Pardee Center Task Force on Green Economy Presented at UN Workshop

The recent Pardee Center Task Force Report on ‘Beyond Rio+20: Governance for a Green Economy’ was presented at a special workshop held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on March 23, 2011. Prof. Adil Najam, Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Workshop and one of the co-convenors of the Task Force (along with Prof. Henrik Selin) presented the report at a workshop that attracted a room full of delegates from UN Member States.

The workshop – the second in a series hosted by The Group of Friends on Green Economy at the United Nations (which includes: Egypt, Gabon, Grenada, Hungary, Indonesia, Mexico, Republic of Korea, Sweden, Switzerland) and organized by the World Resources Institute (WRI) – was convened our to discuss Opportunities and Concerns of the Green Economy. Chaired by Ambassador Maged A. Abdelaziz (Egypt) and Ambassador Marten Grunditz (Sweden), this interactive session showcased four presentations – including Prof. Najam’s -followed by in-depth question and answer sessions.

In addition to Prof. Adil Najam, the panelists included: Dr. John Talberth (Senior Economist, World Resources Institute); Mr. Munyaradzi Chenje (Senior Environmental Affairs Officer, UNEP); and Dr. José Ocampo (Columbia University and former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations).

In his presentation, Prof. Najam presented some of the key findings of the Pardee Center Task Force Report and highlighted the importance of placing equity and poverty issues at the very center of all Green Economy debates. This workshop followed closely the March 8, 2011 Pardee Center side-event held at the second PrepCom for the Rio+20 conference, where the Pardee Center Task Force Report had also been made distributed at the United Nations.