The Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, recently and convened governments, businesses, investors and international organisations to act together for inclusive green growth. A Nigerian company with interest in the West African region, Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) and its Managing Director, Dr. Amy Jadesinmi featured prominently at the forum. Abimbola Akosile and Nseobong Okon-Ekong report
Denmark hosted more than 250 top leaders from all over the world at the Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) Summit 2016 in Copenhagen between June 6 and 7.
For the fifth time, top leaders from the private sector, governments, and civil society from more than 35 countries met at the summit in Denmark. The goal of the forum was to create innovative collaborations and tangible green solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges across energy, food loss and waste, climate, and sustainable cities.
At this year’s summit, which was also attended by several participants from Africa, more than 30 public-private partnerships sought to develop solutions that would contribute to green growth all over the world.
Background
The timing of this year’s 3GF Summit was designed to follow up on the Paris Climate Agreement and the Agreement on UN’s Sustainable Development Goals from September 2015.
Under the headline A Call to Action – Enabling Solutions at Speed and Scale, the 3GF provides a platform for developing solutions and private-public partnerships that help fuel the green transition. The summit focused on three areas in particular: the green transition of energy systems, cities as drivers of green growth, and optimising the use of natural resources.
The 2016 summit included launches of several new initiatives originated in 3GF’s public-private partnerships, e.g. a new initiative to combat climate change and an alliance working to reduce barriers to trade in green energy.
3GF was initiated by the Danish government in 2011 in close collaboration with Korea and Mexico. Since then, China, Kenya, Qatar, and Ethiopia have joined the platform. This year, Vietnam and Chile joined as official 3GF partner countries.
Partnership Approach
The mission of the Global Green Growth Forum (3GF) is to explore, promote and demonstrate how better collaboration among leading businesses, investors, think-tanks, experts, international organisations and governments can effectively realise the potential for long-term inclusive green growth.
The idea is that partnerships need to be established where markets and government action on their own have not been able to solve intractable challenges. These partnership initiatives seek to unite diverse actors into stronger alliances which obtain the strength to promote and install change.
3GF seeks to provide a framework bridging both partners’ individual motivations for pursuing a green growth pathway and the overall aim of a global transition towards a green and inclusive economy. The aim of 3GF framework is to state that the motivations of individual partners and the holistic green growth perspective are not conflicting.
LADOL Intervention
A Nigerian company with interest in the West African region, Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) and its Managing Director, Dr. Amy Jadesinmi featured prominently at the forum in Copenhagen, where she discussed her role on the Global Commission of Sustainable Development.
Jadesimi serves the Global Commission for Sustainable Development as one of its 31 commissioners. The Commission is chaired by Lord Mark Malloch-Brown. Her presentation focused on the need to proliferate a new social contract. The 3GF platform which acts as an accelerator made a global commitment to advancing green transformation at speed and at scale.
The opening plenary session which featured Jadesinmi had other panellists including Prime Minister of Denmark, Lars Lokke Rasmussen; Minister for Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam, Mr. Tran Hong Ha; Director General, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) Inger Andersen; CEO, Danfoss, Niels B. Christiansen; panel moderator and Chair of Board of KR Foundation and CONCITO, Connie Hedegaard, and the European Union Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Karmenu Vella.
Jadesinmi premised her presentation on the experience of LADOL over the last 10 years. She emphasised that her company was developed in line with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), even before they existed.
According to her, “we are proof that private sector can derive significant profits while achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by pursuing opportunities in growth markets like Nigeria and West Africa. SDGs have been part of LADOL’s DNA for a decade, our success comes from the fact that we privately invested in building capacity to service a clearly defined and drastically underserved $200 billion market in West Africa.
“Respecting and empowering local communities and civil societies is one of the first things investors should do to identify and tap into these opportunities – even the poorest people in the world will invest in healthcare and education given the option, in many cases they are paying for these things already – the role of government and NGOs is to facilitate and define opportunities, the role of private sector is to execute and sustain.”
Speaking on how LADOL represents a prime example of a new economy sustainable company, Jadesinmi said, “International banks and investors need to re-define bankability to enable them to participate in the highly lucrative opportunities for investment around the world, this will also help sustainably and more rapidly achieve the SDGs.”
She also posited that “SMEs and other companies in high growth markets need to do their part to attract investment by being Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)- compliant and better quantifying the private sector opportunities they have identified.”
Vital Inputs
The 3GF2016 summit Charter of Action include a call for the creation of an international sustainable infrastructure registry, promotion of sustainable lifestyles, transition to a new world of energy, use of natural resources, a call for deeper collaboration on sustainable use of water across Africa, Latin America and Asia, and the call for a multi-stakeholder platform to examine the consequences of water pricing.
Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Achim Steiner, drew attention to the “scale of the problem of food loss and waste can be difficult to comprehend. Having this new standard by which to measure food loss and waste will not only help us understand just how much food is not making it to our mouths, but will help set a baseline for action. UNEP welcomes the new FLW Standard and calls on countries and companies to use it to start measuring and reporting food loss and waste, in parallel to taking action to deliver on SDG Target 12.3: Halve food waste by 2030.”
In her paper, Chief Executive Officer, WRAP (The Waste and Resources Action Programme) Dr. Liz Goodwin, focused on what her organisation has done in the UK.
“WRAP’s work to help reduce household waste in the UK by 21 per cent was only possible through our groundbreaking analysis to quantify how much and where it was wasted. Food waste is not confined by borders, so WRAP is delighted to have helped develop the Food Loss and Waste Standard. I am confident it will empower businesses, governments, and other organisations to take action on an international scale, an outcome that WRAP will strongly support.”
Moving Forward
According to experts, a rapid, large-scale industrial transition is needed if global economic growth is to continue while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions, adapting societies to climate change and promoting a sustainable use of resources. This industrial transition has the potential to unlock new growth engines and spur global economic growth.
More robust participation at the summit was made possible by decision makers from 37 different countries across the public and private sectors along with civil society. There were also over 450 high level delegates at the event including representatives from 68 private companies.
An important commitment extracted from delegates was their continuing resolve to create effective partnerships between the public and private sectors.
QUOTE
“Respecting and empowering local communities and civil societies is one of the first things investors should do to identify and tap into these opportunities – even the poorest people in the world will invest in healthcare and education given the option”
