 Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, I'm pleased to join you today at the COP28 site event, hosted by IAEA together with UNIDO, UAE Environmental Group and World Packaging Association. This event will focus on sustainable processing and the packaging of food in Arabian countries, in the Arabian region, and on how to best address food safety and the security challenges. Climate change contributes to food insecurity and makes it vital that we work together to prevent food loss and waste. Our food packaging plays a role in reducing post-harvest food loss and contribute to a safe and sustainable global food system. IAEA can help countries adapt to climate change in multiple areas, including food production systems. Through our technical cooperation program, IAEA also helps build capacities at national level to monitor and adapt to climate change using nuclear applications. Packaging is an integral part of food production. It's not only increased the safe life of food, it also facilitates storage and distribution. Synthetic packaging materials based on fossil hydrocarbons are used extensively due to their low cost and good mechanical properties. However, concerns related to their sustainability are increasing. The IAEA has support research into the development of biogradable, biodegradable or reusable packaging materials based on nature resources like starch, vegetable oil, and cellar loss. Radiation technology offers a clean and environmental friendly means for the development of such packaging materials. In addition, nuclear techniques can also be used to improve the efficiency of plastic recycling. The IAEA New Tech Plastic Initiative is in helping countries to use radiation technology to recycle plastic waste into high-value products, thus reducing plastic waste. Nuclear science and technology are also used to sterilize packaging using radiation. By sterilizing packaging, before it comes into contact with food, we can help to prevent food loss from pathogens like bacteria and the foggy and ensure that more food service survives from each harvest. As a hotter temperature and the new precipitation patterns facilitate the spread of plant and animal disease into new regions, concerns also the safety of food are also increased. Food irradiation is already a well-established practice. It can be applied to food product, both packaging and unpackaged to eliminate pathogens, reduce post-havoc loses, and ensure food safety. I look forward to your intervention on the importance of sustainable food packaging in the contact for climate change. And I hope we can explore how to tackle these new challenges together by coming, combining our expertise. And thank you very much. I wish a success of the panel. Thank you, Mr. Yu, for your introduction. And now we will start the panel. On behalf of the World Packaging Organization, I have really the honor to be the moderator of this important panel. And I take the opportunity to thank the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, UNIDO, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and EEG, the Emirati Environment Group, to facilitate the organization of this panel at COP28. Reflecting on my visit with my colleague Luciana two years ago to Dubai Expo here in the same place, we were really very impressed by Dubai Expo, and we met also Habiba. But we were very little bit disappointed by how packaging was perceived. When we visited the Sustainability Pavilion and the Thera Pavilion, really they were only showing the negative aspect of packaging, only the images of PET bottles and the images of cans and the oceans and the turtles and all of this, only showing the negative aspect of packaging. And I'm very happy, really, to be here again in the same place and to moderate this panel to shed the light on the important and the positive role of packaging, especially in saving food and avoiding food loss. And here we're going to discuss how packaging has a very important, sustainable role in avoiding food waste, especially a lot of statistics. I have been watching a lot of panel talking on the high number of hunger all around the world, and packaging has really an important role to play, and we cannot discuss it today. In my panel today, we have Mr. Dijani Tezera. He will be doing the concluding remark, and I really thank UNIDO a lot for all their support. And I take the opportunity as well to thank Mr. Ali Badarney and Alexa, unfortunately they are not here, but they really played a great effort to allow this panel. I want also to welcome Ms. Luciana Pellegrino, the BPO president, and Ms. Habiba Almarashi, CEO of the Emirates Environment Group, and we have Mr. Martin Croze, also the director of the division program at the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Mr. Nidal Haddad, the CEO of Al Bayadar. So I will start with Mr. Habiba. Ms. Habiba is the co-founder and the chairperson of the Emirates Environmental Group. It's a really pioneering NGO in Emirates, and we are really very happy to partner with them, and especially that recently they have become our WPO member in the UAE. They do a lot of education and awareness programs, especially in the waste management and awareness for students, and Ms. Almarashi has been actively associated in leadership role in various global UN bodies, as UN Global Compact and other international governmental bodies. She's also, as I said, our WPO representative, and we are very happy with this partnership. My first question to Ms. Habiba. We are witnessing that really I was also discussing in the break with Luciana that really the packaging industry is moving a lot into sustainability, and we can see this how packaging for many food products and personal care products are really moving into less weight or more paper product that they are environmental. But what is really missing, and here if you want to close the loop, require ensuring that there's a waste sorting infrastructure, and if we have a recycling industry, because really even if the consumer are sorting or even if the packaging industry are moving into more sustainable industry, but if we don't have a recycling industry, then we have a gap in the loop. So I'm interested to know what EEG is doing with the government and the private sector here in the United Arab Emirates to promote the recycling infrastructure. Thank you very much, Soha. That's a very good question. You know when we started in 1991, we found we were looking at what is the environmental landscape in the country, and we found that we consume a lot of water, we consume a lot of energy, and we produce a lot of waste. So this became our objective to work on them. Now when you look at why do you have so much waste that comes out? What is the reason? What is the cause behind it? When you found that yes, packaging was one of the biggest elements that was coming out, and all this waste was ending up in landfills. The percentage per person per year was more than 900 kilos, and that's one of the highest. So we started looking, okay, if we start educating the people on segregating waste, of course we do a lot of work on conservation of resources, on reducing the consumption, on reducing the food consumption, and it goes all the way to the packaging. Then if we tell them, okay, segregate your material, where are we going to take it? And then why would they listen to me if there are no laws, there are no incentives for them on the ground to enable them to do that? So we started looking at the scenario in the country, what do we have? And I remember very clearly in 1989, early 1990s, we had one factory that we'll take, was recycling paper, and in 93 we had the first factory to recycle aluminium. So I started with these two materials, knocking the doors, engaging the private sector companies, engaging schools to be actively involved in the program. And I must say the reception was very good, very positive reception from the different sectors of the society. And we started taking the material and giving it to the recycling factories. We started organizing field visits for the schools to go and see these factories to ensure that, you know, so they are confident that, yes, recycling is happening. Then we started knocking the doors of the government to ensure that we do have some sort of legal infrastructure that will help and support this whole process. We ourselves, as an NGO, we created a very strong platform, which is called Emirates Recycling Awards. And this has been going on for the last 27 years now. And I will promise you really, when we started with the aluminium recycling, the first material that we collected, aluminium cans, and took it to the factories, and we went to see the process, so they would take, melt it, clean it and everything, and pour it into cubes, you know, just like gold and copper. And then it will be sold in the local market as well as international market. So it opened our eyes to so many things. And then the local packaging companies started buying from this local company that is recycling because we went to really market it for them to say that this is a very good material and it is locally produced, so you are saving so much money and you do not need to buy raw material from international markets. And that is how it started resonating. And at that time, we had these packaging companies in Al Ain and Dubai, and they will fill it up with soft drinks. So for every one sheet that was produced, we used to get 70 cans. Today we get 75 cans of the same. And we have followed the step-by-step process, and we found that it is 60 days from the day that you deposit your cans to the day that it comes back on the shelf, full-fledged, full can. This way, the company started seeing the economic case of it, the community started seeing the benefit because we reward the participants, the schools, the companies, the families. So they started seeing that. Companies were very happy, particularly the hospitality sector. When we went to them and we started talking about what is happening in their kitchen, what kind of material is being brought from where, how much is being cooked, what are the portions that are being served, what happens of the food that is left over. So this really opened a new area for the hospitality sector in the UAE to look at understanding how much they need to cook in their kitchens. And I have hotels nowadays in the UAE, particularly in Dubai, that have got zero waste in the kitchen, zero waste in the kitchen. And this is an incredible achievement really, and they are very keen. And I think when we had the economic crisis and the financial crisis in 2008 was an eye-opener for everybody. So so was it for the hospitality sector to understand that they need to save every single dirham that they have to ensure that they stand afloat and that they can be competitive in this very congested market. You know, when you look at the global statistics, when you look at the density of hotel rooms, UAE has got the highest hotel rooms density in the world. So that means that they have to be extraordinary, special to ensure that they run their operations in an efficient and profitable manner. So these were the ways that we started slowly, but surely today we have nine materials that we collect, packaging material. We have the glass, we have the plastic, we have the tins as well, that is a new thing that we started, and we have the scrap metal, you know, of the steel and all the other packaging material and the paper and the plastic and the glass. So a lot of people have now understood it, and it's a normal norm now you see it. Thank you. Thank you Habiba for this informative answer, and you answered many questions that I wanted to ask you later. Now we go to Mr. Nidal Haddad. We are very happy actually to have somebody representing the private sector on this panel. And Mr. Nidal Haddad is the founder and the CEO of Al Bayadar International, and it's the leading food packaging industry here based in UAE, and it specializes in innovative sustainable food packaging catering to the global food and beverage sector. And they became a benchmark under your leadership, and you have over 9,000 clients and 400 partners across five continents, and also they are implementing eco-friendly practices and developing sustainable products to reduce environmental footprint. My first question to you Mr. Nidal, we all know that the most important role of packaging is to save food and to protect it from environmental and other factors, and to extend its shelf life, especially with the challenge of sustainability and all of this. I'm very interested to see how Bayadar is implementing active packaging like modified atmosphere packaging or other practices in order to extend the shelf life of food and avoid food loss and waste. Well, again thank you very much for including the private sector. I think everyone should be in this discussion, thank you. Food packaging, first of all I would like to say that food packaging has been under attack for the last 20 years and for its contribution to the waste, and many businesses, they started to look at food packaging as if it is something not necessary, it is something complimentary. I'm here to say that food packaging is like any other industry, it has to go for the eco-friendly and sustainability transformation, however it is a very important industry in reducing the food wastage. According to FAU, 8 to 10 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions is coming from food wastage and food packaging can play a big role in bringing down this number and we have brought down this number in some retailers, global retailers acting here in the region, from 35 percent to 4 percent by adopting design thinking technologies, by adopting simple technologies like MAP, Modified Atmosphere Packaging Technology, which is about taking the air from the package and then change the component, you know the air, its nitrogen, carbon and oxygen by decreasing the oxygen, increasing the nitrogen in most cases depending on the food material, and by simple technologies like vacuum, I mean you can just vacuum the air from the package itself and you can slow the growth of bacteria and give a chance to the product sometimes from days to weeks, I mean it depends on the product itself but if it's a green product or if it's a fruit, it can go up from 3 to 4 days up to 20 days, you know if it's meat or chicken, we prolonged by using MAP, Modified Atmosphere, from 3 days to 11 days, you know this gave more opportunity to the product to sell and to reduce the food wastage. Using design thinking methodology helped many retailers which is one of our pillars, it's like deep listening, instead of going to the client and proposing an item, we always thought listen to the client, learn, look at the entire process and understand how can you make a product that can give answers instead of just proposing the item you think that it's good for this client, one of our clients came to us and he said he's one of the largest retailers in the region and he said we have opened a cake bakery for the last two years, we are not making any income, please help us, so we told him please open the whole process for us, we started from the time the baker was packing the cake, till the time that the client went to the retail shop and took it and we dropped it from 28% to 6% by understanding that many of the waste was happening because the baker with a rough way were closing the containers, so we provided the containers, we proposed a solution with anti-shock that can take the weight that implemented on the package, we found that at the stacking time many cakes they just slide and they end up as a food wastage, so we provided the solution with interlocking system and we found that many clients they come back because they were using black containers without the possibility of seeing through, so we gave a transparent container, so we could eliminate and we could drop the food wastages big time and turn the customer from loss to profitability and this product was made from arpite, so we used tons of recycled battle plates coming from the beverage industry in order to create this solution contributing in the circular economy. Thank you, thank you Mr. Hatta. And now I'm happy to introduce my colleague, Ms. Luciana Pellegrino, she just elected, been elected in our last board meeting in Cape Town, she's the new WPO president and she's the first woman in history of the WPO to take this leading role, we are very happy to have you with us on this panel, so it's the first time for the WPO to be at Coop and this is really a milestone and really I thank IEA and UNIDO for giving us this opportunity, as Mr. Haddad is saying some people will think why packaging, why is there a word packaging organization, why talking on packaging and we keep on telling them packaging is essential for food, for export, for anything, any kind of industry, we cannot do anything without packaging, so Luciana if you can tell us how being at this panel for the first time for the WPO is important to discuss sustainable packaging solution. Thank you, Soha. I'm honored to join this panel. Thank you once again IAEA for the invitation, UNIDO and EEG as well and for the ones that are joining us today. So as Soha mentioned, this is a milestone for not only for WPO, for attending such an important stage at this important conference, but for the global packaging industry as well and the consuming goods industry and why I say that, because packaging and products are intrinsic related and they are such an important tool to our modern life in society. When we were here back two years ago during expo, we saw that everyone is talking about packaging, but from an emotional perspective and today together with my distinguished panelists, we are going to talk about packaging from a technical, a science-based and strategic approach. So we are going to talk to you today about different technologies to provide food security and food safety, but I would like to start to take one step ahead and talk to you about three dimensions of packaging in our society. So the first dimension is the economic growth. So packaging is a crucial tool for countries to support their economic growth, support industrial development and jobs will come with that, to support the expanding the range of products produced in that region and more than that, packaging will allow countries to export their goods and to explore overseas markets, also sourcing efficiently the society and allowing more efficient supply chains. So packaging plays, first of all, a very strategic participation as an economic tool for economic growth. And then we go to a second perspective in terms of packaging, that is the social perspective and we are talking a lot about this today as well. But it is an essential tool to offer health nutrition to society, quality of life, information about products, convenience when using products as well, but most of all the access to different products in a very, very efficient way. And last but not least, the third dimension of packaging in our society is the environmental dimension as well. So we are talking, yes, about efficiency in supply chains. We are talking about reducing food loss and food waste or any loss of products overall. And we have to acknowledge that food waste is a huge cause of CO2 emissions when they are biodegrading without oxygen in landfills. So this is really related to climate problem as well. And then today when we are talking about sustainable packaging for food security, what does it mean sustainable packaging? So sustainable packaging brings different elements with it. So it brings the elements by supporting society in a sustainable way. So it's based on the material. What is the source of this material? Is it a renewable material or not? A recyclable material or not? How efficiently this material is being used? Also, sustainable packaging relies on sustainable production using less energy, less water, less resources as well, but making the products available in a more efficient way to society and bringing efficiency and distribution. A third pillar for sustainable packaging is the consumption. How we drive consumers for a more conscious consumption and reducing the impact in this usage and usage and consumption of products. And last but not least is the end of life. That should never be an end of life. It should be a continuous life where we can circulate this material. We can reuse and recycle it and with that bring efficiency also to material usage. So those are some perspectives that will support us in our discussion today on how packaging can support more sustainable food security systems. Thank you, Luciano. Last but not least, our host, Mr. Martin Crozi from the IAEA. He's a director of the division of program support, coordination in the technical cooperation department responsible for quality assurance, climate change, communication and finance, big portfolio, Martin. I was telling Martin, even I'm not ashamed to say that the topic of nuclear and the atomic energy and all of this, how it will support food is a new topic for us. And as WPO, we are looking forward to see how we can cooperate in the field of packaging, especially that I read a lot about your cooperation with FAO. It's called Atoms for Food Initiatives. I read a lot about it and I was impressed. And as we are talking, packaging is essential for food. We cannot trade food without packaging. So packaging also is very important to preserve food. So Martin, I'm really looking forward for your answer to my question to tell me what is the connection between food packaging, food security and the role of the IAEA, especially in the atomic energy? Thank you very much, Soha. And dear panelists, dear audience, let me start my answer with a question. That question is, are we in the wrong pavilion here? I'm asking this because this is a nuclear pavilion. This is the pavilion of the IAEA, or we call it also the Atoms for Climate pavilion. So hosting this event, many might be asking, are we in the wrong pavilion? Or to turn it around, why are we talking about food and packaging in a nuclear pavilion? This is a good question to ask. And I hope I can give you an answer to my own question. So first of all, we have to recognize that it's a cop here. We're talking about climate change. And climate change has an impact on the food system. You have talked about it. Some of you have talked about it and we all know it. It has an impact on the food system. Food waste, food loss are big problems in a warming climate. The warmer it gets, the more bacteria, the more pathogens are affecting food, especially fresh food, talking about fruits and vegetables or meat. In a warmer climate, it is no secret that in a tropical or subtropical climate, in a warmer climate, you have more problems associated with a part against bacteria affecting food. So this problem is continuing to grow with a warming climate. So from a climate agenda, food safety, food security is a very pressing issue. Then we have talked about plastic waste associated with packaging. By the way, you said, I think, that the packaging industry has a negative connotation often. The same is true with nuclear, by the way. So you're not the only ones. The nuclear, in the public perception, often has a negative connotation. It's associated with something that is dangerous. Now, why is the IEA, and I come to answer my question, why is the IEA involved in such issues as food safety, food security, and even packaging? It's a well kept secret that the nuclear technologies are not only related to nuclear power or to radioactivity. There are many nuclear techniques and technologies that are being used, as we call it, for peaceful uses in agriculture, in health, in environment, in sustainable land management, in industry, and so on. These nuclear techniques and technologies, which I will explain a little bit later, maybe with your second question, are techniques and technologies that have nothing, absolutely nothing to do with radioactivity. But there are techniques available to promote climate smart agriculture using isotopic techniques or to use for sterilization of food irradiation techniques. And that is why, I was saying this is a well kept secret, that is why the IEA is involved in those areas, in those industries. And I'm very happy also to have the industry here at this panel, because even in the industry, often conventional techniques are being used when it comes to packaging and when it comes to sterilization. Heat, for example, related techniques are being used or chemical techniques are being used when it comes to sterilization and making food, having a longer shelf life. But there are techniques available, commercially available. We're not talking about something fancy for researchers and universities. We are talking about techniques that are commercially available that can help the food industry to make certain foods, you know, having a longer shelf life, sterilizing them, making sure that there's also no health problems associated with it. I have some examples and more explanation about these techniques, maybe in the second round. So I will leave it at this for the moment. Thank you for the second round. Now back to Habiba. Sorry, I'm removing the titles. So according to many market research studies, because you know in WTO we do a lot of research sometimes with our partners, there's a lot of confusion among the consumer level. The consumers are really aware about the environment and the climate change, and they want to take action into this and choosing less negative environmental packaging or sustainable packaging. But a lot of research are indicating that the consumer are really confused. Sometimes they don't understand what is the difference between compostable packaging, biogradable packaging, and this negative image about plastic, they think that plastic is not good at all and we need to get rid of plastic and go to paper. Although sometimes plastic, especially recycled plastic, and there's a development with bioplastic, and sometimes we need plastic to extend the shelf life, especially when we talk with perishable food. So I'm really interested to know what is your organization is doing to educate the consumer regarding this education gap and this confusion. You're absolutely right. The consumer has got a lot of power because he is the one buying the products and it is very important that the consumer is educated to make the right decisions. So we start with the school children and we have got so many programs to encourage them and to share with them the knowledge that they understand what is the difference between recyclable material and non-recyclable material and why we should encourage the recyclable material and what is the disadvantages of single use items regardless. At Emirates Environmental Group, we never say don't use single use. We say all single use items are not good. We should be looking at packaging material that are recyclable. So this is the mentality that we build the capacity of the students. Then we enter into the market and we do it in a lot of panel discussions. So we bring the industry to talk about these issues. It's very important that you have that all the time, sharing it with the society at large because this is not a seasonal issue. You are talking about a lot of damaging that is happening to the marine environment. You are talking about a lot of damage that's happening on the land environment. We are talking about the extinct of species because of ingestion of material that is thrown carelessly around the world. Actually, the morning I was in one of our Emirates doing a cleanup. This is an annual event that we do. We teach people there, learning by doing. When they get actually involved in the process of collecting waste that has been thrown in beautiful touristic areas, in beaches, in mountainous areas, in wadis and all these areas, they are understanding what is the right behavior and what's the wrong behavior. Then we are taking them into the next phase of segregating. What can go to the local recycling factories? You will find people then going into the bags and taking out the plastic and taking out the glass and taking out the aluminium for them to understand that this is a material that is very valuable. There's a lot of energy that's locked in there. There's a lot of water that's locked in there. It's money. Understanding their role when they see the bags have been collected, we arrange field visits for them to go and see the recycling factories so they understand that mentality. And then we build the knowledge for the children to understand we have 50 types of plastic, why only two types can be recycled. So where is the gap? We need finances, we need research, and what will be the role of the students? You will be amazed at the innovation that comes from the student community, the applications that they do, that they want to encourage and build knowledge and build awareness. And you are absolutely right. People say that we are confused. There are so many things that we need to understand to enable us to do the right decisions. So when we do in the workshops, in the schools as well, we work with them to identify the marks, the labels, the things that are put at the bottom of the bottles or bags. So they understand each and every one of them. When a student is educated and learned, he is the one who takes that information home. So he or she are the ones that are actually educating their parents and educating their siblings. And that is how we build. We receive so many times, adults coming to us to say, my child is so in so school and you have done with them this workshop. Thank you very much. Now at home, we have started implementing these things. So we teach them how to reuse the material. Even the recyclable material, the single use items, now we do a huge art from waste competition every year. But the material that we want them to create is a material that is reusable in their schools as well. So although it is a single use, even if it didn't end into the recycling facility, they can create a very good and beneficial item that they can put it in their own schools and use it. And we put special specification and when they achieve it, of course, the schools get a lot of awards. Then you go into the right type of laws and regulations. So you are advocating. My next question. My next question that was on regulation. I'm sorry. Thank you. So Nidal, have you gave us a perspective how the NGO, because they are an NGO, working on increasing awareness at the consumer level between different sustainable packaging material. I'm interested to know from a private sector, because you represent a private sector industry, food leading, food packaging industry. How do you deal with the consumer to increase their awareness from a private sector perspective, especially regarding different packaging material? I'm sure you covered several. Do you have any kind of communication directly with the consumer or with the brand owners, if you can tell us? Thank you. See, we have communication with the consumers, but our largest communication, you know, we have a B2C and we have a B2B2C. We have our own shops. We have nine U shops at the size of 700, 800 meters in the region we have here in Qatar and Oman. And this is a very good platform. I call them, you know, there's French word, labo, from laboratory. I call them the labo. This is how we talk to people and how we listen to people, you know. And we have our e-commerce platform where we receive a lot of questions and there's a dialogue with the end consumers. However, I mean, the retailers, the huge retailers, they, in my opinion, they are the right, because, I mean, if we receive in our shop 1,000 consumer per day, a retailer would receive 4,000 consumer per day. This is the rate here in Dubai. So this is very much at a larger scale. So we talk to the retailers, we talk to the consumers, we have a lot of events we do, not only at the packaging. I don't think it's only about packaging. It's about the whole understanding to the industry. If you come to our factory, for example, in Jabal Ali, the factory is powered by solar energy. And we are, we are the largest, we have the largest privately owned solar farm. And the machines are green machines. In our prescription to the green machines, they consume 35 to 38 percent lower energy. And we have a botanical garden that we take the sewage water that used for the worker accommodation. And we have 400 trees. And we do compost from the trees, from the leaf. We do compost. We have composting areas that we produce our own soil. And this is how we have a zero waste organization. We bring every month, in nine months of the school year, we bring every month about 25 to 30 at least school children. And we do introduce them, we do present our industry and the whole industry, how could an industry become sustainable? And we do talk about plastic. Now coming to your question about plastic, I think making the plastic a daemon or devil, I mean, I do, we have seven factories. Four of them, they do produce paper products. That's not only, I'm not defending my own interest. I am an eco responsible person. And I started our sustainability program 2002 when people thought that this is a waste of money and energy. And they think that we are doing, you know, fantasy, you know. However, I think plastic is a part of our 20 and 21st century civilization. It's 100 years old. And we do not last forever. It's coming from the polymers, from oil, started in 1,950. And probably it will finish by 2050. And I think the way we handle plastic, the end life of the product is the question. And if we do handle aluminum the same way, we will have the same problem. If we do handle, you know, any other material, I mean, they say the turtle has plastic straw in her nose. Okay, I'm sorry for that. But if it was aluminum straw or paper straw or whatsoever, I mean, we have a problem in our understanding, the circular economy and implementing it, we think in a line, we don't think in a circle. And I think this is what we talk to the consumer. We do not limit our conversation to the consumer about our own products. I mean, the awareness about sustainability and about the planet where we live in should be at much wider than a plastic or packaging or battery of a car or a electric car should be really because it's not going to last if we keep doing what we are doing forever. Especially now we see in fast moving restaurants, we see, for example, salad put in a paper bowl. But sometimes they are fooling the consumer because this paper bowl, the reliner of plastic that the consumer don't see it. Because sometimes, especially for food, you cannot put it directly with paper, especially with dry food. So there is a lack of communication with the consumer because the media and the social media, they are labeling the plastic as the demon or the wrong devil. But we are the consumer, we are littering, we are putting these PET bottles in the ocean, not the plastic by itself. So I think that there's a response. Sure. Just to make one comment as well. Oh, thank you. Just jumping in very quickly. What I see is that it's regardless the material, because even if it's a recyclable material, more recyclable, like paper or aluminum, but even plastic that can be recycled. It's not about the material itself, but the systemic approach of having a circular programming place, like infrastructure for collection or consumer education for not littering. So it's not the material itself, but how we handle this material as a sustainable society, how municipalities are involved, how consumers are involved in order to make sure that this material either is going to a landfill and it's going to be there, protected, or it's going to a recycling system. I just want to add one very important, very little but important thing. We have in paper, under the PFC and EFC. This is a program where you cannot use paper unless you prove that you have recycled the same, that you have planted the same amount of trees. So why don't we do that in plastic? Exactly. Why don't we say to the polymer manufacturer, you cannot sell a million ton unless you prove that you held in recycling a million ton. We have the example and it works across the supply chain. I mean, we have clients, big names, that they need to make sure that we are using paper, you know, PFC or EFC paper. I fully agree. Thank you. Now we go back to Luciana, our new WTO president. If you can share with us your new vision on the new impact of packaging in our society. Yes, sure. To talk about the impact of packaging in our society, it's interesting to see how our society has grown in the past 123 years. Back in 1900, there were 1.6 billion people on earth. So in 123 years, we jumped from 1.6 billion people to 8 billion people. Exactly. So the consumption chain had to grow as well to source so many people on earth. We saw as well that companies growing since the industrial revolution. So the fact is that we are putting a huge stress and pressure on us on the earth to source people, to provide better quality of life. So what we see as WPO is that packaging has a key role to change this impact, to make sure we can source society, we can source them and guarantee quality of life, access to products, convenience, but in a sustainable way. That is what we call positive packaging. That is the packaging that will bring this positive impact to consumption chains and to society. And it's based in three pillars. So the social pillar that is making products available to people, inaccessible price as well, because there is the economic issue that is relevant to society. In a safety way, we're bringing information, bringing usability and convenience. The second pillar is the environmental pillar. So bringing efficiency to supply chains, promoting the reduction and waste of food laws as well, educating consumers and pushing for better circular processes that go beyond the industry. So the industry, the packaging industry cannot be circular by itself. We rely on consumers disposing it for recycle. We rely on recycling programs. We rely as well on waste management from municipalities that will support us to avoid pollution as well. We need the brands also engaging to buy recycled material and use recycled material very well said, Habiba, when producing new packaging. But also the third pillar that I think is that bring us a commitment to the future. That is the power of packaging to transform consuming habits. So how can the packaging industry support consumers for a more sustainable consumption? For example, dosing products, portioning products to avoid loss, reclosing packaging to avoid loss. You know, it's a normal thing in the hotels in the UAE. You know, Luciana, you know the trends of getting food in small, small appetizers and everything. It was not there 10 years ago, but I think the economic crisis and then you had another slowdown in the economy in the 2015, 14, 15 and that brought. So today it has become a very fashionable thing that you serve in very small portions. It's very healthy as well. There's so much less food wastage in the whole food chain. Exactly. So we see that a positive packaging is the one that will transform consumers by educating consumers to new consumption habits. Thank you, Luciana. Now back to Martin and back to nuclear energy. And I fully agree with Martin. I come from the Middle East and we are even afraid to say nuclear because we're associated with bomb or nuclear weapon and all of this. So please tell us more precisely how nuclear processing technique can help and support food security around the world. Right. I think we all agree that moving towards a circular economy is a good thing to do. I think we also agree that zero emission economy and the climate resilient society is kind of the vision, you know, that we all embrace no matter where we come from. The focus on consumer and on behavior change and consumer education that you have been talking about here a lot is also very good. But I would like to complement that focus with something else and that is science and technology. Technology can help us to realize that kind of vision that we are talking about and how so. I was talking earlier about the food irradiation technology which is basically X-ray and gamma ray. X-ray you are all familiar with from the health sector. It's not very different. And it's a relatively simple and established technology that irradiates the food. You pass it through a conveyor belt basically and it irradiates and sterilizes the food and all the bacteria, all the pathogens, everything is gone. You can also irradiate the packaging material itself before it comes into contact with food. You know, often the packaging directly contacts the food. So you need to think how to sterilize also your packaging material, whether it is plastic or something else. It doesn't matter. This irradiation technology also can sterilize your packaging material. So there are no pathogens, no bacteria that transfer from one material to the other or vice versa. This technology is well established. I give you an example in India. We have been, India is a mango exporting country. But the USA, they had banned mangoes from India for many, many years. Why? Because they were not considered to be safe in terms of the food safety standards in the US. Now we have been working with India to irradiate mangoes for export and especially for export on ships and not on airplanes. If you export mangoes on ships, it takes a while to get to the US from India, right? So the spoilage of mangoes, if you do it without irradiation is significant and that was the health concern from the US side. So after working with the Indian authorities to irradiate mangoes for export on ships, the USDA, I think it's called the Federal Agency, has approved the import of mangoes from India and it has gone up within one year. I am talking about the year 2016 by 133%. It's a tiny example of what food irradiation can do for farmers that are producing mangoes and this example can be replicated in 146 countries. In the IEA, we are working in 146 countries all around the world. And what we are doing, and this was mentioned earlier, initiative Atoms for Food, right? We are working with FAO and with the agricultural sector to make food production and food export using irradiation technology, make it more sterile and increase. Can I have a question? Because you're talking about irradiation and also some people don't like this word irradiation. They have negative connotation with irradiation. So whenever you are using irradiation technique on mango or other kinds of fruits, do for example these producers have to put on the label that these mangoes were subject to irradiation technique? It just came to my mind. It's a good question. I can't answer that. I think it depends on which. Sorry, because it just came to my mind. Because as a consumer, like for example the genetically modified. That's a completely different technique. But you have to put it on the label. So my question is for irradiation, whenever it is used, is there any regulation that you have to put it on the labeling? I don't know. I don't think so. We can, yes. It's allowed by the international, you know, the export for the food safety proposal. It's also allowed for some below you know the tangerine, you know, it's a dose limit. When you use this technology, you should ensure the dose is not over some limit. Let you know there are international standards first. Second, for any package and any description of the food, it's not request to put whether it's irradiated or not. Irradiation is only the energy puffing the, you know, the material, not any directly contact. It's energy. It's energy, you know, in the energy field. So it's, you know, it's not a contact with some, like pollution or something. So that, you know, is accepted by international food and the drug, you know, the standards. It's important to emphasize that there's no radioactivity associated with irradiation. We need to get that really out of our mind, you know. There are no radioactive traces left in the food if you irradiate. It's like an x-ray. If you go to the hospital and you have a chest x-ray, you're also not concerned that suddenly you will have, you know, it's this technology, you know, is really very safe and sound and proven. I would like in closing my remarks here, I would like to come back to one other issue, so that was mentioned many times here, and that is the plastic recycling. The plastic recycling in that chain from production of food, packaging and so on plays a very important role. Plastic recycling is being done or not done in many countries to a certain level. Now, we have a new initiative also. It's called the Nutek Plastic Initiative. Nutek stands for nuclear technologies in plastic recycling. Now, this is also something that is not known at all. Because you can break down the plastic, the polymers, into very, very small bits and pieces using, again, irradiation technology, and then you can use those small bits and pieces to create new material, recycled plastic material out of it. This is an advanced research stage in the Philippines and in Indonesia. We have the most advanced pilot plants working also with the municipalities there who are operating actually the recycling facilities in the country. We are working with them to bring the first commercial plastic recycling irradiation facility basically on the market. And that is our role as the IEA to help certain industries to get from the research to a commercial stage where then commercial players that are in the industry can pick it up and actually use it. Yes, I read a lot about this project on your website in order to be a little bit more aware and I was very impressed by how using irradiation they make the polymer less, to make the polymer easier to recycle and I saw all the process. It's really interesting and looking forward to cooperate to adapt it to other countries. Back to Habiba now. Talking about regulation and standards and all of this, it's very important to regulate the market, whether for the packaging industry or the food industry. If you can briefly tell us about regulation in the UAE for the sustainable packaging, is it the complete, are you still working with the government to issue new regulation? As I mentioned this is a young country so we are evolving and our laws are evolving as well. So we have recently the law to ban the single use materials, single use plastic, people are charged in the supermarkets when they go and that has brought the consumption of single use plastic in Abu Dhabi in one year 95% down. Today more than 33% of the plastic produced in Abu Dhabi is recycled. So is in the bigger Emirates, Dubai, Sharjah, but it's picking up on the other Emirates. So that's one of the areas. The other area of course is when the municipality goes to collect from the different, from the private sector. At the moment in Dubai and in Abu Dhabi, it is outsourced. So there are companies that go to collect, they charge you money to pick up your waste and paternage. So you know this is the amount, this is the amount you pay if this is your weight. So companies have started understanding the more I reduce by channeling it towards recycling, the less the amount of waste is in my skip, the less money that I pay and these companies that do collect will have to go and deliver it to the municipality's landfill site and they will be charged over there. So the end product that they are not able to recycle is at the moment being turned into waste to energy. So there's a huge project between the government of Abu Dhabi and the Sharjah to produce waste to energy. The other one is in Dubai so it's building up and there will be the buy-in from the other smaller emirates to get that service. But you know we have already the time frame, the strategy and everything and actually the implementation plan. And the quantity or the quality of the material that has been produced, that again there are stringent laws that are being developed to ensure what type of material are we being produced. We have the less than 15 microns is not allowed anymore, isn't it? So there are quite a few things that have happened now to ensure that the quality of the materials that are being produced, even if it is a single use, it is of a much higher quality. Thank you Habiba. Back to Nidal. Nidal you mentioned about transparent packaging. I know Habiba was talking with Luciana about the portion control. Since you are here based in Dubai and you cover the Middle East, can you tell us about recent packaging trends that your consumers are really asking or are more driven with it, especially after Covid if you want? Of course there was more demand after Covid because there was more food to go, you know. And anyway there is more demand for food to go in the region because I mean when we started the business in 1991, first the population was much less than now. Secondly, life was easier. So it was very often that one person in the family works. Now most of the families, the man and woman are working. So there is no one to cook at home and there is a lot of food to go to the offices so that the life behavior hasn't changed. Now the trend, the portion control, we export a lot of our products to other parts than here like Germany, like Canada, like Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden. So we do the portion control and I want to add to Habiba that she's right that many of the consumers now they want smaller portions but many they want bigger portions, family portions. And this is where the understanding of the cultural diversification and culture is important. When you sell a family portion to India, for example big pizza or lasagna, you have to expect that the family number members are seven. When you send it to Germany there are three or two, you know. So the size of the family portion, so it's not only small or big, it is to give, to purpose the package. If you are one person to take what you need and not to throw any food. And if you are a family to take what you need, not less, not more. So this is one of the trends that we are presenting in the area that transparent, I'm always for transparent, because many people, they are in hurry while they are and many very little people, they have the time to read the labels, you know. They want to see through sometimes, you know, even for our local food like hummus, they take it and then they found that there's oil on it or we have a lot of cultural diversification and here we have a lot of vegan, vegetarian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish. Everybody has different diet and you need to make them understand very clearly it has egg, doesn't have egg, has chicken, doesn't have it chicken, it's halal, it's kosher. So the transparency of the package can give quick information to the people and for those who wants extended information, then they go to read the label. So transparent packaging, portion control, packaging. Family size. Family size. Now the challenge, sorry. And this is an issue about really talking about wanting to have labelings. There is a lot of demand from the global market, from the global consumer wanting to have clear labels on the products to understand what is in there that they are taking to avoid any confusion and we are moving towards that in the UAE. Even big brands and fast food, they are right. Not only, I mean, what's in, how many calories, but the challenge, I mean, what you are saying is very interesting. We had one of our worries in the region. The challenge is not adopting this idea. The challenge is to convince the regulators. You know, we have here seven Emirates, for example. Every Emirates is controlled by different government agency that act independently on the Emirate level about food safety. So when we brought them, modified atmosphere packaging, we had a lot of resistance. Why would we accept to prolong the life of the slice of a chicken from three days to 12 days? So it's not only us and the client, it's seven Emirates in the UAE. Then to Saudi, you have to convince. This is the challenge we received. Thank you. This is a great idea what I heard. Yes. Can I just make a remark since you were looking at me directly? You know, part of what we do in an international UN organization is to build capacity in our member states to understand and to deal with those kind of issues. And what does it mean, build capacity? Build capacity means we organize seminars, we organize round tables, we have scientific visits. We try to explain what food safety in the context of nuclear techniques, what that means. Because there is a lack of understanding, not only on the part of, you know, certain authorities who need to stamp and approve something, but also amongst those decision makers in politics, you know, who are creating the laws or enforcing the laws. And so part of our program, as I said, we work in 146 countries, is to build the capacity of institutions and of experts in the industry to understand and those kind of connections and those technologies. And we would be happy to, we have a program here in the UAE, by the way. We would be happy to maybe to connect you also with our local focal points that we have here in the UAE to see if it is necessary if we can do or should do a program here in the UAE that is, and by the way, I would, since I have the microphone on, I would also like to invite our partners from the WPO to see if we maybe can do a project at a larger scale, not focused on one country, your world organization. We are a global organization to see if we can create a program together with you to do this kind of, to bring the knowledge, to build the capacity and to maybe transfer some of this technology that I was talking about, irradiation technology is not so fancy, you know, often it's different sizes, there are boxes, you know, not, not that big, but they are also industrial scale applications, but to see if we can maybe do a program together. Yes, we must do so. Let's do it. Yes. Here's my boss. Okay, our public commitment, let's work together. The EEG will be your local partner here. Now back to Luciana, we know that WPO is taking many global initiatives to promote sustainable packaging, so if you can tell us briefly about them, about this global initiative. Yes, there are two critical aspects when it comes to packaging sustainability nowadays that are lowering carbon footprint and also lowering waste, so that means increasing circularity. So what is WPO doing on, on before those challenges? WPO has published a guideline called Design for Recycling Guidelines. So this guideline brings technical information easy to use, easy to understand on how to design a packaging so that it's technically recyclable. So that means how to combine materials, which kind of bottle I'm using, which is the best label that will not harm the recyclability of that bottle, which lead should I combine with this bottle. So this guideline brings a very comprehensive content on what is circularity, which are globally the recycling systems in place and how you can design your packaging to cope with recyclability. And this guideline is available for download at WPO's website, that is www.worldpackaging.org, and it's available in 10 languages. And soon we are going to have it available in more languages, so each organization can download it and use it in its own country and share with the packaging industry. But last but not least, WPO also promotes the World Star Awards. That is the ultimate award for the global packaging industry. So when a packaging wins nationally in its own country an award, it's eligible to run for the global award run by WPO. So through the World Star Awards we have the main packaging trains. What are the latest technologies? What is going on in our industry? And we have a special category for sustainability. This year the sustainability category got more than 100 entries. In fact, it is the largest category within the World Star Awards. And I want to put a challenge here. I want to see next year a packaging that has been recycled using your technology running for the World Star Awards. I'm looking forward to it. So the World Star Awards will showcase packaging that are being produced using recycled materials, raw materials. The ones that are now recyclable, like monomaterial structures, for example. The ones that are now reusable or returnable. So many, many, many sustainability solutions are there available and showcased through the World Star Awards. Also WPO is promoting different education programs worldwide. So we finance those programs to support countries on building capacity in packaging and of course in packaging sustainability as well. And last but not least WPO attends different packaging trade shows around the globe so that we can map what are the latest technologies, what are the new drivers for our industry. And we want to make this information available to more companies around the globe to support them also to grow and to enhance their packaging solutions. Thank you, Lucianne. Our host, Martin. So I wanted to ask you actually on the new tech project and you just explain it how also we can use the nuclear technology to reduce plastic pollution or any kind of pollution, not only plastic as we said. So if you can give us a few words to conclude because you are our host and then we go back to UNIDO. Yes. Thank you very much, Soha. First of all, I need to accept the challenge here. I think from Luciana, the World Star Award, right? You said I think we need some technical assistance from UNIDO to get to that level within one year because UNIDO is the promoter of the circular economy concept and I think maybe we sit together in Vienna actually next to each other. Yes, I know. They are our neighbors in France and maybe we can work with UNIDO to see if we can get there within one year, which will be challenging. Now coming back to the new plastic initiative. You know, plastic degrades very slowly. Plastic ends up in the ocean as nano and micro plastic. Nano and micro plastic then goes into the food chain again and is very harmful. It's not only the turtles that you have mentioned, but it's the invisible, the micro and nano plastic that is contaminating our coastal waters. When you go tonight to a restaurant here and you order the fish on the menu, you can't see, you can't detect whether the fish is contaminated with micro and nano plastic. So our new tech plastic initiative has two elements. One is a monitoring system to help countries to detect the level of nano and micro plastic in the ocean. And for that we have precise technology, isotopic technology, which is different from the irradiation technology, but it's also a nuclear technique. We have that technology and we are working with laboratories and research institutes and authorities in many countries around the world right now to implement a plastic monitoring system. And the second aspect of this new tech plastic initiative is the one that I mentioned earlier, which has to do with the recycling of plastic waste. The recycling of plastic waste is an issue that will not go away. We cannot switch within 12 months to biodegradable packaging materials. It's just not possible. So plastic waste is an issue that we have to deal with for many, many years to come. You know that under UNEP's United Nation Environment Program, there is a global convention on plastics that is being negotiated at the moment. It's a new convention. It's like the climate convention, the biodiversity convention. There will be a plastic convention. This will have huge implications on many industries, including on the packaging industry. So here we need to think about solutions. And as I said, one of the solutions could be eventually to use this advanced irradiation technique to recycle plastic, to break down the polymers into small, small, small units and reassemble them again and have recycled plastic products. So that is something that we are, that we are promoting, that we are pushing, that we are working with in some countries. And we hope maybe you can come on board also as the packaging industry and to work with us on this program. Looking forward. I want to thank you all really. It was a dynamic interactive panel. I had the honour to moderate it. Thank you all for your really insightful intervention. And now we go back to UNIDO. You know, UNIDO and WPO, we have a long cooperation together. We signed an MOU back in 2017. And so far, six years of mutual cooperation. And I'm honoured to give the floor to Mr. Dejeine Tezera, the director of the Agri-Business Department at UNIDO, to conclude and to give the final remark on our panel today. And to also maybe briefly talk on the success story among our project between UNIDO and WPO. Thank you. Thank you very much, Soha. I think you mentioned since we signed our MOU between WPO and UNIDO, we have made substantial progress. And then we worked in Cambodia in establishing a packaging centre of excellence, which is extremely important on the topic of packaging. That is important. And we are now working jointly on joint publication to create awareness on the importance of sustainable packaging for food security and reduction of post-harvest losses. These are a few of the activities we have undertaken together in the last year, this year, which led also to our partnership now. And I would like also to mention that we had a very good, let's say, partnership with WPO, also on promoting the idea of the whole packaging sector, awareness raising. And as in the future also we'll try to work together on this, especially the awareness sector, which now, for example, the emerities are doing on creating awareness among the young people, for example, the importance of the packaging sectors. That packaging is not unfairly, let's say, demonised that it is the bad thing all in all, which we have to recognize, as mentioned, for portioning and for moving food from one surplus area to food deficit area without packaging is practically impossible. For us also in UNIDO, packaging is part of the industry itself. We start with a raw material acquisition and then finally we do all value addition, all kind of processing and ultimately, if it is not packaged, it's not possible to be distributed to people. So it is essentially a critical part of our interventions. So we will continue to work with WPO, probably in partnership with IAEA or probably Tripartite Agreement, with the Tripartite Partnership to, let's say, to move especially on the new areas. So in general now to conclude on the session in general, on the event, I think it was a very interesting session in my opinion and I think it shared with my colleagues who have explored possibilities. We discussed the possibilities offered by eco-friendly materials and the importance of circularity in the packaging sector. We have also discussed the environmental ramifications of the conventional packages and then also recognize the need for shift in the paradigm, which is more also using new innovative ways of recycling of raw materials and irradiation is one of the examples. I think we agree and I agree with you that if we are going to run for a star award, then IAEA and UNIDO together with you can work on the first probably at least prototype new packaging material. Exactly, that's a possibility. Yeah, the other area which is mentioned also by the private sector is modified atmosphere packaging, which is also becoming extremely important, especially in prolonging the shelf life of perishable products, which is in the future is extremely important for food trade, again bringing food from one point to another one. Without it, it's practically impossible to have to grow everything by ourselves and then transport the food what we want. So we have also heard the encouraging commitment from the industry. I think and we have once again together agree on the course towards more sustainable and secure future, I think. So the continued collaboration between the private sector sectoral association, professional association like WPO and our sister agency IAEA, I think we can move into more sustainable future and then also create awareness that packaging is not the worst thing. It prevents contamination, it helps stressability, it also avoids, let's say, tries to food tampering, which is an example, and then without it probably even some of the most needy people in the time of crisis cannot get food if it is not brought from here without packaging. So jointly, we will work together to to sustainable food packaging, which is important for food security and the food safety. Thank you very much for Zoha for everything. Thank you, and our panel is concluded. Thank you. Careful, stay. No, otherwise, I would, I'm hope-