30 January 2009: UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner participated in a panel on “Rising to the Challenge of Copenhagen,” at the World Economic Forum on 29 January 2009, in Davos, Switzerland. The panel was moderated by Thomas L. Friedman, Foreign Affairs Columnist, The New York Times, and included Jacques Aigrain, Swiss Re CEO, Al Gore, former US Vice-President and Nobel Laureate, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark, and Jeroen van der Veer, Royal Dutch Shell CEO.
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January 2009: The International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Organization for Standardization, and the International Electrotechnical Commission are organizing a workshop on International Standards to Promote Energy Efficiency and Reduce Carbon Emissions. The workshop will convene at the Organization for Economic and Co-operation Development (OECD) conference centre in Paris, France, from 16-17 March 2009.
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January 2009: The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has published two reports on sustainable bioenergy production and on linkages between energy, ecosystems and livelihoods.
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28 January 2009: The World Bank has released an extensive technical report that serves as a background document for its strategic framework for climate change approved in 2008, titled “Development and Climate Change: A Strategic Framework for the World Bank Group.”
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28 January 2009: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will provide financial and technical support to the Government of Peru to support an integrated approach to developing conventional and renewable energy sources in order to contribute to climate change mitigation. A new energy matrix is the centerpiece of a package of measures Peru has agreed to carry out under a US$150 million programmatic policy-based loan approved by the IDB Board of Executive Directors on 28 January 2009.
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27 January 2009: The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) held its founding conference in Bonn, Germany, on 26 January 2009, bringing together representatives from over 100 governments. IRENA was set up to promote renewable energy worldwide and help create conditions for renewable energy development.
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23 January 2009: Kandeh Yumkella, UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Director-General, and Tair Mansurov, Secretary-General of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC), have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) between the two organizations, at UNIDO headquarters in Vienna, Austria. The MoC provides new cooperation prospects between UNIDO and EurAsEC countries in areas such as: energy and climate change; the environment, including water management; agro-industries; trade capacity building and private sector development.
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21 January 2009: Ides Willebois, on behalf of Leonard Båge, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), delivered a statement to the German Bundestag outlining IFAD's perspective on the risks and opportunities of agro-biotechnology and other agricultural technologies.
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25 January 2009: The World Bank's Global Gas Flaring Reduction partnership (GGFR) welcomed Qatar as the first Gulf State to join the global effort to reduce the flaring of gas associated to oil production.
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January 2009: The UN Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (UN-ESCWA) is organizing an Expert Group Meeting on “Best Practices and Measures for Promoting Renewable Energy Applications in ESCWA Region,” scheduled to take place from 3-4 February 2009, in Beirut, Lebanon. Back to back with the meeting, the UN-ESCWA Committee on Energy will convene its seventh session from 5-6 February.
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