FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Press Office, Fira de Barcelona, mjuvell@firabarcelona.com or +34-93 233 20 89
Barcelona, 13 May 2015: UN climate chief Christiana Figueres, Europe's climate commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, Spain's environment minister Isabel Garcia Tejerina and Laurence Tubiana, France's ambassador for the climate negotiations, are among the distinguished speakers at this year's Carbon Expo trade fair and conference.
The three-day event, now in its 12th year, gathers together leading policymakers, business representatives and financial institutions and provides a crucial opportunity for discussions in the run up to the Paris 2015 climate agreement. Other speakers at this year's event include World Bank Group Vice President and Special Envoy for Climate Change Rachel Kyte, Morocco's Minister of Energy, Mining, Water and Environment Hakima El Haite, State Secretary at the German environment ministry Jochen Flasbarth, Ecuador's Minister of Environment Loren a Tapia and Teresa Ribera, director of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations.
Carbon Expo this year also hosts the largest number of company heads ever, with more than 30 CEOs set to attend the 26-28 May event, which will include a special CEO Roundtable on the Road to Paris. Heads of Acciona, Ferrovial, Natsource, C-Quest Capital and Australia's Clean Energy Regulator will be in attendance, among many others.
Discussions will focus on carbon pricing, the transition to low-carbon development and energy, and what investors should look for in the Paris climate agreement. Carbon Expo 2015, organised jointly by IETA, the World Bank Group and Fira de Barcelona, features more than 220 speakers in nine plenary sessions and 27 workshops. Carbon Expo will also host 36 side events featuring the latest products and services for climate and carbon finance, including industry case studies, new reports and networking opportunities. The side events will be open to all participants.
"Carbon Expo provides an ideal scenario for underscoring that, in addition to the new approach implemented in our domestic climate change policies, we view the year 2015 as a crucial year to prepare for the Paris Climate Summit," says Isabel García Tejerina, Spain's Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment. "All governments face the challenge of reaching a global agreement and public and private sector commitment is essential for advancing towards a low-carbon economy."
"Achieving a peaking of global emissions in 10 years, a deep decarbonisation of the global economy and climate neutrality by the second half of the century will require ambitious public policy, entrepreneurial drive and finance to support the growth and climate ambitions of developing countries," says Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. "This year's Carbon Expo needs to help build that response. The Expo takes on special significance for the carbon market community as the world heads towards a new universal, global climate change agreement in Paris -- not least being the role of market mechanisms in supporting the new agreement and the surrounding decision over the coming years and decades."
World Bank Group, IETA and Fira de Barcelona: a successful partnership
The World Bank Group was the first institution to develop global public-private carbon funds with the creation of the Prototype Carbon Fund in 2000, and has since launched over 18 carbon initiatives designed to support carbon markets in client countries, reduce green technology investment risk and increase the scope of carbon finance. This is now widening to innovative financial instruments to support climate and carbon finance from the client country perspective.
IETA has been the leading voice of the business community on the subject of carbon markets since 1999. IETA's 130 member companies include some of the world's leading corporations, including global leaders in oil, electricity, cement, aluminium, chemical, paper, and other industrial sectors; as well as leading firms in the data verification and certification, brokering and trading, legal, finance, and consulting industries. IETA works to develop an active, homogeneous global greenhouse gas market that transcends national frontiers.
In 2009, the World Bank Group and IETA decided to bring on board Fira de Barcelona, Spain's leading organiser of trade fairs and industrial exhibitions, to guarantee the success of Carbon Expo in Spain.
Images of past events available here
The 2015 Conference Program is available here
Please download this press release here.
