As part of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre ASEAN Forum to commemorate 40 years of Australian engagement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), on Thursday September 11th, Sydney Ideas will be presenting a public event focusing on issues of sustainability in Southeast Asia .

A key question is how Southeast Asia will continue on its path of economic growth while working within environmental limits and developing more sustainable practices. Understanding how business, governments and civil society in ASEAN are engaging with the challenging questions of environmental sustainability is essential to understand the future of Australia’s relationship with the region – economically, environmentally, politically and socially.

A number of ASEAN countries have made much of their climate and environment policies but can they be effectively implemented? Moreover, having been actively campaigned against for many years, a number of major Southeast Asian businesses have recently announced ambitious environmental policies and are now working  with environmental NGOs such as Greenpeace and WWF to implement a more sustainable approach. But are these merely ‘green wash’ or part of a growing trend of transformation as the region integrates into the global economy and consumers become more concerned about sustainable performance?

The public forum will include brief presentations by those taking a leading role in addressing these Southeast Asian dynamics followed by a discussion on the role business, civil society and government in Australia and Southeast Asia play in promoting and / or hindering sustainable economic growth in the region.

Speakers at this event include:

• Kelly Dent, Economic Justice Coordinator at Oxfam Australia
• Larry Jackson, Managing Director, Asia Pulp and Paper, Oceania
• Martijn Wilder, head of Global Environmental Markets practice at Baker McKenzie and a Director and Governor of WWF
• Professor Christopher Wright, University of Sydney Business School and Business Enterprise Research Newtork (BERN), whose research explores individual, organizational and societal responses to anthropogenic climate change
• Professor Nick Rowley (panel chair), Adjunct Professor at the Sydney Democracy Network and former advisor on sustainability and climate change to British Prime Minister Tony Blair

Date: Thursday 11 September

Time: 6 to 7.30pm

Venue: Law School Foyer
Level 2, Sydney Law School
Eastern Avenue
The University of Sydney
University maps

Cost: Free event, with registration required.

Registration: Click here to register online now.