In March 2005, at the 5th Ministerial Conference on Environment and Development (MCED 2005) held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, some 340 delegates, including representatives from 52 member and associate member countries of ESCAP embraced the approach of Environmentally Sustainable Economic Growth” (Green Growth).

The conference endorsed the Green Growth as a policy focus and a powerful strategy to promote win-win approaches to reconciling the conflict between current pathways for the achievement of two important Millennium Development Goals: MDG 1 (poverty reduction) and MDG 7 (environmental sustainability). In this sense, the conference marked the milestones of strategy for regional cooperation for sustainable development for the period 2005-2010, which were reflected in three major documents adopted at the meeting: the Ministerial Declaration, Regional Implementation Plan 2006-2010 and the Seoul Initiative on Environmentally Sustainable Economic Growth (Green Growth).

ESCAP’s member and associated countries recently confirmed their commitment to Green Growth during the 61st (April 2005) and 62nd (April2006) Commission Sessions and have requested that the ESCAP secretariat continue acting as the catalyst for a conducive environment for Green Growth through developing the conceptual and analytical framework and by providing capacity building support to the Governments.