Green Week

Green Week is an in-person event which brings together stakeholders from all EU areas and countries to discuss openly the issues at stake as part of an advocacy strategy for generating new ideas and enhancing cooperation. Each year, various conferences and side events bring together what the European Commission describes as leading decision-makers and experts from Europe and around the world to discuss how best to meet a range of environmental challenges that also have major economic and social implications. Topics addressed may include climate change, loss of biodiversity, unsustainable production and consumption patterns, and meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

For example, the 2007 Green Week includes presentations which focus on how to engage citizens, shape policy, and draw on technology to address environmental challenges. Side events feature the presentation of specific initiatives and lessons learned, with an opportunity for debate and discussion, as well as the screening of documentary films on sustainable development issues. The 2007 Green Week also features Green Week Expo, an exhibition at Parc du Cinquantenaire, Brussels, which highlights technological innovation in environmental protection.

Information and communication technology (ICT) is used to open the experience to a broader audience. A number of conference sessions, including the opening and closing sessions, are webstreamed live on the Green Week website. In addition, PDF files of each presentation are available for download here (under "Conference"). Each year, a new website is developed (with the previous year sites archived). Past sites, have detailed various components of the initiative that are linked to, but go beyond, the conference itself, such as environment-centred awards (e.g., a school competition as part of the 2006 Green Week that invited children and youth to submit paintings, drawings, and digital videos on biodiversity).

Environment.