BDF, DG Regional Policy, the Interact programme, and Nordic Council of Ministers hosted the 
conference “Green Growth in the Baltic Sea Region” in Riga, Latvia on 5-6 May 2011.
Baltic Development Forum, the European Commission, the Interact programme, and Nordic Council of Ministers hosted the conference “Green Growth in the Baltic Sea Region” in Riga, Latvia on 5 – 6 May 2011. The Conference was opened by Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Ģirts Valdis Kristovskis.
The conference identified opportunities and policy implications for realizing synergies between green growth initiatives, programs and projects in the Baltic Sea Region.
Through the active engagement of approximately 150 representatives from the public and private sectors, international organizations, international financial institutions provided views, ideas and recommendations for how the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region can further accelerate green growth, thereby contributing to the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy. From Baltic Development forum, Director Hans Brask presented views on the topic drawing on recent BDF reports and studies, demonstrating that there could be an economic benefit of €5 billion over the next decade to gain through a regional and coordinated implementation of the Europe 20-20-20 targets – the reason being that the Baltic Sea Region has an exceptionally complementary energy mix.
Here you can find the final conference report and key messages from the conference. For more information regarding the conference, presentations and other conference material, please visit the website of the office of the Nordic Council of Ministers in Riga by clicking here.
The topic of green growth will be further taken up at the 13th BDF Summit/2nd Annual Forum for the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region in Gdansk, Poland 24-26 October 2011.
At the 2010 BDF Summit, BDF presented policy recommendations as to how Green Growth could come to the region. The report was presented together with Copenhagen Economics and Financed by the Danish Industry Foundation. Download the BDF report Going for Green Growth in the Baltic Sea Region.
You can also download the report entitled Sustainable Energy Scenarios. Energy Perspectives for the Baltic Sea Region– setting the agenda for the future.