The ICC-CCIG Series : Trade and Environmental Sustainability

• Thursday 06 May 2021 17:00-18:30
• En ligne
• Organisation : CCIG and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), in partnership with ICC Switzerland

The “ICC-CCIG Series” address major themes related to international trade with a dual purpose: updating Members on issues that are currently being discussed at the United Nations, World Trade Organization and other international organizations in Geneva; and illustrate the way businesses, actors of world governance, civil society and researchers can successfully cooperate towards common global goals.

The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) represents 45 million companies in over 100 countries and is the only business organization to have an Observer Status at the UN General Assembly.

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On 6^th May, the first event of the series is dedicated to trade and environmental sustainability.

An initiative to advance work on trade and the environment at the World Trade Organization (WTO) was launched last November. These “structured discussions” seek to promote new ideas and are opened to third parties and experts.

The event keynote speakers are H. E. Didier Chambovey, Head of the Swiss Permanent Mission to the WTO and EFTA – Switzerland being amongst the countries promoting environmental sustainability at the WTO; Crispin Conroy, ICC Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva – the ICC is participating to the structured discussions, bringing to them expertise from within its network; Carolyn Deere Birkbeck, Senior Researcher at The Graduate Institute Geneva, who collaborates closely with the ICC and WTO on environmental sustainability issues. There will also be testimonies from Clara Millard Dereudre, Executive Director of Smart City – a project aiming at offering Geneva residents a high quality of life with minimal resource consumption – and from Matthew Kilgarriff, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Richemont, for which environmental issues have become a priority. The speakers will also talk about the importance of environmental sustainability in the recovery from Covid-19.

Programme : 

The speakers : 

H. E. Didier Chambovey

Ambassador Didier Chambovey, Dr. oec., has been the Head of the Swiss Permanent Mission to the WTO and EFTA in Geneva since 1^st September 2016. Previously, Federal Council Ambassador and Delegate for Trade Agreements, and head of the World Trade Division in the Foreign Economic Affairs Directorate. From 2006 to 2011, he was Deputy Secretary-General of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). From 1998 to 2006 he served as Deputy Head of the Swiss Permanent Mission to the WTO and EFTA in Geneva. Before his appointment as section head in the WTO Division in 1993, he worked in the field of economic cooperation with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Didier Chambovey joined the Federal Office for Foreign Economic Affairs (FOFEA) in 1987 as scientific adviser in the GATT Division.

Crispin Conroy

Crispin Conroy is the ICC Representative Director in Geneva and also the ICC Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva. Prior to his appointment with ICC, he worked with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and had a number of diplomatic postings, including Ambassador to Chile, concurrently accredited to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru; Deputy High Commissioner, Australian High Commission, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; and Ambassador to the Kingdom of Nepal.  Crispin Conroy has also worked with the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), as Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner, Italy, based in Milan, and Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner for Latin America, based in Chile. Crispin Conroy has a Masters in International Law from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and Law (Hons), also from the Australian National University.

Carolyn Deere Birkbeck

Dr. Carolyn Deere Birkbeck is a Senior Researcher at the Graduate Institute’s Global Governance Centre. She is the Director of the Forum on Trade, Environment and the Sustainable Development Goals (TESS), based at the Graduate Institute in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). She is an Associate Fellow of the Chatham House Hoffmann Centre for Sustainable Resource Economy and a Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford’s Global Economic Governance Programme. She has been a consultant for a range of international organisations, research centres and NGOs, and was previously Assistant Director of the Global Inclusion theme at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York. Her research focused on trade, environment and sustainable development, including the global governance of plastics and of intellectual property. She holds a DPhil in International Relations (University College, Oxford), an MA in International Relations (Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies) and a first class honours degree in political economy from the University of Sydney.

Clara Millard Dereudre

Clara Millard Dereudre joined SIG in January 2021 as Executive Director Smart City. She has a solid and extensive experience in managing industrial profit centers as well as managing large multidisciplinary teams. Prior to joining SIG, she has held various executive positions at The Dow Chemical Co., a multinational industrial company active in chemistry. She has worked for more than 10 years in the direction of complex sustainability-related change programmes. In her last role, as Global Director of Strategy, Marketing and Sustainability for the Industrial Solutions business, she was also member of Dow's Global Commercial Leadership Team as Corporate Marketing Fellow and Business Sustainability Champion.

A graduate of the EDHEC Business School in France and an Executive MBA from the University of Northwood in Michigan, USA, she lives and leads by a strong set of ethics that includes a passion for sustainability. She is teaching sustainability marketing and management to masters’ students (SUMAS and EDHEC) and is also very active in several citizen and association activities towards a sustainable development.

Matthew Kilgarriff

Matthew Kilgarriff serves as the Responsible Jewellery Council’s Honorary Secretary and is member of its Executive Committee. He is the Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for the Richemont Group, headquartered in Geneva. Matthew joined Richemont in 1997 and served as Group Company Secretary for 10 years from 2007 to 2017. Matthew is a Chartered Public Finance Accountant, a Chartred Secretary and holds a Masters in Sustainable Leadership from the University of Cambridge.

 
The event is free but the registration is mandatory. The event will be via Zoom and the link will be sent to participants few hours before the conference.