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2018 Sustainable Energy for All Forum - Day 1 Wrap-up

More than 800 attendees gathered today at the fourth Sustainable for Energy for All Forum in Lisbon to chart the bold steps that are needed to accelerate progress on achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) by 2030.

The opening day was a mix of data-driven reality about the challenge ahead and optimism that bigger, bolder gains are more imminent than ever. And, no doubt, attendees at the Forum – a mix of financiers, governments, business CEOs, civil society and community leaders – were the secret ingredient for making the transformative gains happen.

“You are the vanguard, the tipping point of the revolution.”

Rachel Kyte, Chief Executive Officer

and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All

Among the day’s key highlights

Taking Stock on SDG7 Progress: If Rwanda and Bangladesh can achieve exponential growth in off-grid renewables in just a few years, why can’t other countries in Africa and Asia? If Portugal can achieve 100 percent renewable energy, why can’t other advanced economies? This was the reaction to the Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report released at the Forum’s opening session. While the data shows significant challenges in meeting 2030 goals, it also contained some bright spots on energy efficiency, energy access, and renewable energy.

Download the report

Among the positive trends: the primary energy intensity of the global economy improved at a faster 2.8% pace in 2015; for the first time in all regions of the world, electricity access grew faster than population growth; in Bangladesh and Mongolia, energy access gains were nearly 10 percent. Far more sobering was the report’s clean cooking access figures as well as slow progress in many Sub-Saharan African countries on all of the SDG7 objectives.

“Far more needs to be done to advance renewable and efficient energy in all sector. Let us invest in the future, not the past.”

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in a video message to Forum attendees

So what will it take to get more countries on the right track? Supportive government policies and regulatory frameworks are critical – a point echoed by a half-dozen government ministers speaking about their gains on energy access, energy efficiency and clean cooking.

Rwanda’s government has an integrated electrification strategy emphasizing grid- and off-grid solutions. Remote, rural populations far removed from electric grids are a central focus of their strategy. “We want to make sure we connect the entire population,” said the Hon. Germaine Kamayirese, Rwanda’s Minister of State for Energy, Water, and Sanitation.

An inside look at the #SEforALLforum with Rachel Kyte

Getting Real on Clean Cooking

Static progress on access to clean cooking fuels and technologies was the most sobering trend by far in the SDG7 progress report. The clean cooking access deficit is still stuck at about 3 billion, with gains from 2014 to 2016 negligible gains and only 59 percent of the global population with access to clean cooking. “If we keep up this pace, we’ll only reach 73 percent by 2030. That’s unacceptable,” said Dr. Maria Neira, Director of Public Health and the Environment, at the World Health Organization.

No doubt, new, more collaborative strategies are needed, country by country. And all cooking fuels – whether biomass pellets, ethanol or LPG – need to be on the table as a scalable solution. “We need lots of solutions. There is no silver bullet,” Kyte said.

A case in point is Cameroon, which is pursuing an ambitious national strategy based primarily on LPG cookstoves. It has doubled its clean cooking numbers since 2006 and about 20 percent of the population is now using LPG stoves; by 2030, it hopes to be at 50 percent. Ghana is also pushing a national strategy based on sustainable biomass and LPG.

The international funding community also needs to step up in supporting countries with the biggest clean cooking access gaps. “There’s a massive opportunity to create big markets for clean cooking fuels,” Kyte said.

“Funding needs to be incredibly patient,” added Dymphna van der Lans, CEO of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. “This market is not off-grid solar. It needs to have a sense of humility.”

Simply put, Rachel Kyte noted, investing in clean cooking is investing in “smarter energy.”

“What I’m hearing again and again today is that we’re not just talking about energy as electrons,” Kyte said he her wrap-up remarks. “We’re looking at the health care benefits that will be achieved when we deliver reliable affordable energy. Energy that will help save children’s lives because they’re breathing cleaner air.”

Leveraging Women’s Role: Gender diversity and women’s empowerment in the SDG7 movement came up time and time again.

A new report produced by SEforALL and ENERGIA, Levers of Change, provides powerful evidence of how women are often not given an equal chance to take advantage of sustainable energy opportunities, such as traditional and mobile money financing that would enable them to acquire home solar systems or clean cooking solutions.

At an interactive lunch on gender inclusive investing, Calvert Impact Capital highlighted two key opportunities for enhancing women’s role: first, because women are more apt to live in energy poverty then men, targeting them in investment strategies will have a bigger impact; second, Calvert found its investments perform better when it uses a gender lens.

Banner photo credit to Kaia Rose / Connect4Climate

Thumbnail photo credit to Daniel Pinto Lopes / Connect4Climate

Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report 2018

Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report shows that while the world is not on track to meet the energy targets set for 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, real progress is being made in certain areas – particularly access to electricity in least developed countries, and energy efficiency.

Progress on Global Energy Goals Slow, but strong gains in countries show promise

The world is not on track to meet the global energy targets for 2030 set as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, but real progress is being made in certain areas – particularly expansion of access to electricity in least developed countries, and industrial energy efficiency, according to a new report from five international agencies.

Renewable energy is making impressive gains in the electricity sector, although these are not being matched in transportation and heating – which together account for 80% of global energy consumption.

While global trends are disappointing, recent national experiences around the world offer encouraging signs. There is mounting evidence that with the right approaches and policies, countries can make substantial progress in clean energy and energy access, and improve the lives of millions of people.

Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report, launched at the Sustainable Energy for All Forum in Lisbon, is the most comprehensive look available at the world’s progress towards the global energy targets on access to electricity, clean cooking, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Download the report

The following are some of the main findings of the report. Findings are based on official national-level data and measure global progress up to 2015 for renewable energy and energy efficiency, and 2016 for access to electricity and clean cooking.

Access to Electricity

One billion people – or 13% of the world’s population – still live without electricity. Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central and South Asia continue to be the areas of the world with the largest access deficits. Almost 87% of the world’s people without electricity live in rural areas.

The number of people gaining access to power has been accelerating since 2010, but needs to ramp up further to achieve universal access to electricity by 2030. If current trends continue, an estimated 674 million people will still live without electricity in 2030.

Some of the strongest gains were made in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, which all increased their electricity access rate by 3% or more annually between 2010 and 2016. Over the same period, India provided electricity to 30 million people annually, more than any other country. Sub-Saharan Africa’s electrification deficit has begun to fall in absolute terms for the first time.

Tens of millions of people now have access to electricity through solar home systems or connected to mini-grids. However, these remain concentrated in about a dozen pioneering countries where penetration of solar electricity can reach as much as 5-15% of the population.

Clean Cooking

Three billion people – or more than 40% of the world’s population – do not have access to clean cooking fuels and technologies. Household air pollution from burning biomass for cooking and heating is responsible for some 4 million deaths a year, with women and children at the greatest risk.

Parts of Asia have seen access to clean cooking outpace growth in population. These positive outcomes were driven largely by widespread dissemination of LPG or piped natural gas. In India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Vietnam, the population with access to clean cooking technologies grew by more than 1% of their population annually.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, however, population growth in recent years has outstripped the number of people gaining access to clean cooking technologies by a ratio of four to one.

Clean cooking continues to lag the furthest behind of all the four energy targets, due to low consumer awareness, financing gaps, slow technological progress, and lack of infrastructure for fuel production and distribution. If the current trajectory continues, 2.3 billion people will continue to use traditional cooking methods in 2030.

Energy Efficiency

There is mounting evidence of the uncoupling of growth and energy use. Global gross domestic product (GDP) grew nearly twice as fast as primary energy supply in 2010-15. Economic growth outpaced growth in energy use in all regions, except for Western Asia, where GDP is heavily tied to energy-intensive industries, and in all income groups. However, progress continues to be slow in low income countries, where energy intensity is higher than the global average.

Globally, energy intensity – the ratio of energy used per unit of GDP – fell at an accelerating pace of 2.8% in 2015, the fastest decline since 2010. This improved the average annual decline in energy intensity to 2.2 % for the period 2010-2015. However, performance still falls short of the 2.6% yearly decline needed to meet the SDG7 target of doubling the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency by 2030.

Improvement in industrial energy intensity, at 2.7% per annum since 2010, was particularly encouraging, as this is the largest energy consuming sector overall. Progress in the transport sector was more modest, especially for freight transportation, and is a particular challenge for high-income countries. In low and middle-income countries, the energy intensity of the residential sector has been increasing since 2010.

Six of the 20 countries that represent 80 percent of the world’s total primary energy supply, including Japan and the US, reduced their annual primary energy supply in 2010-15 while continuing to grow GDP – indicating a peak in energy use. Among the large energy-intensive developing economies, China and Indonesia stood out with annual improvement exceeding 3 percent.

Renewable Energy

As of 2015, the world obtained 17.5% of its total final energy consumption from renewable sources, of which 9.6% represents modern forms of renewable energy such as geothermal, hydropower, solar and wind. The remainder is traditional uses of biomass (such as fuelwood and charcoal).

Based on current policies, the renewable share is expected to reach just 21% by 2030, with modern renewables growing to 15%, falling short of the substantial increase demanded by the SDG7 target.

Rapidly falling costs have allowed solar and wind to compete with conventional power generation sources in multiple regions, driving the growth in the share of renewables in electricity to 22.8% in 2015. But electricity accounted for only 20% of total final energy consumption that year, highlighting the need to accelerate progress in transport and heating.

The share of renewable energy in transport is rising quite rapidly, but from a very low base, amounting to only 2.8% in 2015. The use of renewable energy for heating purposes has barely increased in recent years and stood at 24.8% in 2015, of which one third was from modern uses.

Since 2010, China’s progress in renewable energy alone accounted for nearly 30% of absolute growth in renewable energy consumption globally in 2015. Brazil was the only country among the top 20 largest energy consumers to substantially exceed the global average renewable share in all end uses: electricity, transport and heating. The UK’s share of renewable energy in total final energy consumption grew by 1% annually on average since 2010 – more than five times the global average.

Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report is a joint effort of the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the World Bank, and the World Health Organization (WHO).

“It is clear that the energy sector must be at the heart of any effort to lead the world on a more sustainable pathway. There is an urgent need for action on all technologies, especially on renewables and energy efficiency, which are key for delivering on three critical goals – energy access, climate mitigation and lower air pollution. The IEA is committed to leading this agenda and working with countries around the world to support clean energy transitions.”

Dr Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA)

“Falling costs, technological improvements and enabling frameworks are fueling an unprecedented growth of renewable energy, which is expanding energy access, improving health outcomes, and helping to tackle climate change, while also creating jobs and powering sustainable economic growth. At the same time, this tracking report is an important signal that we must be more ambitious in harnessing the power of renewable energy to meet sustainable development and climate goals, and take more deliberate action to achieve a sustainable energy future.”

Adnan Z. Amin, IRENA Director-General

“This detailed report describing the progress so far on SDG7 is a testament to the collaboration of the five international agencies on providing quality and comprehensive data and delivering a common message regarding the progress towards ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. Still, there is a need for improving statistical systems that collect energy information in those countries where the most pressing energy issues remain to be addressed. Better data are needed to inform policy accurately, particularly in developing countries, least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing States. For this, investments in energy statistical systems are essential.”

Stefan Schweinfest, Director of the Statistics Division of UN DESA

“The experience of countries that have substantially increased the number of people with electricity in a short space of time holds out real hope that we can reach the billion people who still live without power. We know that with the right policies, a commitment to both on-grid and off-grid solutions, well-tailored financing structures, and mobilization of the private sector, huge gains can be made in only a few years. This in turn is having real, positive impacts on the development prospects and quality of life for millions of people.”

Riccardo Puliti, Senior Director for Energy and Extractives at the World Bank

“It is unacceptable that, in 2018, 3 billion people still breathe deadly smoke every day from cooking with polluting fuels and stoves. Every year, household air pollution kills around 4 million people from diseases including pneumonia, heart disease, stroke, lung disease and cancer. By expanding access to clean affordable household energy, the global community has the power to lift a terrible health burden from millions of marginalized people – in particular women and young children who face the greatest health risks from household air pollution.”

Dr Maria Neira, Director, Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health, at the World Health Organization (WHO)

“As we take stock of progress towards the global goal on sustainable energy, this latest data clearly shows more action and political leadership is needed if we are to live up to our promise to leave no one behind. To meet 2030 targets, we must make every unit of energy work harder. We need to increase investment in the technologies and business models that make electricity access affordable for everyone, place even bigger bets on the remarkable capacity of renewable energy and build big markets for clean fuels and cooking access. World leaders put the promise of leaving no one behind at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals, and now is the time for that promise to become reality.”

Rachel Kyte, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and CEO of Sustainable Energy for All.

It is the fourth edition of this report, formerly known as the Global Tracking Framework (GTF). Funding for the report was provided by the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP).

Business Demonstrates Bold Action at Paris Agreement Progress Talks in Bonn

Organizers of the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) taking place this September in San Francisco have provided new evidence of how cities, states, regions, businesses, and investors are taking climate ambition to the next level. In this way, they are helping to build momentum for a successful outcome for the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland (COP24) at the end of the year.

Specifically, 11 new commitments from Mahindra, among India’s largest business houses, push the number of major global companies with science-based targets to over 400.

The summit in San Francisco will be hosted by the Governor of California, Jerry Brown; the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Climate Action, Michael Bloomberg; the Chairman of the Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra; and the Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa.

Speaking to delegates and journalists on the margins of the ongoing UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Anirban Ghosh, Chief Sustainability Officer of the Mahindra Group announced that business had taken an important step forwards today. In total, 13 of its companies have now committed to cut their emissions in line with the Paris Agreement goals by signing-up to a science-based target.

“At COP24 in Katowice, the world has much to accomplish to ensure that the Paris Agreement delivers the desired result, which is to keep climate change within manageable limits. Thankfully, the revolutionary progress underway in the ‘real world’ economy, which will descend on California in September, will be instrumental to helping make Poland a success.”

Patricia Espinosa, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary

To date, over 700 leading businesses around the world have made strategic climate commitments through the We Mean Business coalition’s Take Action campaign. Collectively, these companies represent 2.62 gigatons of emissions, which is equivalent to the total annual emissions of India.

The announcement by the Mahindra Group responds to one of the five “Summit Challenges” being presented to sub-national governments, business and civil society worldwide in advance of the Global Climate Action Summit.

Its commitment falls under the second of the five challenges – Inclusive Economic Growth – and means that so far 400 companies have positively reacted to this particular “call to action,” which aims to sign on 500 companies by the conclusion of GCAS in September.

“There is remarkable congruity between the goals of the Paris Agreement, the Indian Government, and businesses like the Mahindra Group. India, like the Agreement, is driven by a strong belief at the highest political level that pursuing environmental stability is the only way forward. As a result, India has set extremely ambitious targets in the area of renewable resources and is actually ahead of schedule in meeting some of these. In my business, we are driven by the belief that sustainability is a business opportunity as well as a way to make work meaningful for our young millennials. So, from all angles, I am delighted to accelerate the momentum created by the Paris Agreement.”

Anand Mahindra, Mahindra Group Chairman

In addition to adding critical momentum to the COP24 negotiations in Poland this December – when governments of the world will meet to signal their readiness to enhance ambition – the GCAS will build momentum for a strong outcome at the Climate Summit convened by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in 2019 and to elevate climate action plans – Nationally Determined Contributions, or NDCs – by 2020.

“2018 is the year when the world must step up climate action to bend down emissions by 2020 -- and set the stage for the fast and full implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement and its crucial temperature goal. The Summit will bring businesses, states, cities, regions, territories and people from around the world together and in common cause to take climate ambition to the next level".

Nick Nuttall, Global Climate Action Summit Communications Director

About the Global Climate Action Summit

The 2018 Global Climate Action Summit, hosted in San Francisco September 12 to 14, will bring together state and local governments, business, and citizens from around the world to showcase climate action taking place, thereby demonstrating how the tide has turned in the race against climate change and inspiring deeper national commitments in support of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

To keep warming well below 2 degrees C, and ideally 1.5 degrees C—temperatures that could lead to catastrophic consequences—worldwide emissions must start trending down by 2020.

The Summit will showcase climate action around the world, along with bold new commitments, to give world leaders the confidence they can go even further by 2020.

The Summit’s five headline challenge areas are Healthy Energy Systems; Inclusive Economic Growth; Sustainable Communities; Land Stewardship and Transformative Climate Investments

A series of reports are set to be launched over the coming months and at the Summit underlining the contribution of states and regions, cities, businesses, investors and civil society, also known as “non-party stakeholders” to national and international efforts to address climate change.

Many partners are supporting the Summit and the mobilization in advance including Climate Group; the Global Covenant of Mayors; the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group; BSR; We Mean Business; CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project; the World Wide Fund for Nature; Mission 2020

For more information on the Summit, please visit globalclimateactionsummit.org.

Banner and thumbnail photo credits to UNFCCC

Kenya's President led a tree-planting event to spark the increase of forest cover

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta led the country in a national tree planting exercise this Saturday, May 12. The national event was themed "Panda Miti, Penda Kenya" and took place at the Moi Forces Academy in Kamukunji sub-county (Nairobi).

Kenya's panting day with President Uhuru Kenyatta

The initiative is in line with the Kenyan government plans to grow 1.8 billion trees in the next five years in an effort to achieve the 10 percent globally accepted tree cover.

"The signs are clear: water is scarce and getting scarcer; recent droughts have been unusually severe; and, as we have had cause to remember today, the floods we endure are ever more serious," President Uhuru Kenyatta said in a speech to celebrate the National Tree Planting Day. "We cannot protect our forests, and mitigate climate change unless we teach our sons and daughters how to manage our natural resources."

10th Cinema Planeta International Film and Environment Festival (2018)

Cinema Planeta International Film and Environment Festival celebrates this year its 10th edition from April 24 to 29, 2018. Responsible consumption is in the spotlight.

Each cycle is an opportunity to reflect. In the past ten years, Cinema Planeta AC has built a cultural and educational movement based on film, art, and science that provides the public the tools to be better informed and make conscious and reasoned decisions.

The focus on the environment, education, and work in the field of communications led Cinema Planeta being awarded Nezahualcoyotl Prize for Nature Conservation by the Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) in 2010, and Prize of Ecology and Environment on the part of the Miguel Alemán A.C. Foundation, in 2017.

Last year, Cinema Planeta produced its first documentary Nahui Ollin, Sol de Movimiento premiered at the Guadalajara Film Festival and presented at various festivals in Mexico and Europe. In 2018, Cinema Planeta will present the new production named El mar Incendiado by director Carlos Armella.

Our patterns of consumption and production generate waste on the one hand and a shortage of essential products on the other. That is why this year Cinema Planeta emphasizes Responsible Consumption - how we decide what goods and services to consume, taking into account price, quality, social, and labor characteristics of its production and, of course, the environmental consequences and impacts.

Connect4Climate Program Manager Giulia Braga was invited to be part of the Mexican Official Selection Jury.

The agenda

The Cinema Planet opening event was at the Chapultepec Ecological Park in Cuernavaca on Tuesday, April 24, at 8 pm.

10th Cinema Planeta International Film and Environment Festival (2018)

Photo Credit: Cinema Planeta

On April 25 at 8:30 pm at the Old Railway Station of Cuernavaca, Cinema Planeta, in collaboration with the Film Library of the UNAM, will project a series of silent films set to music by Celso Duarte and the Corridistas Surianos.

On Thursday, April 26 at 11:30 pm, the Festival focuses on the Noche of Terror (Night of Terror) with the screening of the documentary Rats, from the United States, directed by Morgan Spurlock.

On April 27 at 8 pm, at the Teopanzolco Cultural Center, Cinema Planeta will have a special event with the presentation of the film Dusk Chorus from Italy and Belgium, directed by Nika Saravanja and Alessandro D'Emilia. This film will take you to the sounds of the Amazon.

The touching film Jane, directed by Brett Morgen with unpublished images of the life of Jane Goodall, will be screened at the awards ceremony on April 28 at 8 pm.

Within the selection of Mundos (Worlds), the international films section, Cinema Planet will present the retrospective of the acclaimed Austrian filmmaker Michael Glawogger to include his documentary trilogy about the world of work - Workingman’s Death, Megacities, and Whores’ Glory - as well as his latest film Untitled finished after his death in Africa after contracting malaria. The Ecos section invites the International Environmental Film Festival (FINCA) of Argentina. Tierra, section dedicated to Mexican films, will screen five feature films and 12 shorts. Palomitas, a children's film section, will present beautiful stories from Turkey, Iran, the United States and China. Cuenca, the section created to promote the production of environmental films from the Balsas River area, will feature four short films and three feature films.

Check the full agenda here

The 10th edition of the Cinema Planet Festival takes place thanks to the support and participation of the Fideicomiso de Turismo de Morelos, Government of the State of Morelos, Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, Cineteca Naciona, Mexican Institute of Cinematography, Ministry of Culture of the State of Morelos, Universidad Autónoma of the State of Morelos, Municipal Government of Cuernavaca, Municipal Government of Cuautla, Green Film Network, the culture institutes of the embassies of France, Austria and Portugal in Mexico, Cinemex, and institutions, educational centers, companies and media.

Banner and thumbnail photo credit to Cinema Planeta

Clim@ Competition 2018

clim@ is a competition for innovative businesses or projects in the fields of sustainable energy or resource efficiency that have the power to change current practices through innovative approaches to financing, new business models or novel concepts to raise awareness and mobilize new target groups to take climate action.

Apply for the competition

Outstanding applicants will be mentored by qualified experts, present their projects at a pitching event in Frankfurt and attend the GGF Sustainable Future Forum in June 2018, a gathering of 200 international stakeholders of the climate finance community organized by the Green for Growth Fund (GGF), where three grand finalists will pitch their projects to receive total EUR 30,000 in awards.

Who can apply?

Applications are open globally for any business or organisation that demonstrates a relevant track record with a business or project in the fields of sustainable energy or resource efficiency, such as:

established companies

experienced start-ups

non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

universities or research institutes

other relevant organisations

Entries should have a connection to the following themes:

renewable energy solutions

energy efficiency/conservation

sustainable use of resources: including improved water, waste and material management

The competition welcomes a wide range of entries. If you are unsure, you can also contact the GGF team to confirm.

Application deadline: April 15, 2018 (midnight CET)

Learn more about the competition

Smart Cities Forum 2018 - Rome

Timezone:

Sustainable mobility is an essential building block for sustainable urban development. For cities to function successfully, the urban mobility system must provide access to social and economic opportunities for its citizens.

CNMI Green Carpet Talent Competition 2018

The fashion event that rewards creativity and sustainability will take place in Milan on September 23rd, 2018, during the Milan Fashion Week.

The CNMI Green Carpet Talent Competition, supported by Value Retail Management and ICE-Agency for the promotion abroad and the internationalization of Italian companies, will take place on 23rd September at the Scala Theater in Milan during the Fashion Week (which will be held from September 19th until the 25th). For the occasion, the historic theater will be transformed into a garden of artisans, a creative and dreamlike place where at the same time you can admire the rigorously sustainable creations of young designers from all over the world.

The competition, in its second edition, after its 2017 success, challenges young creative people to redefine the concept of sustainability in fashion, within/for the Italian production chain and highlights the commitment of large companies and small producers to sustainability, heritage and authenticity.

"I am happy to announce the return of this initiative. Humanity has a limited window of time within which it can attain global objectives for fundamental issues such as climate change, poverty reduction and social justice. Along the path to be taken towards achieving this challenge there are many opportunities to be seized. The National Chamber of Italian Fashion has been committed for years to the definition of ambitious sustainability guidelines, which are the result of the commitment of the CNMI Commission on sustainability. The Commission is led by Gucci and its members are Giorgio Armani, Prada, Valentino, Versace and the 'Work on Sustainability Roundtable' created by CNMI in 2011."

Carlos Capasa, Chairman of Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana

Carlo Capasa, President of CNMI

Capasa added: "Our brands are the first promoters of change in the supply chain and the entire fashion industry. Our production chain and our artisans are so flexible that they can easily embrace sustainable innovation and adopt production methods giving life to products that meet quality and sustainability criteria. The Italian production chain is full of unique entities, whose stories, skills and values are fundamental to guide sustainable progress in this sector."

Handprint of Fashion is the theme chosen for this new edition.

"We often talk about the ecological footprint of the fashion products we produce, but a narrow view on the ecological issue does not take into account all the other facets that affect the creation of a truly sustainable supply chain. Speaking of fashion handprint we also need to include its social aspect, the sense of belonging and the cultural value that abounds in the Italian production chain anchored to a crafting model.“

Livia Firth, Founder and Creative Director of Eco-Age

"The Green Carpet Fashion Awards Italy is part of a broader strategy to promote Italian know-how that will continue in the next fashion week to make Milan the epicenter of ‘Made in Italy’,” commented Cristina Tajani, Councilor for Trade and Productive Activities, Fashion and Design of the City of Milan.

"We are excited to continue our collaboration with Eco-Age and CNMI,” stated Desirée Bollier, Chair of Value Retail Management, “the CNMI Green Carpet Talent Competition proves to be an important initiative that reflects the commitment of Value Retail in cultivating emerging talents and supporting the future of fashion. We are delighted to receive new ideas for this edition and welcome the next group of finalists into our annual mentorship program, a successful format tailored just for them."

CNMI Green Carpet Talent Competition 2018

Credit to CNMI. Click on the image to watch the video.

The jury for this 2018 edition will be composed by Edward Enninful, Director of Vogue UK, Derek Blasberg, fashion editor at CNN Style, pop star and UN ambassador Ellie Goulding, Kelly Wong of Lane Crawford, Nathalie Kingham, Fashion and Buying director of MATCHESFASHION.COM, and Desiree Boiller, Chair of Value Retail Management alongside Livia Firth, Carlo Capasa and Sara Sozzani Maino.

From today, young creative people can register for the competition directly on the CNMI website, but only ten will be selected and will present their creations to the jury in Paris in the coming months. The five finalists of the competition, including the winner of the Franca Sozzani Prize GCC Emerging Designer, will participate in the 12-month mentoring program of The Bicester Village Shopping Collection by Value Retail. Working closely with experts in Europe and China, finalists will have the opportunity to tap into global expertise in various fields, including fashion, retail, supply chain management, customer information, brand creation, tourism, marketing and distribution, to help them fully express their creative and commercial potential.

Furthermore, the designers will be able to exhibit their collections through The Creative Spot, a platform dedicated to new talents at Fidenza Village, while the winner will have the opportunity to present the collection at the Milan Fashion Week in February 2019 with the support of CNMI.

The complete list of prizes to be awarded during the Green Carpet Fashion Awards Italy 2018 will be announced during the Venice Film Festival in August 2018.

Originally published in Italian on Vogue Italia

Banner and thumbnail photo credits to Max Thabiso Edkins / Connect4Climate