Baltic States – CIS, Energy, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Latvia

The firt day of Green Bridge Forum 2015 in Jurmala, 15.05.2015.

The Forum is one of the most prominent environment industry events within the Latvian Presidency in the European Union Council, and it is devoted to strengthening cooperation between the EU and Central Asia countries (Kazkhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) within the field of enivornment technologies and solutions.

The Director-General for Environment, European Commission, Karl Falkenberg in his opening speech of the Forum pointed out that, when thinking about future, we have to think about saving resources now through cooperation with neighboring countrries and implementation of common projects. He mentioned rivers as an example – they rarely start and end within the territory of one state, however, their water is consumed by all people, therefore all countries using this resourse have to take on responsibility.

Green Bridge Forum 2015 was opened by the Minister of Environment Protection and Regional Development of Latvia, Kaspars Gerhards, who said: “On 2015 important decisions have to be taken in environment and climate areas. It is expected that in autumn during the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York a global agreement on sustainable development goals after 2015 will be confirmed, and in December during the Paris climate conference a new global agreement on limitation of climate changes after 2020 will be reached. Those decisions will affect both European Union and Central Asia countries in the future. I am certain that the Green Bridge Forum will give a significant contribution to strengthening cooperation between the EU, Kazkhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, and everyone will gain from that.”

The State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, Andrejs Pildegovics said in his opening speech: “In the name of the Latvian Presidency in the European Union Council I am honoured for participation of the highest level government and business delegations from Kazkhstan, Kirgizstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in the Green Bridge Forum. This Forum is unique, as it creates grounds for merging paths and interests of the European Union and Central Asai, as well as an opportunity for the politicians and decision makers to meet business people – developers of the cleantech solutions. I hope the Forum will become a starting point for many new cooperation projects among the European Union Member States and Central Asia countries.”

Uzbek delegation at the Green Bridge Forum 2015 in Jurmala, 15.05.2015.

The opening of the Green Bridge Forum 2015 was honoured by the Central Asia high level participants – the First Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Commissioner of the EXPO-2017 Rapil Zhoshybayev, the Deputy Minister of Energy and Industry of the Kyrgyz Republic Nurlan Sadykov, the Deputy Minister of Industry and New Technologies of the Republic of Tajikistan Akram Ruzizoda, the Vice-Minister, Ministry of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources of Turkmenistan Myratgeldi Meredov, and the Chairman of the State Nature Protection Committee of the Republic Uzbekistan Bakhtiyor Abdusamatov. The opening session of the Forum was moderated by the Former EU commissioner for Development and former EU commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs.

On April 16, the second day of the Green Bridge Forum 2015 three panel discussions will be organized. The first panel discussion will be devoted to environment, climate and water supply issues – main achievements and future perspective. The second panel discussion will be related to implementation of environment investment projects, and the third one – to facilitation of innovative and sustainable cleantech projects.

On April 17 there will be several presentations, showcasing business experience in cleantech projects and sharing their expertise. On the last day of the Forum, April 18 the participants will have an opportunity to visit various companies and see projects already implemented.

The objective of the Green Bridge Forum 2015 is strengthening cooperation between the EU and Central Asia countries within the field of enivornment technologies. During the four days of the Forum the highest officials, politicians, leading innovators, ministers of environment, industry experts and business representatives will discuss importance of the green technologies in those countries. One of the priorities of the Forum is promotion of environment governance.

The Forum is organized during the Latvian Presidency of the European Union Council by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Environment Protection and Regional Development, the European Commission, Jurmala City Council and “Green Bridge Forum”, Ltd. The event is supported by Aqua Seen, CLEANTECH LATVIA and its partners, Cluster of Industrial Energy Efficiency, Dilers, Institute for Environment Solutions, Association of Sustainable Usage of Nature Resources KAPUR (Kazakhstan), Karme Filtrs, Lattelecom, Vega 1, LADEC (Finland).