Asia-Europe Environment Forum – Day 2

Day 2 started with a session looking at the transformation of business operations by low carbon policies chaired by Grazyna Pulawska of ASEF. Vu Tuong Anh, program leader at the Vietnam office of the International Finance Corporation looked into low carbon development programs in Vietnam. Dr. George Safonov, Director of the Center for Environmental and Natural Resource Economics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics of Russia looked into potential regional groupings to formulate low carbon strategies for those regions, in which countries for a variety of regions were not yet able or willing to do so on a national level. Bulganmurun Tsevegjav, Senior program officer at the Global Green Growth Institute in the Philippines discussed the challenges of formulated a low carbon business strategy in the Philippines.

The next session, dealing with climate finance on the national level, was moderated by Prof. Suh-Yong Chong of Korea University, Seoul. Melissa Low, research fellow in the Energy Studies Institute of Singapore, discussed the unique Singaporean case, were 100 percent of carbon finance came from the national budget and a carbon tax was introduced. Nguyen Tuan Anh, Deputy Director General in the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Viet Nam, discussed the Vietnamese carbon finance flows. Jacqueline Kacprzak, Coordinator in the Ministry of Economic Development of Poland, related the Sustainable Development Goals to concrete carbon reduction actions in Poland. Dr. Bernhard Seliger of Hanns Seidel Foundation Korea, looked into the Korean case of green finance, where ample resources were existing, a carbon trade scheme established, but policy consistency over various Presidents was lacking. Finally, Tiza Mafira, Senior Analyst in the Climate Policy Initiative in Indonesia, looked at the Indonesian case of carbon finance.

Afterwards, workshops on renewable energies as an engine for growth, sustainable development practice in industrial transformation and sustainable resource management were held. The results of the workshop were presented by rapporteurs, before Moritz Michel, Deputy Director at Hanns Seidel Foundation Hanoi office, wrapped up the conference.