and it is often inefficient.
• ·       The costs of adaptation are less than the climate change caused.
• ·       The cost of rising sea levels is about $27per meter in Egypt (without adaptation) while it is about $1.96 billion in Tunisia. The costs of averted sea level rise are estimated at $21 billion in Egypt and $1.2billion in Tunisia.
• ·       Arab countries are witnessing the effects of global climate change. Annual temperatures have increased by about 1.5C in the past three decades which is double the global average increase (0.7c) over the same period.
• ·       The inability of non-oil Arab countries to finance the development of appropriate adaptation programmes.  The intensity of climatic pressures leads to many human and material damages.  It also exacerbates the problem of land degradation (desertification, salinization), as well as water pressures and rising sea levels.

Second: My comments

• ·       Role of Financial System led by Central Banks

As the climate change has been emerging as a basic human wellbeing crisis, a revolution on the traditional economic sciences which had been based upon the objective of maximizing material wealth, produced a newly human economic thought directed to the human moral economy designed for human sustained development which resulted in the birth of green economic system.

The concept of 'green economy' refers to economic activity and growth that aims to achieve sustainable development taking into account the reduction of environmental risks and the scarcity of environmental resources. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) defines a green economy as "a system of economic activities that will improve the quality of human life in the long term, without exposing future generations to environmental risks or serious ecological scarcity." http://www.uabonline.org/ar/research/economic/15701601157516021575160415731602157815891575158315/35036/0

Analysts and experts expect that the development of the green economy and changing unsustainable consumption patterns will lead to economic growth in the public and private sectors, as building a green economy is a path towards achieving sustainable development that includes social, environmental and economic development as a whole.  Near-term environmental investments positively impact environmental wealth, employment opportunities and social services in the long term.

• ·       The financial sector may contribute fruitfully to the measures taken within adaptation policies for climate changes as well as for integrating environmental pillar into sustained development. This role should be led by central banks as the main defined authority for supervision and banking financing regulations, thus issue regulatory directions favoring financing green investments while avoiding financing investments producing detrimental impact on the climate heat. Central bank’s monetary policy related to reserve requirements is a main tool in these cases.
• ·       Role of Capital Markets: Designing effective incentives for pollution control requires an understanding of what determines the environmental performance of industrial enterprises. Earlier research on agents that may exert pressure on enterprises to improve their environmental performance has shown that capital markets, including in such countries as Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and the Philippines, react to news relating to a firm’s environmental performance (World Bank, 2005). But do the reactions of capital markets, reflected in lower market values, and then induce enterprises to improve their environmental performance?

Environment pillar and children education and culture

As education and culture play a leading role in society's civilized and socio-economic progress and human well-being, their role as played for environmental pillar inclusion into sustained human development seems to suffer many education and cultural gaps, mainly in relation to planting the seeds of environmental protection into the minds and behavioral actions and morals of humans beginning with their childhood. As we have a wise common saying states " knowledge in childhood is like engraving in stone " and as the sustained long-term environmental protection need for sustained human well-being, these conceptual as well as practical determinants justify strongly the feasibility of instituting environment as educational, Knowledgeable and cultural issue for children in all of their life stages including the pre and during the primary education stages.

Prof. Dr. Fouad H. Beseiso