On September 30,2013, international conference on “Green Bridge” Partnership Program and on international specialized exhibition “Astana EXPO-2017” was held in Astana. The conference was organised by the Ministry of Environment Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan in partnership with the United Nations Development Program.

The Conference was opened by Serik Akhmetov, the Prime-Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Also, welcoming speech was delivered by Mariano Rajoy, the Prime-Minister of the Kingdom of Spain.

The Conference was attended by the Heads of environment protection agencies of countries of the European Union, Central Asia and other neighboring countries, representatives of international organisations, private companies, government agencies of Kazakhstan and international experts on clean energy and “green” growth.

The Conference panelists included:
-  Nurlan Kapparov, Minister of Environment Protection of the Republic of Kazakhstan,
-  Joschka Fischer,  former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany,
-  Rae Kwon Chung, Director of Environment and Development Division of ESCAP,
-  Richard Gledhill, Global Head of Climate Change Services, PwC,
-  Suren Erkman, Director of Industrial Ecology Group, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, University of Lausanne, Switzerland,
-  Saghit Ibatullin, Deputy Chairman of the Implementation Committee under the UNECE Water Convention,
-  Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Deputy Director of Deputy Director of International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Vienna, Austria,
-  Miguel Moratinos, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, member of the Advisory Board of the Global Coalition of Drylands, and other.

The main goal of the Green Bridge Partnership Program is international cooperation for ensuring green economic growth by technologies transfer, exchange of knowledge and ensuring financial support for the implementation of investment projects in Central Asian region.

The program will act as the regional coordinator and international investor in development and introduction of clean technologies, as well as will promote development of innovative investment solutions for bankable projects in a number of key sectors of economy.

Being the practical mechanism of transition to green economy, the Green Bridge Partnership Program assumes association of efforts of states, international organisations, public and business sectors in the regions of Europe, Asia and the Pacific.

Holding the Conference becomes a key stage of introduction and recognition of the Astana Initiative as a dialogue platform and instrument of integration of Asia and Europe on green growth issues.

Participants discussed issues of transition to green modernisation: sustainable management of water and other natural resources, development of renewable energy, agriculture and climate change.

One of the Conference’s sessions was devoted to the Green Economy Concept Paper of the Republic of Kazakhstan – the most important instrument of providing sustainable development of the country. In this context, international specialised exhibition “Astana EXPO-2017” will create additional incentives for transition to green economy. It will allow Kazakhstan to achieve its strategic goal – enter the list of 30 most developed countries.

Following the results of the Conference, the Green Bridge Partnership Charter was signed.