American Chamber co-organises Green Economy conference
The American Chamber of Commerce in Portugal (AmCham) is organising the conference ‘Towards a Green Economy’ which will focus on the opportunities and solutions to challenges facing Portugal and the world in the 21st century.
The conference will be held in the EDP auditorium at the energy producer’s headquarters on Avenida 24 Julho on 24 January.
The event will be sponsored by United Airlines, AON, EDP and EY and in partnership with the Business Council for Sustainable Development.
The conference will be opened by the President of AmCham, Sofia Tenreiro, the keynote speaker will be Juan Verde, an advisor on environmental issues to former US President Obama and Vice President Al Gore who will talk on ‘The Green Revolution – a Great Opportunity for Business’.
Other speakers include José Manuel Viegas on ‘Sustainable Mobility,’ Greg Lowe ‘Climate Risk: Building Investor Resilience through Technology, Phil Dominy on ‘How can Large Companies meet Renewable Energy Targets and Reduce Costs?’ and Pancho Campo on ‘Doing Business under a Changing Climate.’
The conference speakers and organisers recognise that if the world is to successfully transition to a green economy it is going to cost and the issue arises of how companies are going to pay for this transition.
Green finance is just finance but where the company, infrastructure and energy producer being invested in are green. An electric car is green finance, an energy efficient home is green finance and an investment fund that supports green technology is green finance.
Given the importance of finance across the economy, if we are going to tackle climate change, its clear that finance and companies are going to need to be re-focused towards greener outcomes.
Portugal’s energy provider Energias de Portugal (EDP) is ranked at the 6th most green energy producer in the world with a ranked capacity of 25.2GW according to the EI survey. The company has publicly committed to investing 12mn in universal access to sustainable energy which will not only make a significant difference to the challenges facing the energy market, but to people living in developing countries.
