Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - January 2003
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More than 62,000 attend Pollutec 2002

Photo report by Steve Davey,
Environmental Science & Engineering

Ruins of a Roman amphitheater built into the hillside around 50 A.D. Lyon was the capital city of the Roman province of Gaul.

Pollutec 2002 was held in Lyon, France, November 26-29, 2002, in conjunction with ADEME Energies, the energy saving and renewable sources of energy show.

After apologising for not being available to open the show because of the oil spill disaster off the Spanish coast, Roselyne Bachelot, France’s Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, reaffirmed her government's determination to give priority to sustainable development. She also made clear that the next few months would be crucial in three areas: climate change, risks and waste.

The priority being given to sustainable development was also emphasized by Tokia Saifi, France's Secretary of State for Sustainable Development, who explained the goals while visiting the show. François Loos, France's Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade, stressed during his visit the urgency of “supporting and speeding up the development of French eco-industries abroad”. He stressed that it was necessary “to help businesses enter new markets” such as China or India, which have a strong demand for eco-industries.

Numerous ministers and deputy ministers from abroad also visited the show. They included: Luc Marie Gnacadja, Minister for the Environment, Housing and Town Planning from Benin, coun- try of the year at Pollutec 2002, Xiaodong Zeng, Chinese Deputy Environment Minister, E. Tomas, Minister of the Economy for the Brussels Capital, Serge Kubla, Vice-President of the government and Minister for the Economy in Wallonia, Michel Foret, Minister for Regional Development, Town Planning and the Environment for Wallonia, Rajesh Bhagwan, Minister of the Environment for the Republic of Mauritius, Krzysztof Zaremba, Polish Deputy Minister of the Environment. Also present were important foreign delegations; one from China on the occasion of “Chinese Day”, Africa (Benin and Senegal in particular), Eastern and Central Europe (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Russia), North Africa, the Middle East, Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The event attracted a total of 62,579 trade visitors and 2,338 exhibitors. There were over 1,000 attendees at the various conferences held concurrently with the exhibition. A large number of visitors also attended new discussion forums on the coast, noise, hydrogen, eco-design, town planning and the environment, and research-industry partnerships.

Pollutec 2003 will be held December 2 to 5, 2003, in Paris. For further information please contact PROMOSALONS Canada, Tel: (416) 929-2562, 1 (800) 565-5443, Fax: (416) 929-2564, Email: canada.toronto@promosalons.com

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