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For the 6th year in a row, UNDP is partnering with the French economic daily “Les Echos” for the European Forum for Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility – FEDERE 2008. On 27 and 28 March, this business forum will gather in Paris (France) CEOs and senior managers of numerous corporations, with rating agencies and high ranking civil servants from governments and international institutions.

The exchanges will focus on departing from a logic of constraints towards a logic of opportunities and economic development – putting climate change and the poor at the heart of companies’ business plans.   

UNDP wishes to draw attention to the following high times at FEDERE:  

• UNDP’s Executive Coordinator for the Global Environment Facility, Mr. Yannick Glemarec, and other panelists will address the economic opportunities generated by climate change.
• Textile company Armorlux, telecommunications leader Smart and UNDP will show how, thanks to innovative business models, companies can make profit on the largest and fastest-expanding segment of the world population –  “the bottom two billion” -  and in so doing grow inclusive markets, generating social and environmental benefits as well. 
• Coca Cola will explain why and how it decided to partner with UNDP. This session will highlight the opportunities, the successes and the challenges of strategic alliances between companies and some development actors.

FEDERE is a place where to learn on the added value of new business models as well as of innovative collaborative undertakings. 

Countering climate change is one of the biggest challenges humanity ever had to face. No individual, institution or company can shrink away from doing its share of reducing greenhouse gases emissions. But climate change also constitutes a huge business opportunity – from Carbon markets to clean technologies and investments in adaptation. Less obvious, but no less real, companies can thrive on the “bottom two billion” markets, and by the same token reduce social gaps and speed up development.