World leaders to gather in Seoul to identify solutions for urgent environmental action

Leaders from business, government, NGOs and international agencies will gather in Seoul, South Korea to tackle and identify solutions for some of the world’s most pressing environmental issues at the 4th annual Business for the Environment (B4E) summit.

Hosted by UNEP, the UN Global Compact, and WWF, the summit will coincide with Earth Day 2010, running from April 21-23.

B4E 2010 is co-hosted by the Government of the Republic of Korea through the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the Presidential Commission on Green Growth.

Participants will engage in multi-stakeholder conversations around solutions including: biodiversity, climate change, resource & energy efficiency, renewables, and new green business models.

Innovative low-carbon solutions, critical towards stabilizing the global temperature increases, will be a main focus during the Summit.

With an expected 1,000 participants to attend from more than 35 countries, B4E is the leading international conference for dialogue and business-driven action for the environment.

“B4E is a critical event to advance environmental action, innovation and advocacy,” states Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. “What makes this event truly valuable is that it brings together the public and private sectors at the highest levels.”

The 2010 B4E summit features an impressive roster of expert speakers from various sectors. High profile international business leaders will lead the dialogue including Sir Richard Branson, Chairman of Virgin Group as well as CEOs and top executives from Clarins, Coca-Cola, The Dow Chemical Company, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, LG Electronics, McKinsey & Co, Puma, Siemens and SIG AG.

Bharrat Jagdeo, President of the Republic of Guyana, and Mohamed Nasheed, President of the Republic of Maldives, will share their national low carbon development plans and Academy Award-winning film director James Cameron will speak on biodiversity and leading the world towards a low carbon future.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and Nobel Prize winner and Academy Award recipient, former Vice President Al Gore will participate in the summit via video-link alongside other leaders attending in Seoul such as Ashok Khosla, President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and James Leape, Director General of WWF International.

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: “Governments have a central role in fostering a Green Economy by sending the right market signals and by implementing imaginative market mechanism reforms. The challenge for business is how to translate this evolving landscape into low carbon, resource efficient goods and services. This is the kind of creativity, innovation and acumen that B4E will be catalyzing and showcasing in 2010.”

B4E will be webcast worldwide and be open to live comments and questions for speakers at the Summit in Seoul via Twitter. Organizers will ensure that the event is green in practice by providing a paper-free media centre, local transportation through hybrid vehicles and materials derived from sustainably produced sources.

For more information please visit the new B4E website (www.b4esummit.com).

B4E is supported by The Dow Chemical Company, LG Electronics, SIG, Hewlett-Packard, Siemens, Evonik, Hyundai and Nalco and global broadcast and media partners CNN, Fortune and TIME.

eco-business.com is B4E’s social media partner.

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