ESDN Conference 2010
“Towards an Economy compatible with Sustainable Development Principles: "Green" Strategies in the context of Sustainable Development”
Ghent 4 - 6 July 2010
The ESDN Conference 2010 was hosted by the Belgian EU Presidency and took place in Ghent on 4-6 July 2010. The conference aimed to reflect on linking economic growth and sustainable development based on the results of the 5th ESDN Workshop that took place in Madrid in March 2010. More specifically, the conference elaborated on how best to address environmental and social challenges in strategies and activities that link economic growth and sustainable development, particularly in the “Europe 2020” strategy, UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative and the preparation of UNCSD 2010 as well as the OECD’s Green Growth Strategy. In so doing, the conference participants discussed innovative approaches of sustainable development, how to achieve coherence among policy sectors, and reflected on governance mechanisms, policy tools and monitoring schemes. The conference will comprised three sessions: (i) Linking economic growth and sustainable development – addressing environmental and social challenges, (ii) From green growth towards an economy compatible with sustainable development principles (parallel working groups), and (iii) Moving towards a sustainable economy: criteria, tools and mechanisms.
Conference AgendaDownload
Session 1: Linking economic growth and sustainable development – Addressing environmental and social challenges
Objectives of the Conference, recapof the 5th ESDN Workshop in Madrid & principles of a sustainable economy
Environmental opportunities in times of the triple crises
David Gee: Senior Advisor, European Environment Agency
Addressing social challenges in strategies that link economic growth and sustainable development
Leida Rijnhout: Executive Director, Northern Alliance for Sustainability
“Europe 2020” Strategy
Tonnie De Koster: Policy Coordinator, Secretariat-General of the European Commission
UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative & UNCSD 2012
Christophe Bouvier: Director of the Regional Office for Europe, UNEP
OECD’s Green Growth Strategy
Robert Visser: Deputy-Director of the Environment Directorate, OECD
Session 2: Parallel Working Groups – From green growth towards an economy compatible with SD principles
Parallel working groups: Reflecting on how the strategies address economic, environmental and social challenges
Working group 1: “Europe 2020” Strategy
Working group 2: UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative & UNCSD 2012
Working group 3: Green Growth Strategy of OECD
Break-out event: Presentation of the activities of SD planNet-Asia & Pacific
“Eurostat – EU SDS monitoring report 2009”
“Bridging Policy Network: Europe and Asia and the Pacific”
Session 3: Moving towards a sustainable economy – Governance perspectives
Switching to a sustainable society and economy on the wake of the financial turbulence – governance perspectives
“Concluding remarks & further steps”
Key recommendations from the parallel working groups
UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative
Break-out events
“Development towards a sustainable society: Finland – The Netherlands 1975 – 2008”
Knowledge brokerage in sustainable consumption – Fostering exchange between policy-makers and researchers
“FP 7 research projects & their link to ESDN: RESPONDER”
Gerald Berger: ESDN Office at the Research Institute for Managing Sustainability, WU Wien
“Knowledge Brokerage in Sustainable Consumption: Introducing the project CORPUS”
Gerd Scholl: Institute for Ecological Economy Research, Germany
