The First Public Discussion Forum of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas: Energy and Climate Change Education, will take place on Thursday, January 16, 2014, from 9:00 am to 12:45 pm, in the Padilha Vidal Room of the OAS General Secretariat Building, on 1889 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20006. The proposed agenda can be accessed here. The Department of Sustainable Development (DSD) of the Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (SEDI) is hosting this forum to support the dialogue on sustainable energy solutions and climate change mitigation under the auspices of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA).
ECPA was proposed by President Obama in 2009 at the Summit of the Americas held in Trinidad and Tobago. ECPA is a mechanism to foster partnerships for greater dialogue, collaboration and awareness on energy and climate. The General Secretariat of the OAS, through its Department of Sustainable Development (DSD), operates the ECPA Clearinghouse since 2009.
The ECPA Clearinghouse is hosting the first in a series of four fora geared toward fostering energy and climate dialogue in the United States. The purpose is to engage the audience in a dialogue on best practices and lessons learned in energy and climate change education, and to build collaboration on this topic among the countries of the Americas. In this context, education and awareness raising are pivotal to the advancement of sustainable energy solutions and climate change mitigation. ECPA contributes to this goal by strengthening the capacity of stakeholders to understand the clean energy market, supporting specialized labor force training, and enhancing entrepreneurship. The forum will seek to strengthen understanding of clean energy markets and to identify new avenues for cooperation in energy and climate change education.