CIFAL Jeju hosts first training on Green Growth and Low-Carbon Cities for Asia-Pacific Region
Part of UNITAR's global network of nine CIFAL training centres for local development, CIFAL Jeju's mandate will be to develop capacities among regional local governments in this area, and it successfully completed its first training by building capacities in Green Growth among delegations from Pakistan, The Philippines, Viet Nam, Nepal, and other countries. Partiicpants hailed from a variety of cities such as Dhaka, Bangladesh to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and had the chance to visit Jeju's Smart Grid testing centres exploring future innovations and test products used on Jeju Island for Renewable energy (Smart Grid technologies) and even in household products to conserve and even trade household energy resources, while limiting carbon emissions. With a variety of presentations from high-level Korean officials from the Presidential Commission on Green Growth and Jeju Province, participants learned about the background of Korean development, where "the last 30 years focused on growth, and the next 30 years the focus is on Green Growth." Korean officials reiterated phrases like "A Carbon Advantage = Money + Opportunity" to drive home the concepts of how a Low-Carbon city can also produce sustainable economic development, and how economic growth can go hand in hand with environmental protection. Other lessons learned from the Korean experience were that the key factors for driving a national green growth strategy not only depended on the over $85 billion budget for the 5-year plan, but especially the Presidential leadership backing this new strategy, the country's expertise in IT developments, and the success of public awareness and civic education campaigns, the complementary public policies behind the plan, and the vision for building a carbon market among the country's financial sector.
In 2011, CIFAL Jeju will continue to host introductory Green Growth training courses, as well as more specific workshops for developing Green Growth plans and programmes across local governments in the Asia-Pacific region. For more information contact: www.CIFALJeju.orgor Programme Manager Bo Young Rhim at Boyoung.rhim@gmail.com. |