The First Regional Conference on Sustainable Industrial Development “Promoting Sustainable Energy Solutions and Clean Technologies in CIS Countries’’ concluded in Vienna

December 11, 2017

The event that took place at the Vienna International Centre from 22 to 23 November 2017 with financial support from the Government of the Russian Federation, brought together over 80 experts and practitioners from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries with the aim of sharing best practices, knowledge and successful business solutions in the field of green industry.

During the first day of the event, representatives of the CIS Secretariat, international organizations, the private sector and academia came together for a fruitful debate focusing on strategies, instruments and models to promote green industries, resource efficient and cleaner production processes and harnessing opportunities offered by clean technologies.

During the opening, the Director General of UNIDO, LI Yong, stressed the importance of upscaling sustainable energy solutions and green technologies for achieving the objectives of the 2030 Agenda and the Paris Agreement. UNIDO has been implementing numerous technical cooperation projects and programmes in the CIS region to make industries more sustainable, efficient and profitable.

Georgy Mikhno, Acting Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to International Organizations in Vienna underlined that this event will allow the design of new forms of cooperation, and highlighted UNIDO’s role as a valuable partner for the implementation of joint programmes and as facilitator of international networks for sustainable energy management and clean technologies in industry. The audience was also addressed by Alexey Aleshin, Chairman of the Federal Environmental, Industrial and Nuclear Supervision Service of the Russian Federation (Rostechnadzor) and Dmitry Belanovich, Adviser to the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation. In his address Mr. Belanovich highlighted the positive experience in cooperating with the UNIDO Centre in the Russian Federation on a series of projects and informed the audience, that the Ministry of Natural Resources is currently considering the possibility of a partnership with the UNIDO Centre for implementing the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation on the introduction of nature-like and convergent technologies in the industry.

Among the speakers of the Conference were several representatives from Russian Federation: Natalia Sokolova, Director of the Department for State Environment Supervision of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor), Tikhon Koveshnikov, Head of Department for Oversight of the State Program “Energy-saving and Development of Energy Sector” and Academic Activity of the Russian Energy Agency, and Yury Fedorov, Deputy Director of the Department for the State Regulation of Tariffs, Infrastructure Reforms and Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Economic Development.

During the second day, participants debated the best international and regional practices for leveraging public-private partnerships for the development and increased intake of sustainable energy solutions and clean technologies, as well as other financing mechanisms for sustainable energy projects. The Director of the UNIDO Centre in the Russian Federation Sergey Korotkov presented projects financing opportunities for clean and energy efficient technologies in the Russian Federation.

Best-case examples of advanced cleaner technologies and successful applications of sustainable energy solutions were showcased at a dedicated inter-regional EXPO. At the opening of the EXPO, the Director General of UNIDO highlighted UNIDO’s readiness to harness its knowledge, expertise and multi-stakeholder networks to proliferate green industry strategies and technologies in the CIS region and beyond.

With the support of the UNIDO Centre in Russia the Regional Corporation for Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Development of Ulyanovsk Region, Raoproekt and Kaspersky Lab. participated in the EXPO.