Achim Steiner, a former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, is the keynote speaker at this year’s MIECF. Mr Steiner now serves as International Vice-Chair of the CCICED.
Each annual edition of the Macao International Environmental Co-operation Forum & Exhibition (MIECF) invites a renowned expert to deliver a keynote speech. Achim Steiner, a former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and former Under-Secretary General of the UN, will be the keynote speaker of the “Green Forum” at the 2017MIECF. The MIECF event will take place very soon. Mr Steiner now serves as International Vice-Chair of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED).
Themed “Innovative Green Development for a Sustainable Future”, Mr Steiner’s speech will analyse global environmental challenges and their impact on economic activity, and the main pressures on sustainability. He will focus in particular on issues related to climate change, as well as goals for sustainable development and for better use of natural resources. Mr Steiner will also discuss concepts of green economy, the circular economy and ecological civilisation.
Mr Steiner will also provide insight on the role that public policy has in promoting a green economy, and public policy’s likely impacts on future businesses, industries and markets (including technological innovations). Four cases will be analysed by Mr Steiner, covering the following sectors: low-carbon and renewable energy; electric vehicles; low-carbon and sustainable agriculture; and green finance. Mr Steiner will share his own views on these subjects, as well as discussing the possible impact of those sectors on governments, public policy, enterprises and consumers.
Mr Steiner served as Under-Secretary General of the UN and Director-General of the International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN), before becoming the International Vice-Chair of CCICED. Currently, he is also the Director of the Oxford Martin School and serves on a number of boards and councils – including as Chair of the Agora Verkehrswende Council, in Germany; and as a member of the International Olympic Committee’s Sustainability and Legacy Commission.
Mr Steiner’s work and leadership have been recognised through numerous awards, including: the Tällberg Foundation Leadership Award for Principled Pragmatism; the Bruno H. Schubert Prize for Environmental Leadership; the Slovak Republic’s Gold Medal for Diplomatic Service; the Order of Diplomatic Service of the Republic of Korea; and the German Sustainability Award. He is also an Officer of the Order of Saint Charles.
Over the course of the previous nine editions of MIECF, the event has hosted renowned industrial leaders and professionals as keynote speakers. These speakers include Mr Subinay Nandy, then Country Director of the United Nations Development Programme, China Country Office; Dr Peter J. Kalas, an advisor to the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, and a former Minister of Environment of the country; Mr Joschka Fischer, a former Vice Chancellor and former Foreign Minister of Germany; Mr Klaus Töpfer, a former Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme and former Under Secretary-General of the UN; Mr Andrew Bowerbank, a member of the Green Municipal Fund (GMF) Council of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities; Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and Special Advisor to former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon; Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, Doctor of Social Sciences Honoris Causa (h.c.), at the University of Macau, former Chief Economist of the World Bank and Professor at Columbia University; and Mr James Jao, President of Long On Group, Senior Expert on Planning at the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of the People's Republic of China, and Steering Member of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT).
Another keynote speaker at MIECF has been Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland. She is a former Prime Minister of Norway, a former head of the World Commission on the Environment and Development – a body known as the “Brundtland Commission” – as well as being a Special Envoy on Climate Change at the United Nations and a former Director-General of the World Health Organization. Professor Dr h.c. Walter R. Stahel, Pioneer of the Circular Economy, inventor of the “Cradle to Cradle” and “Performance Economy” concepts and founder of the Product-Life Institute, Geneva, was also one of the keynote speakers at MIECF.
