Welcome Speech

Seizing the Opportunity for Global Cooperation on Green Growth

At a time when the economic crisis is at the top of the international agenda, your decision to attend 3GF underlines the potentials of pursuing global green growth. Greening the economy offers major growth opportunities as well as environmental and social benefits, including the creation of new green jobs, and is vital to solving common global challenges such as combating climate change and promoting sustainable development.

We will not succeed in this endeavour unless we work together across nations and across public and private sectors. In that sense, global green growth is like a windmill – it will only be efficient and powerful when all its components are in place and when the right wind conditions are there to keep the blades rotating. While the private sector must continue their innovative work and scale up green production, governments must create the framework conditions for a green transition. To speed up this global windmill, 3GF offers an action-oriented platform for global public-private interaction that can stimulate green growth.

3GF brings together globally leading businesses, governments and experts to collectively identify substantial green growth opportunities. The Forum is not only a framework for sharing experiences and lessons learned. It is a platform for looking ahead and taking the first steps towards new global initiatives that will enhance the green agenda in and across all sectors. It is a platform for frank and confidential dialogue between business leaders, investors and decision-makers on the underlying imperatives of green growth.

I hope that you will actively use 3GF and all the possibilities that if offers. Let us seize the opportunity to renew and accelerate global cooperation on green growth to the benefit of all. That is our common responsibility.

The Danish Prime Minister / Helle Thorning-Schmidt