India, one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, has ratified the Paris global climate agreement.

Under the deal, India has committed to ensuring that at least 40% of its electricity will be generated from non-fossil sources by 2030.

CO2 emissions are believed to be the driving force behind climate change.

Last December in Paris, countries agreed to cut emissions in a bid to keep the global average rise in temperatures below 2C.

The Paris deal is the world’s first comprehensive climate agreement.

It will only come into force legally after it is ratified by at least 55 countries which between them produce at least 55% of global carbon emissions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last month that India would ratify the agreement on 2 October, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the struggle for independence from Britain.

“India has deposited its instrument of ratification of the Paris Agreement with the United Nations,” the UN said in a statement on Sunday.

The US and China – together responsible for 40% of the world’s carbon emissions – both formally joined the Paris global climate agreement earlier this month.

India accounts for about 4.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and became the 62nd country to ratify the agreement.

The European Union is expected to do so in the near future, taking approvals past the 55% of emissions threshold.

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Paris agreement: Key points

• To keep global temperature increase “well below” 2C and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C
• To peak greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and achieve a balance between sources and sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century
• To review progress every five years
• $100bn a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2020, with a commitment to further finance in the future
• Once the deal comes into force, countries that have ratified it have to wait for a minimum of three years before they exit

Source: BBC News

Budapest Energy Summit will be organized on the 5-6^th of December 2016 at Budapest, Hungary.

The Main Patron of the conference is Mr. János Áder, President of Hungary.

The conference is a newly launched, biennial exclusive forum of the top energy leaders and EU leaders, representing businesses, authorities, and international organizations from 18 countries. The aim of the summit is to share insights and perspectives of the sector and to discuss the key energy issues of the broadly defined region. 

They will surely be there:

Some further speakers of the Summit are:

Marie-Theres Thiell (RWE); Alexander Alting von Geusau (ING); Kirill Komarov (Rosatom); Gergely Szabó (MET); Dan Byles (SmarterUK); Jan Springl (EP Energy); Andrew Walker (Cheniere).

All speakers are available on the continually updated website of the conference: www.budapestenergysummit.hu

Book your seat now!

The World Energy Outlook 2016 will be presented on the conference by the Chief Economist of IEA, László Varró.

Awards have been established to honor the outstanding achievements of energy executives and projects. You can nominate for „Energy Executive of the Year”, „Young Energy Executive of the Year”, „Woman Energy Executive of the Year”, „Energy Innovation Project of the Year” and „ Energy CSR project of the Year”. The winners will be selected by a professional, international jury. The awarding ceremony will be held on the gala dinner on the 5th of December (first day of the conference).

 

Details of the summit:

Date: 5-6th of December 2016

Venue: Hungary, Budapest, Hotel Marriott

Early bird tickets with 20% discount are available until September for 960 EUR!

Please note that the number of seats available are limited. 

For further information, please contact Henrietta Benkő at henrietta.benko@budapestenergysummit.hu.

The Main Sponsor of the event:

 

Sustainability reporting helps organizations to become more responsible, accountable and contribute effectively to sustainable development; to engage with stakeholders and build corporate reputation. To prepare and publish a report needs more than data, wording and editing.

Date:                    29-30. September 2016 + on-line exercise

Location:            Hungary, Budapest (1133 Budapest, Váci út 92. Kinnarps House)

Language:          English

Participation fee: 750 EURO + VAT (27%), which includes printed training material, coffee breaks, lunch, exam fee, licence fee, but does not include travelling, parking or accommodation fee.

Discounts:

• 550 EURO + VAT (27%) For NGOs, teachers, students, SMEs (<50 employees) and for companies that delegate more participants than 1 person
• 10% Early bird discount if registering until 5th September
• 10% for companies who are members of our partner organizations e.g. BCSDH member (full partner list available on sd-reporting-training.webnode.hu)

Capturing key topics and developments, the 16-hour training provides a holistic overview of sustainability reporting, from G4 requirements and developments to practical information and conclusions.

The training provides a general overview on the reporting process and areas:

• starting with basic definitions (what is sustainability),
• the reporting process (what is reporting, how to measure sustainability, GRI principles and indicators), also
• concrete reporting dilemmas (printed or online, which target group, how to communicate it effectively, how to prioritize issues etc.).

Former training participants evaluated the training as practical, professional, creative and open minded event, which gave them every day help although to prepare their first report or develop already existing reporting practices.

Sustainability reporting is a continually evolving practice that interacts with local and global developments. Thousands of organizations worldwide produce sustainability reports, and more and more develop their reporting process to gain benefits. Assurance and integrated reports are among key challenges on a global level, stakeholder engagement, materiality and successful publishing and dissemination on national levels.

Reporting is an internal learning process contributing the sustainable and organizational development, and a communication tool to build and strengthen reputation and stakeholder relationships. The relationship between data, an organization’s sustainability, performance and its ability to communicate material information to stakeholders is among key challenges – and this training will give useful insights and day to day recommendations to tackle them.

More information you can find here: http://sd-reporting-training.webnode.hu/

The registration sheet you can find here: Registration_G4_September2016

World Water Week in Stockholm is the annual focal point for the globe’s water issues. It is organized by SIWI. This year, the theme is Water for Sustainable Growth. It is also the 20th jubilee of the Stockholm Junior Water Prize. In 2015, over 3,000 individuals and close to 300 convening organizations from 130 countries participated in the Week.

Experts, practitioners, decision-makers, business innovators and young professionals from a range of sectors and countries come to Stockholm to network, exchange ideas, foster new thinking and develop solutions to the most pressing water-related challenges of today. We believe water is key to our future prosperity, and that together, we can achieve a water wise world.