Achim Steiner has confirmed to be one of the keynote speakers at the World Resources Forum, to be held in Davos, Switzerland, from 19-21 September 2011. Mr. Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), will speak in the high-level opening session on 19 September.

He joins speakers, such as Dr. Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for the Environment, and Dr. Ashok Khosla, Co-President, Club of Rome & President IUCN.

Achim Steiner is “delighted that the World Resources Forum is working towards bringing global attention to the opportunity of resource efficiency” and adds that UNEP regards resource efficiency as an emerging opportunity for environmental sustainability. He welcomes the cooperation between the Forum, UNEP and the International Resource Panel.

Indeed, a number of members of this prestigious international panel will speak at various sessions of the Forum, including its Chair, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsaecker, Mohan Munasinghe, Chairman of the Munasinghe Institute of Development, Sri Lanka, Marina Fischer-Kowalski, President, International Society for Industrial Ecology, Austria, and Mark Swilling, Academic Director, Sustainability Institute, South Africa and others.

The Head of the International Resource Panel Secretariat, Shaoyi Li, has joined the Steering Committee, in which also Anders Wijkman, former European Parliamentarian, Sweden, participates.

The call for papers had an overwhelming response and has been closed. The Scientific Committee, led by Christian Ludwig, professor Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne (EPFL) and Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), will send out acceptance notifications by the end of March.

More details on draft program, speakers, venue and registrations can be found on this website, using the buttons at the top.