Kagame to address London business forum on climate change

President Paul Kagame has arrived in London, England where later this evening he is expected to deliver an address at the World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment taking place at Oxford University. He will speak on Rwanda’s development in light of the impacts of climate change and global policies to manage them. Tomorrow Kagame is scheduled to give the opening address at the opening ceremony of the Common Wealth Business Council’s Africa Business Forum in London. During the working visit in the UK, President Kagame is also expected to meet with key leaders in government and business. The forum convened by the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) and Business Action for Africa (BAA), will be held under the theme, Sustaining Growth in the New Global Environment and will address how business and government can best address the challenge of sustaining growth in the new global economic environment. The one Africa Business Forum 2009 will be held prior to the 35th G8 Summit in Italy. It will be chaired by Paul Skinner, Chairman of Rio Tinto and the Commonwealth Business Council (CBC) with President Kagame as the guest of honour. The Forum will focus on the practical partnerships which business is taking on job creation, enterprise, trade, investment and good governance across the continent, and discuss how capital flows and trade can be strengthened. The results of the Forum will be communicated to the G8 meeting in Italy’s quake-stricken town of L’Aquila where climate change will be high on the agenda. The G8 meeting comes as the deadline draws nearer for world leaders to endorse a new global warming pact at a UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December. The Italy summit is the last G8 summit before the December Copenhagen meeting. The London meeting comes on the back of Rwanda supporting England’s plan on climate change. Rwanda expressed its support for the recent commitment by the British government regarding its position on dealing with climate change to achieve sustainable global development. British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown recently, called for a global fund worth US$100 billion a year to tackle climate change in the developing world. He warned that the earth itself will be at risk unless the Copenhagen Climate Change conference in December which aims to strike a new agreement on slowing global warming reaches a strong accord. Rwanda has for long shown its commitment to move ahead on a green growth path through a number of programs and development strategies. The country come up with a plan to focus on the development of renewable energies such as hydropower, geothermal, solar, wind, methane gas and the sustainable use of biomass with a target of becoming a green and clean energy economy. Rwanda hosted the Finance for Development Conference in Kigali in May that brought together African Finance and Environment Ministers to discuss and agree on a common position for Climate Change financing options. Ends

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Kagame to address London business forum on climate change