WAM BAKU: Energy and water security is the defining issue of the 21st century and perhaps on no other issue is the connection so intimate between strategic, geopolitical concerns and the basic requirements of every single human being, H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, crown prince of Fujairah said.

"It is almost two decades since Dr Mahbub ul Haq introduced the concept of human security in the 1994 Human Development Report emphasizing the needs of individuals, and not just states," Sheikh Mohammed said in a speech at the 23rd Yearly Crans Montana Forum which brought together ministers and officials from a host of countries.

"There are profound imbalances of resources between states, which means international cooperation is essential and given the nature of energy and water resources, it is vital that this cooperation takes place on a regional level to create an institutional framework within which human security can move from a merely conceptual phase to a concrete phase in which freedom from want and freedom from fear can become concrete realities for all," he added.

The prevailing model of extraction and consumption of conventional energy resources is no longer sustainable," he warned urging for further investment on this model to sustain rapidly increasing industrial output and individual consumption which "must now be considered a serious misallocation of investment since it causes lasting harm to the environment without providing for the energy needs of a significant proportion of the world's population." H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, crown prince of Fujairah has met Anne Marie, the honorary member of the Belgian Senate, Joachim Schwarze, Director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, former veteran CNN talk show host Larry King and former Secretary-General of the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Francesco Frangialli.

The meetings took place on the sidelines of the 23rd Yearly Crans Montana Forum and discussed the items on the agenda of the event.

He cited UN-Water's estimates that by 2025, 1.8 million people will be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity and two-thirds of the world's population could be under stress conditions.

"As Catarina de Albuquerque, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, pointed out in her open letter to the very recent Rio+20 Summit, not all states appear fully committed to the idea that access to water is a human right, so it is essential that we do everything in our power to make that idea a reality," Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi further said.

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