Howard Bamsey, the new Director General of the Global Green Growth Institute, discusses some exciting developments in the field of green growth, including the 2013 Global Green Growth Summit, taking place 10-11 June in Songdo, Korea. For more information on the GGKP's planned activities at GGGS, click here.
As the new Director General of the Global Green Growth Institute, I have viewed the development of the GGKP with real enthusiasm for some time, alongside GGGI’s own development.
I joined GGGI only one month ago at a truly exciting time following GGGI’s official conversion to an international organization. Others who are similarly interested in GGKP’s progress may want to follow developments at the Third Annual Global Green Growth Summit, to be held this year in Songdo, Korea.
The theme of this year’s GGGS is: The Future of Green Growth: Finance, Innovation and Policy. The GGGS is a chance to engage, in spirit similar to the GGKP, in a collective thought process about cooperative arrangements and initiatives that could accelerate the transition to a new, sustainable economic growth paradigm. With participants and speakers from diverse sectors around the world, affiliations and perspectives we hope to be able to fuel a genuine, open and constructive debate on key issues around green growth implementation, financing as well as sector specific issues including energy, transport, water and agriculture.
Greening economic growth is becoming increasingly accepted as a policy norm.
International cooperation is the essential enabler in accelerating the transition to green growth. Last year saw the high visibility of green growth at the UN Rio+20 Conference in June as well as at other major international convening. The activities of the Global Green Growth Institute are one measure of such developments, as is the cooperation taking place under the Green Growth Knowledge Platform which exemplifies the importance of collaboration and coordination to support our transition to a sustainable future.
It is timely, therefore, that the GGGS 2013 focuses on innovative approaches to blend private and public finance, advanced innovation and technology deployment at scale, and drive an era of economic development that can rapidly deliver an inclusive, green economic transition.
I hope that many of you will be making the journey over to Songdo where we can discuss all of these issues in more depth. For those of you unable to join us in person, please follow the Summit online at: http://www.ustream.tv/ and via the GGGI and GGKP Twitter feeds @gggi_seoul @GGKPlatform.
The GGKP Linked-In Group also offers a brilliant forum for us to continue and further develop these discussions, identifying knowledge gaps and working together to catalyze the research needed to address these.
I look forward to engaging with you all through the collaboration and cooperation driven by GGKP and hope that the GGGS 2013 can provoke ideas and actions to support the a transition to a global green economy.