Abu Dhabi to welcome Global Environmental Leaders at Eye on Earth Summit 2015

ABU DHABI, 6th October, 2015 (WAM) -- Sustainability thought leaders, members of the United Nations and global experts in environmental and information networking will convene in Abu Dhabi tomorrow for the "Eye on Earth Summit 2015". Held under the patronage of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the three-day summit aims to promote dialogue and drive international action that revolutionises the way we collect, access, share and use data and information for sustainable development. Eye on Earth Summit 2015, taking place from 6th-8th October in Abu Dhabi, is the first international gathering of sustainability stakeholders to follow the adoption of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development by the UN Heads of State. With the theme of "Informed Decision-Making for Sustainable Development", the summit will highlight the role that governments, technology, the scientific community and citizen participation play in enhancing access to quality data about the state of the world’s resources. The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi, EAD, the environmental regulator for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, is a founding Eye on Earth Alliance Partner. Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary-General at EAD, said, "As the first international summit following the release of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, Eye on Earth Summit 2015 will be the world’s foremost event dedicated to identifying solutions for greater access to and sharing of environmental, social and economic data. Equipping decision makers with the necessary data and information to make informed decisions is crucial as we all work towards delivering on the post-2015 development agenda to safeguard the future of the planet and humanity, and we hope that the summit will allow us to agree on the right roadmap to achieve goals outlined in the agenda." More than 150 prominent international speakers will explore the supply, demand and enabling conditions of environmental-related data and information, and the crucial role this plays in creating a healthier planet. The launch of several major Eye on Earth projects also form part of the summit programme. These cover the Special Initiatives focus areas of equal access, linked networks, education, biodiversity, community sustainability and resiliency, disaster management, water security, oceans and blue carbon. The summit will open with a focus on policy maker demand for environmental-related data, taking a look at the challenges faced in finding data and information required to make evidence-based decisions. Speakers at the summit will include Dr. Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Minister for State for Federal National Council Affairs, Dr. Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water, Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP and Under-Secretary General of the UN as keynote speaker, Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, Director of Energy and Climate Change at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Robbie Schingler, Co-Founder and President of Planet Labs, Felix Dodds, Senior Fellow at the Global Research Institute of the University of North Carolina and an Associate Fellow at the Tellus Institute, and Dr. Fernando R. Echavarria, Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans, Environment and Science, OES. – Emirates News Agency, WAM -http://www.wam.ae/en/news/emirates/1395286333976.html