The EBRD is a pioneer in efforts towards a low carbon economy with flagship programmes like the Sustainable Resource Initiative. In accordance with this mission the Bank will also make its 2014 Annual Meeting and Business Forum in Warsaw on 14 and 15 May 2014 carbon neutral.
Some 2,500 participants – delegates, business guests, media and civil society representatives – are expected at the meeting and to compensate for the carbon output caused by such a large event, the EBRD will contribute Kyoto compliant carbon credits equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the event.
The carbon credits will come from a wind power project in Śniatowo in the north-west of Poland, developed and operated by Vortex Energy Group. The wind project produces electricity that substitutes electricity generated with fossil fuels and thus contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions.
By ensuring that its Annual Meeting and Business Forum is one of the first major carbon neutral conferences ever in Poland, the EBRD promotes climate change awareness, the use of carbon market instruments and increased investments in the transition to a low carbon economy. The EBRD hopes to attract the interest of Polish and regional investors in these efforts.
The EBRD would like to acknowledge Climate Austria managed by Kommunalkredit Public Consulting which is providing its services to calculate the carbon emissions of the event and GreenStream Network for providing its carbon credit origination services.
The initiative in Warsaw follows the EBRD’s 2013 Annual Meeting in Istanbul, when the Bank purchased the event’s carbon emissions equivalent in carbon credits from a sustainable energy project in Turkey.