Global gathering at the Sustainable Innovation Forum

Climate Action delivered their fifth annual Sustainable Innovation Forum in Lima on Tuesday and leaders from key United Nations bodies, governments, international companies and leading non-governmental organisations (NGO's) convened for the primary business summit at COP20.

Achim Steiner, the Under-Secretary-General of the UN and UNEP Executive Director (pictured right), opened the summit at the Westin Hotel and addressed over 500 attendees in his keynote speech in the Peruvian capital.

The forum featured three high-level panel debates that addressed carbon pricing, climate finance and sustainable urbanisation and addressed the pressing issues in the climate change debate.

Participants included President Felipe Calderón, Former President of Mexico and Chairman of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate, Lord Nicholas Stern, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute, Héla Cheikhrouhou, Executive Director of the Green Climate Fund and Philippe Joubert, Chair, Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group.

Speakers at the forum also included Tanya Müller García Minister of Environment, Mexico City; Professor SirDavidKing, UK Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative for Climate Change; Dr. Peter Holmgren, Director General for the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR); Christian Grossmann, World Bank Group Director, Climate Change; Naysán Sahba, Director, Division of Communications & Public Information (DCPI) at UNEP.

Partners of the forum included the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), BMW, New Holland Agriculture, ContourGlobal, Interconexión Eléctrica S.A. (ISA), Sealed Air, SABMiller, Green Gothenburg, Climate-KIC and OzHarvest.

The forum also enjoyed the support of a range of Institutional Partners including Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40), CDP, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, CERES, Perú 2021, European Business Review and The B Team among others.

The high numbers and level of attendees along with the qulaity of speakers and partners combined to ensure that the forum was the top business summit alongside COP20 and a key meeting on the road to Paris 2015.