Green Options

The World Economic Forum, held this weekend in Egypt, featured speeches by luminaries like President Bush of the USA; President Mubarack of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan but, eco entrepreneurs shared the spotlight.

Young leaders from the Middle East have called on their business and government leaders to implement reforms immediately and transparently if they are to fulfill their potential by 2025. “We need faster change to keep pace with what’s happening in the rest of the world,” said Amira Abdel-Aziz, a masters student at Cairo University.

Nestled within the heart of the Swiss Alps, the ski slopes of Davos are unusually quiet this week as the mountain resort plays host to over 6,000 CEOs, presidents, prime ministers, media representatives and rock stars attending the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

As forum participants breath the fresh mountain air and marvel at today’s particularly sunny blue skies, the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy together with the Earth Institute at Columbia University have released their 2008 Environmental Performance Index. The report fittingly awards their Swiss hosts top place amongst 149 other countries based on 25 indicators of pollution control and natural resource management.

Switzerland takes the number one spot ahead of Sweden, Norway and Finland having performed particularly strongly in the areas of environmental conservation and renewable energy. The report shows a general correlation between national wealth, sound environmental management and positive human health scores. European nations perform particularly well amongst the developed world.