It is vital to seek solutions aimed at implementing sustainable development and preservation of the environment, said Minister of Electricity and Water and Public Works Abdulaziz Al-Ibrahim, opening a forum here on Tuesday on supplying future towns and suburbs in Kuwait with power for air-conditioning them on a wide scale. He told the forum, dubbed Air-conditioning new towns and suburbs, that it was imperative that Kuwait glean expertise from the forum as to save power when building upcoming new towns and suburbs with dense populations. He further said that the ministry he heads was keen to do so in view of the fact that up to 70 percent of the country's total power consumption was used for air-conditioning, given the fact that Kuwait is among the world's hottest regions. He added that currently Kuwait subsidizes power consumption to the tune of about three billion dinars and it is projected that this amount will approach seven billion dinars by 2030, a gargantuan cost which, he said, the government sought to reduce through conservation and other measures. On his part, representative of UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) for West Asia, taking part in the forum, Ayman Al-Talooni, emphasized the importance of the forum as the Gulf region forges ahead by implementing ambitious sustainable development projects requiring enormous infusions of energy, particularly electricity for air-conditioning homes and buildings. He said he expected that the region might require within the next ten year period upwards of USD 120 billion to build more power stations to primarily supply energy for air-conditioning purposes, which would put a cumbersome burden on the region's economies and growth plans. The forum is being organized not only by the UNEP but also by ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning) -- Kuwait branch, and by the college of engineering at the University of Kuwait