..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date 4 June 2007
Press Release No: N/28/2007

Governments, Business and Consumer Groups Join Forces to Create “Green Business” in Asia-Pacific

BANGKOK (United Nations Information Services)— Government policymakers, business leaders and representatives of consumer groups from across the Asia-Pacific region are gathering in Bangkok from 5 to 7 June 2007 to discuss ways to create and promote “green business” in the region.

The Third Green Growth Policy Dialogue: the Greening of Business and the Environment as a Business Opportunity is organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). The Dialogue is being held in parallel with the Entech Pollutec/Renewable Energy Asia 2007 (6 -9 June) -- the most important environmental exhibition and trade fair in the region. Tens of thousands participants and visitors are expected at the exhibition and trade fair, to be held at the Bangkok International Exhibition Center (BITEC), which will showcase marketable and profitable examples of green business and the latest environmental and renewable energy technology.

Timed with World Environment Day (5 June), government policy-makers will join business executives and consumer activists in exchanging views and ideas on what policies and measures need to be in place to further support the greening of the market and business.

“Without appropriate policy support, the business community is hobbled in its efforts to slow climate change”, noted Mr. Rae Kwong Chung, Director of Environment and Sustainable Development Division, UNESCAP. “Without feedback from the business community, we are limited in our ability to develop policies which are good for both the environment and business”.

Video Clips
	Rae Kwong Chung - Director, Environment and Sustainable Development Division, UNESCAP	Dipal Chandra Barua – Deputy Managing Director, Grameen Bank, Bangladesh	Christopher Juniper - Natural Capital Solutions, USA

 

Key issues the Third Green Growth Policy Dialogue seeks to address include: How can the private sector initiate greening of the business? How can governments support green business? How can consumers positively influence the greening of markets? Can green business enhance the competitive edge of export-driven economies of the region in the global market? How can appropriate micro-financing mechanisms be created to promote less material-intensive products? How to stimulate business strategies which address the needs of the underserved markets?

Greening the markets and business is one of the five major tracks of UNESCAP’s Green Growth approach. The other four tracks are green tax and budget reform, sustainable consumption, development of sustainable infrastructure, and the development of new eco-efficiency indicators.

The “Green Growth” approach was adopted in 2005 at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development in Seoul. It states that environmental and ecological considerations must be integral to policy planning to ensure long-term economic and social viability, and economic growth should not be measured in GDP alone but also in a set of eco-indicators. “Green Growth” sees environmental protection and clean production not as a cost or burden, but as an investment and business opportunity. It calls for tax systems favourable to environmental-friendly projects, and for sustainable consumption patterns.

More information is available at www.unescap.org/esd and http://www.greengrowth.org/

For further information on the 3rd Green Growth Policy Dialogue, please contact:
Ms. Aneta Nikolova , Environment and Sustainable Development Division, UNESCAP
Tel: (662) 288 – 2459
E-mail: nikolova@un.org