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Fadi Comair

Professor, The Cyprus Institute, UNESCO-IHP CHAIR (2019-2023)

Since November 2019, Fadi Georges Comair has been the Chairman of the Board of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Hydrological Program IHP (2019-2021) and the representative of Arab countries as IHP Vice-President (2021-2023). He is also Professor at the Cyprus Institute and Director of the Research, Environment, Energy and Water Centre - EEWRC-( 2021-2023). He is the Honorary President of the Mediterranean Network of Basin Organizations (MENBO 2009-2011) and Vice-President of the Euro-Med System for Information for Water Professions (EMWIS). His experience as a negotiator and mediator on international basins (Jordan, Orontes, Nile, Euphrates and Tigris, Kebir) led Mr. Comair to initiate the concept of hydrodiplomacy and Nexus Water-Energy-Food- Ecosystem and whose goal is to establish water peace at the level of transboundary basins and to apply the Nexus in the management of water bodies to secure future generations.

 As Director of the EEWRC, he contributed in the Climate Change Initiative that the Cypriot Government has launched and coordinated the Water Task Force of this initiative targeting the EMME Region. The Initiative gives details on the urgent need for actions to mitigate the impacts of climate change, the Partnership Program for Hydrodiplomacy, Migration, Dialogue, Biodiversity, the deployment of renewable energies throughout the EMME region. In his capacity as President of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Program UNESCO-IHP, Fadi Comair initiated under his mandate, the first IHP Academy which is an intergovernmental platform, identified as the UNESCO-IHP Academy of Coastal Environmental Cooperation for Metropolitan Eco-Sustainable Development "ECOMED".

He also launched the Strategic Plan for the ninth phase of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP-IX) covering 2022-2029 identifies key water priority areas to support Members States to achieve Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specially water related SDGs and other water-related global agendas, such as the Paris agreement on climate change, Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and the New Urban Agenda (NUA).

 He also presides the French Water Academy in 2021 and MEDURABLE association and since 2015 has organized an annual symposium on "Hydrodiplomacy and Climate Change for Peace in the Middle East" at the French Senate. He is also a member of the governors of the Arab Water Council AWC.

Mr. Comair has received the honorary title of Diplomat, Water Resources Engineer (DWRE) from the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers (AAWRE) and is a member of the French Academy of Overseas Sciences “Académie des Sciences d'Outre-Mer” (ASOM)  and a Knight of the Legion of Honor and the National Order of Merit in France.

In 1987, he began his professional career in France and was head of department at the Concrete Industry Study and Research Center “Centre d'Étude et de Recherche de l'Industrie du Béton” (CERIB) affiliated to the Ministry of Industry and then Director General at the Ministry of Energy and Water in Lebanon and President of the Litani River Authority.

Throughout his professional career, Fadi Comair has carried the mission of innovating, launching themes and initiatives on innovation, research and technology for France and Lebanon, and it is in this context that he contributed to the drafting of the “Atlas of Sustainable and Responsible Development” for France, within the framework of the UfM project advocated by the Presidency of the Republic and the "French Seismic Rules" as a representative of CERIB and was thus a member of the editorial board of these works in 1992, 1996 and 2000.    

Fadi Comair contributed to the foundation of the Union for the Mediterranean, the launch of the Water Strategy of this union and was one of the initiators of the Mediterranean Solar Plan "PSM".

Mr. Comair is the author of more than 200 publications, including books related to water resources management at the national and transboundary levels, sustainable development and hydrodiplomacy.