03/12/2009
PES to hold carbon-neutral Congress in Prague
The PES has announced today that its upcoming Congress on 7 & 8 December, the Party’s largest gathering that brings together over a thousand delegates twice every five years, will be entirely carbon-neutral.
The decision had an across-the-board impact on the organisation of the Congress, and the PES will among other things: give all participants a 2-day tram ticket, reduce heating in the conference venue, minimise the distribution of paper by distributing only documents to be voted on, and replace the use of flowers with plants.
The emissions that were deemed incompressible for maintaining a functional Congress will be fully offset through the financing of a biomass project in Rajasthan, India.
The Party is also advising delegates to avoid travel by airplane, to use public transport, and to make use of a carbon footprint calculating facility that will be provided to them at the Congress, allowing them to offset emissions produced through their personal travel.
Commenting on the PES’s first carbon-neutral Congress, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen said: “In our European Election manifesto we pledged to make Europe a global force against climate change, and our own events and operations are no exception.”
“For the PES, the carbon-neutral Congress marks the beginning of a profound adjustment that concerns our everyday work practices as much as our large pan-European gatherings”, Rasmussen added.
PES Secretary General Philip Cordery and Czech Social Democratic Party Chairman Jiří Paroubek will give a press conference on the carbon-neutral congress and the green agenda tomorrow Friday at 2:30pm in Stromovka Park, Prague.
