Over 600 delegates expected at sustainable development forum

Among Indian delegates, Anuj Mehra, Managing Director, Mahindra Rural Housing Finance, will address the conference on "End Poverty", organisers said today.

Singapore, Nov 15 Over 600 delegates, including from India, are expected to attend a global forum here on sustainable development next week to engage business community in climate saving initiatives.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Initiatives, will welcome business & sustainability leaders, senior government officials, United Nations agencies, NGOs from across the globe for the Responsible Business Forum (RBF), which will have a series of conferences and workshops to be held from November 22-24.

Among Indian delegates, Anuj Mehra, Managing Director, Mahindra Rural Housing Finance, will address the conference on "End Poverty", organisers said today.

"With 2016 as yet another hottest year on record, it is now urgent to innovate, scale up and increase efficiency to achieve the SDG's", said Haoliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director for Asia-Pacific. "The zero-waste zero-emission RBF leads by example on how this can be accomplished."

"As we engage the business community here at RBF to break new ground on their existing sustainability commitments, we need to 'walk the talk' ourselves in running the event. We also want to get everyone thinking about how much each single plastic cup, plane ride, conference badge actually impacts the earth," explains Tony Gourlay, CEO RBF, Global Initiatives.

Key impact issues that RBF faces include carbon emissions created by the high volume of international flights to Singapore for delegates, food waste, stage set production waste, delegates communication materials, catering as well as a high-energy demand for the event, they said.

PTI