Events 2011

• The Tokyo Green Industry conference, 16 to 18 November 2011, was organized in cooperation with the Japan government, with around 300 participants, including high-level government officials from Japan and a dozen Asian countries, as well  representatives of the private sector interested in forming technology partnerships. The conference served to foster transfer and implementation of best available techniques for green industry development, to exchange experiences on green industry programmes and initiatives involving public and private sectors, and to position green industry as a cornerstone for green economy for achieving sustainable development and poverty alleviation. 

•  The 1^st Members' Assembly of the RECP Net and 2nd UNIDO-UNEP RECP Networking Conference took place in Nairobi, 17-19 October 2011: The Nairobi RECPnet declaration was signed by representatives of 32 Members of the Global Network for Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECPnet) and 10 other providers of Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production (RECP) services

• Global Chemical Leasing (ChL) meeting held in St. Petersburg, Russia, on 18 May 2011:  the International Chemical Leasing Working Group was organized in order to discuss application and potential of innovative business model in different countries and different sectors.

• Green Industry conference, under the auspices of the IV Nevsky Ecological Congress, 17 May, 2011 in St. Petersburg, Russia: presentation of UNIDO Green Industry approach and environment management activities to about 800 high-level representatives from Government, Science, Academia, Industry from mainly Newly Independent States. The conference promoted productivity with the view to contributing to the longer-term vision of sustainable green development through the entire region of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The conference has also achieved its objective in building consistency in branding UNIDO’s Green Industry agenda in the region as well as the lead-up to Rio+20.

•  ChL side event ‘Chemical Leasing: a service based business approach to sound chemicals management and waste minimization’, held in Cartagena, Colombia, at the COP10 of the Basel Convention, 17-21 October 2011. The side event was moderated by Mr. Denzler, seco, and closed by the Ministry of Environment of Colombia.

• Regional Meeting on Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production in Member States of the Association of South East Asian Nations, 24 January 2011, Jakarta: jointly organized by UNIDO and the ASEAN Secretariat, this meeting served to present achievements of the RECP Programme in ASEAN Member Countries (in particular Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam) and discuss opportunities and strategies for expanding and mainstreaming RECP into other ASEAN countries. The meeting was opened by the Deputy Minister of Industry (Government of Indonesia) and Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN, and had additional inputs from representatives of the main donors of the RECP Programme (Austria and Switzerland).
  
  
• International workshop on Hazardous substances within the life-cycle of electrical and electronic products, 29-31 March 2011, Vienna, Austria: jointly organized by UNIDO, Basel convention secretariat and Stockholm convention secretariat, this workshop derives from resolution II/4 of the Second International Conference on Chemicals Management (ICCM2) held in May 2009 in Geneva organized under the auspices of the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).  The workshop took the form of a mix of plenary and working group meetings. The working groups addressing a different point in the life-cycles of electrical and electronic products (upstream, midstream and downstream) were entrusted with developing ideas, solutions, options or recommendations on how best to respond to such issues, including gaps and the potential for synergies. Based on the discussions of the three working groups, the participants agreed on a series of key messages and approved a set of recommendations pertaining to the upstream, midstream and downstream issues.
  
  
• Green Industries for the provision of employment opportunities -Beirut, Lebanon, 28-30 September 2011: jointly organized by ESCWA and AIDMO, in collaboration with UNIDO, UNEP, GIZ and the League of Arab States. UNIDO experts shared experience in promoting green industries and in contributing to a green economy, including the Organization’s Green Industry Initiative and its contribution to sustaining Green Economy and creating Green Jobs. An action plan for the development of green industries in the Arab world was discussed and will be presented by ESCWA, AIDMO and the League of the Arab States at preparatory meetings for the Rio+20 summit in Brazil in June 2012.