During the Portuguese presidency of the EU and within the framework of their activities, the Associação Industrial Portuguesa (Portuguese Industrial Association) and the Centro de Estudos EuroDefense - Portugal (EuroDefense Studies Centre), will be holding, in partnership, a Round Table entitled «Environment, Energy and Security at the EU-Africa Summit», on 20 November at the venue of the AIP.

Aim

To seize the opportunity, during the EU-Africa Summit, to promote reflection and debate on the problems of climate change caused by energy consumption and its consequences on security, with specific emphasis on the identification of essential elements to be integrated in the formulation of the «Joint EU-Africa Strategy».

Themes on debate

There will be a reflection on the new global threats that affect the environment, resulting from an excessive consumption of finite energetic resources and its consequences on security, seen in a broad sense, within the EU-Africa relationship framework.

Problems related to the environment, energy and security in Africa are different from those experienced in other continents, although the consequences affect us all, perhaps having a graver impact on the less-developed countries. This specificity must be taken into account when formulating the «joint EU-Africa strategy».

For that, and because we expect that useful ideas and conclusions are drawn from the Round Table, we suggest some themes that seem to be very important and timely in the present situation, and ask all participants to concentrate their interventions on these issues:

• Improvement of environmental conditions in Africa in view of overpopulation, lack of basic sanitation, endemic diseases, desertification and lack of urban planning;
• Organisation of energy production and consumption, management of fossil fuel reserves and the maximizing of renewable energies exploitation, where Portugal could give a significant contribution;
• Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of energy crops, in view of food needs and deforestation that can be associated to them;
• Creation and management of security systems, measures and forces, with the support of the EU, to intervene in Africa during catastrophes and calamities (droughts, fires and floods).

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