On Saturday 23 October 2010, the first Mediterranean Green Development Investors Forum (Med GDIF) will take place in Athens (Greece) on the subject of “Financing profitable green initiatives and investments across the Mediterranean”.

The conference is co-organised by the Institute for Climate and Energy Security (i4cense) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) under the auspices of the Prime Minister of Greece.

It will allow key policy-makers, technology providers, business and finance leaders and international investors to discuss the initiatives and investments for a sustainable green economy across the Mediterranean.

The following key issues will be on the agenda:

• How to create a legislative and financial framework that provides an incentive for and is conducive to green investment in the Mediterranean ;

• How to exploit the Mediterranean region's unrivalled potential in renewable energy for domestic and neighbouring markets with a focus on the EIB’s study for Mediterranean Solar Plan, a priority approved at the Union for the Mediterranean’s summit in 2008 ;

• How to attract international investors attention to green projects opportunities in the Mediterranean with a focus on development and innovation tourism, urban renewal, research and energy efficiency.

The Mediterranean Green Development Investors Forum is fully in line with the concrete engagement of the EIB for climate action. In the past seven years, the EIB provided financing totalling EUR 3.7bn to energy and EUR 1.1bn to water in the Mediterranean partner countries.

As the financial arm of the European Union, the EIB has already set since 2009 the ambitious objective of raising its climate change mitigation and adaptation lending to 25% of its whole annual activity .

The Mediterranean Solar Plan in particular could play a significant role for climate challenge across the Mediterranean in developing additional capacity for renewable energy and energy efficiency in the region

http://www.ftbusinessevents.com/gdif2010/overview.asp