Seoul to host environment summit for global business leaders in 2010

SEOUL, Dec. 7 (Yonhap) -- Business leaders from all over the world will gather in Seoul next year for an annual meeting to foster business-driven action towards a global green economy, organizers said on Monday.

Co-hosted by the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), the U.N. Global Compact, the
Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and South Korea's Ministry of Environment, the
Business for the Environment Summit (B4E) will be held here on April 21-23.
It will be the first environment-related international conference after the 15th
U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP15) to be held in Copenhagen later this month.
The B4E, the fourth of its kind, will address topics such as resource efficiency,
renewable energies, new business models and climate policy and strategies.
About 1,000 leaders from business, government, non-governmental organizations
will take part in the meeting, according to the organizers. They include Wangari
Maathai, founder of Greenbelt Movement, a Kenyan-based non-governmental
organization of women who combat deforestation and soil erosion by planting
trees, and Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin, a British business group.
A ceremony for the 2010 Champions of the Earth Award will also be held in
conjunction with the B4E. The award has been presented annually by UNEP since
2005 to catalysts of positive environmental change who, through the worlds of
politics, business and science and civil society, demonstrative transformational
solutions to environmental threats, the organizers said.
sshim@yna.co.kr