ECO MEDA GREEN FORUM 2011 brought together business and environment needs in the Mediterranean

On 24th November 2011 took place in Casa Llotja de Mar (Barcelona, Spain) the 5th edition of ECO MEDA GREEN FORUM, the most specialized networking event in renewable energy and green economy in the Mediterranean.

The Forum was a place to promote the exchange of knowledge between experts regarding the priorities and challenges of the environment and also to promote the green economy, helping companies implement sustainability programs through the efficient use of resources and cleaner production.

The opening session was leaded by Moustapha Kamal Gueye, Acting Head of the Green Economy Advisory Services Unit of UNEP – DTIE, and it was focused in the Green Economy Initiative. This is a UNEP project that assists governments in shaping and focusing policies, investments and spending towards a range of green sectors as a means of promoting sustainable economic growth, decent job creation, and poverty reduction, while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions, extracting and using less natural resources and creating less waste.

In the first session of the ECO MEDA GREEN FORUM 2011 different experts from public administration to business and financial institutions debated why Mediterranean firms must go green, looking at some initiatives and opportunities in the region to protect the environment while developing sustainable business. The next session was focused in Ecocities, in which the speakers showed the increasing interest in redefining urban planning around more socially and ecologically sustainable models for the cities of the future and they discussed different models and the role of technology and policy in promoting green buildings, urban transportation, sustainable infrastructure and municipality management.

The content of the afternoon sessions was the solid waste management strategy and the vision for the future of clean energy market. In the first one the experts agreed to assert that waste management is increasingly becoming a matter of strategic risk and regulatory management in the Mediterranean region and the speakers explained different best practices and opportunities for this sector. In the last session different experts discussed key issues in the renewable energy sector, such as the effective policies to promote cooperation in the region, the technological development, the financing issues, and how to pave opportunities for the private sector and how to address the high capital cost compared to the current affordable fossil fuel.

The attendees of the ECO MEDA GREEN FORUM were very satisfied with the opportunity to participate in an event that brought together key industry players and experts of the highest level and they agreed that it was necessary to keep on generating forums to discuss how the integration of the environment as a factor in business competitiveness could have an important role in the economic recovery and in the transition to sustainable economies in the Mediterranean region.

The 5th ECO MEDA GREEN FORUM was organized by the UNEP / MAP Regional Activity Center for Cleaner Production (CP/RAC) in the framework of the V Mediterranean Week of Economic Leaders, organized by Barcelona Chamber of Trade, ASCAME, Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean, IEMed and European Investment Bank.

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