The Regional Forum on Green Investment Schemes, Warsaw, June 25 - 26, 2008

The Regional Forum on Green Investment Schemes, organized by Polish Ministry of the Environment, and supported by State Administration of the Emissions Trading Scheme (KASHUE) and the World Bank, took place on June 25-26, 2008, in Warsaw, Poland.

The GIS Forum objectives were: (i) to share knowledge and experience in the design and implementation of GIS; (ii) to identify opportunities to maximize the benefits to be derived from a GIS; (iii) to determine the institutional and legal frameworks in order to ensure an effective GIS; and, (iv) to meet potential carbon buyers and traders during the Forum.

Professor Maciej Nowicki, the Polish Minister of Environment has opened the event together with Oscar de Bruyn Kops, WB Country Manager for Poland. The Minister’s participation has proven strong the commitment of his Ministry to work on GIS issues. It is worth mentioning that the Minister’s attendance at the Forum had to be included in his extremely busy schedule, just before two-day visit of EC Commissioner scheduled for June 26-27 to discuss the 2nd National Allocation Plan and EC climate package implementation. 

The Forum was attended by over 70 participants who represented Government and state agencies (Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Regional Development, National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management - the largest state agency providing financing for envt'l protection, and the KASHUE. The Chancellery of the Polish Parliament, and the EcoFund Foundation (responsible for debt-for-envt swap management for over 15 years).  The biggest Polish bank dealing with environmental projects - The Bank for Environmental Protection was also present there.  The potential buyers (Austria, Canada, Italy, and Japan) were represented through representations of the respective embassies. The Austria CDM/JI program, the Embassy of Japan in Poland and Natsource Japan representing Japanese private buyers delivered presentations.  The International agencies/institutions were represented by EBRD, EIB and UNDP. Finally the representatives of consulting companies (Polish and Japanese) accounted for more than 20% of the audience.