Under the patronage of the President of the University of Technology -Iraq, and in cooperation between the Environment Research Center at the University of Technology and the Department of Relations and Media in the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, a scientific symposium was organized tagged (the role of higher education in protecting and improving the Iraqi environment), which was held in the University of Technology. Monday, March 28, 2022, at 10 am.

The activities of the symposium began with the playing of the Iraqi national anthem and then a recitation of the Holy Qur’an, after which the President of the University of Technology spoke in the opening speech about the importance of holding the symposium to shed light on the most important environmental issues and challenges of climate change facing Iraq in particular and the world in general, then a documentary film was shown Prepared by the Department of Information and Public Relations in the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

The scientific session, headed by Prof. Dr. Abdul Hameed Mohammed Jawad, began with a residency in the civil engineering and environment research center at the university. The symposium, after it begins, is summarized as follows:

 

1. The document of Iraq’s Nationally Determined Contributions on Climate Change is a voluntary national contribution and a vision that represents Iraq’s policy in dealing with the problem of climate change. This document comes in response to what was stated in the Paris Agreement, which was approved by the twenty-first Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is also a road map in which all sectors operating in Iraq participate to implement plans, programs, and projects to confront climate change and its potential effects. Addressing climate change requires strengthening scientific research and technological development in the areas of technology transfer, economic aspects, and other areas related to climate change and the life of citizens in order to mitigate the effects of climate change and adapt to it, therefore, it is necessary to give importance to scientific research and to support the preparation of extensive and in-depth studies regarding climate change and its multifaceted effects, and to support graduate students. New and developed projects can be transformed into projects that serve the Iraqi environmental, economic and social reality.
2. The research centers are one of the important formations of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and it is necessary to assign the Environment Research Center at the University of Technology to implement a workshop for all research centers with environmental concerns under the supervision, support and backing of the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and with the participation of the Ministry of Environment to formulate research directions compatible with the document Ton’s national contributions are a working guide for preparing research plans for the coming years, provided that the outputs of the scientific output of research, studies, applications, technological techniques, and patents are presented in a scientific conference organized for this purpose.
3. Working on preparing ambitious plans to develop the capabilities of university scientific staff and workers in research centers to enable them to keep pace with modern environmentally friendly technological developments by supporting innovations and transferring environmentally friendly technology in line with the needs of society.
4. Support and support research centers in universities that are concerned with the climate change file and provide the necessary supplies, which will positively reflect on enabling research centers workers to assess the risk of climate change and develop solutions to mitigate them.
5. Continuing to hold seminars, educational workshops, field tours, illustrations, posters, and awareness videos, on a regular basis, to inform all members of society about issues related to the environment and what are the means used to improve climate change, as well as in cooperation with all state institutions and civil society organizations.
6.  Awareness in the environmental field and deepening environmental knowledge among all segments and categories of society, including the university community, are appropriate environmental means and messages to help motivate and contribute to individual and collective participation in protecting the environment and preserving its resources. Given that climate change is the problem of the times, this requires the Department of Relations and Information in the Ministry of Higher education and scientific research, in cooperation with the Ministry’s formations with environmental concerns, to formulate an ambitious plan in this field so that the Ministry and its formations will have a high national response to the problem of climate change and related environmental issues.
7. Iraq, as a developing country, believes that solutions to the problem of climate change can result in results only with the active participation of all countries and within the principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, which are built on the basis of shared responsibility and to benefit from the international support allocated in this field, such as the support provided by the Climate Fund Green, for example, but not limited to, the matter requires that Iraqi universities and their research centers prepare research projects, or applied projects, move and communicate with the Ministry of Environment to provide financial support for the implementation of such projects whose effects will be reflected in limiting the impact of climate change, provided that the formulation of these projects is in accordance with the principles of Adaptation or mitigation of these effects.