Economy for a Living Planet Forum

For the first time in Bulgaria, on 8 June, 2017 at the Inter Expo Center, Sofia the international forum ‘Economy for a Living Planet’ brought together national policymakers, international economists and sustainable development experts and business and public sector leaders from Europe and Asia.

This forum offered possible solutions on how a multilateral world can successfully transition to a green economy, navigate the current multitude of political and economic crises, and ensure attainment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The purpose of this conference was to highlight the new role and responsibility of re-ordering economic blocs (the EU and EEA), and upper middle income countries (in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere) and international development institutions to deploy innovative financing instruments to address our planet’s pressing challenges. We seek to affirm that when there is so much at stake, and so much that seemingly divides the world, our shared aspiration for sustainable development can unite us in new way and drive the world forward.

We believe the forum initiated a serious discussion regarding these issues, and helped formulate new leadership approaches for the CEE countries on multilateral sustainable development.

Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, set the European context of leadership on sustainable development and the need to engage partners and organizations, working together in and out of the EU and within member states, to achieve the high ambition of Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement processes moving forward.

He mentioned that we should not forget the EU funds and reminded us that the forum's host city of Sfoia gets its naturally purified water from two protected areas - Rila National Park and Vitosha Nature Park.

Watch his complete speech here.

"The science has never been clearer – it is telling us that human activities are pushing the planet and its natural systems to the edge", said Marco Lambertini, Director-General, WWF International in a video message to the 'Economy for a Living Planet' forum's guests.

In a video message Pascal Canfin, CEO of WWF-France, presented the work of the European offices of WWF together with the European Commission and key partners on transforming the financial system to enable significant investment in green economy innovations and solutions.

Margaret Kuhlow, WWF-International, Practice Leader, Finance

Julio Tresierra, WWF Programme Manager, Cuba

Delfin Ganapin, WWF-International, Practice Leader, Governance

Demetres Karavellas, CEO of WWF-Greece

Emily McKenzie, Natural Capital Project, WWF UK and WWF US

Guido Broekhoven, Regional Manager China-Africa Trade WWF EPO Office

Luca Etter, Senior Policy Advisor, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Takayoshi Kato, Policy Analyst, Environment Directorate, OECD

Report

Economy for a Living Planet Forum

A short report from the Economy for a Living Planet Forum can be downloaded from HERE.

Presentations (video)

A collection of all video recordings of presentations at the Economy for a Living Planet Forum

SPEAKERS

*The name of each speaker is linked to a video or pdf file of his/her presentation

Marco Lambertini, Director-General, WWF International (video message)

Pascal Canfin, CEO, WWF France (video message)

Deon Nel, Global Conservation Director, WWF International

Vesselina Kavrakova, Country Head, WWF Bulgaria

Demetres Karavellas, CEO, WWF Greece

Guido Broekhoven, Regional Manager China-Africa Trade, WWF EPO

Julio Tresierra, WWF Programme Manager in Cuba

Emily McKenzie, WWF-UK and WWF-US, Natural Capital Project

Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (video message)

Ognyan Zlatev, Head of the European Commission Representation in Bulgaria

Takayoshi Kato, Policy Analyst at OECD

Philippe Pypaert, Programme Specialist, Science Unit, UNESCO

Ana Bachurova, Policy & Climate Finance Associate, Energy Efficiency & Climate Change team, EBRD

Luca Etter, Senior Policy Advisor, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC)

Toma Belev, Programme ‘Linking Nature Protection and Sustainable Rural Development’, Parks Association in Bulgaria

Kalin Klassanov, Co-Founder & CEO of Roo'bar

Photos

SPEAKERS

More information

Venelina Velichkova
email: velichkova@wwfdcp.bg
tel.: 00359 885 086 670

Venue

Inter Expo Center, Sofia (IEC)
Boulevard "Tsarigradsko shose" 147
1784 Sofia
Bulgaria

Supported by a grant from Switzerland through the Reform Fund Linked to Civil Society Participation part of the project „Linking nature protection with sustainable rural development".

The WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme gratefully acknowledges funding support from the European Commission. All content and opinions expressed on these pages are solely those of WWF.