The conference will take place on 31^th January 2012 at Warsaw School of Economics, auditorium I, building C, Al. Niepodległości 128 (corner of Madalińskiego). Its goal is to link a public debate on financial crisis with the discussion concerning low carbon economy - presenting possibilities of combining the battle with the crisis and action for climate, connections between reduction of emissions and improving efficiency, innovativeness and competitiveness of the economy.

To fill registration form, please click here. 
Full programme of the conference can be found below.

Among many guests, we can mention:

Economical crisis, globalization and Climate change are redefining the world. Old economical powers lose their influence and a role of the new ones – like China, Brazil, and India- grows. Demographic growth and gradual improvement of the life quality of 7 billion people results in exhaustion of natural resources, including non-renewable energy resources. Too long have Europe and America lived “on credit”, and now is the time when we start paying bills. Climate change effects are getting stronger, almost every year is warmer from the previous one, and more unstable – with more, and more loss and damage, mostly in the poorest countries, which are the least responsible.

At the same time, world is entering a new path of innovative, green economy, based on effective use of renewable, local resources. The value of the green technology market grows every year over a dozen percent, already surpassed 3 billion dollars. Yet, the European Union – while trying to be a leader of climate action – is not a leader of those changes. Only Germany makes it to the group of first 5 countries with an highest number of patents in the new “clean technologies” sector.

The same problem can also be identified in Poland. Instead of building innovative economy we spend tremendous amounts of energy to defend the old, centralized, coal-based energy system. Poland is the last country in the eco-innovation index of European Union – with indicator value two times lower then EU average, and three times lower than its leader, Finland. Is economic crisis a good time to withdraw from innovation, or the opposite – the best moment to introduce them? If we want to have a competitive, modern economy in next 20-40 years, we have to call “all on board” right now, and decide what is the exact direction of our journey.

And to do that we need tools, such as the analysis prepared for the Polish Ecological Mazovian Branch and the WWF Poland by the Institute for Structural Research – “Low-carbon dilemma – how to reduce emission of greenhouse gasses and how is that relevant for Polish economy?”. Conclusions of this report will serve as a base to evaluate the costs and benefits connected to the realization of ambitious reduction goals. Important part of the conference will also be a search for an answer to the important questions – what financial tools are necessary for the benefits to exceed costs in a longer perspective.

 

          

 

Media patronage: