Dear Durban, do you dare?

In parallel with the UN climate talks in Durban, business leaders and entrepreneurs from around the world are meeting today in Stockholm. They will participate in GlobalFOCUS Dare!, a forum celebrating courageous sustainability leaders. The star of the forum is "The Solar King", Huang Ming - the 2011 recipient of the "Alternative Nobel Prize", the Right Livelihood Award.

In 2008 and 2009, GlobalFOCUS visited Poznan and Copenhagen to attend the annual UN climate negotiations. This year the negotiations are held in Durban, but instead of going to South Africa GlobalFOCUS is gathering courageous leaders in Stockholm for the forum "GlobalFOCUS Dare!"

"We have arranged GlobalFOCUS Dare! to inspire and enable 120 global leaders to dare to think big and new around sustainability. When they go home from the forum they shall bring away with them solutions, ideas and tools for how the next step towards sustainability can be taken," says Arne Forstenberg, CEO ofGlobalFOCUS.”

GlobalFOCUS nominated Huang Ming for the Right Livelihood Award after he told them how he left the oil industry to contribute to a better world. Today he is one of the world's largest producers of solar heating and has built an entire solar city in Dezhou, China. GlobalFOCUS hopes that key individuals in Durban can dare to challenge their fears, like Huang Ming has done.

"In order to reach agreements of importance in Durban negotiators must leave their comfort zones and show courage. Remember the breakthrough in the negotiations on Bali in 2007 after a negotiator from Papua New Guinea turned to the U.S. delegation and said, ’If you're not willing to lead, please get out of the way!’ ”, Arne Forstenberg recalls.

GlobalFOCUS Dare! has already received international attention as they were nominated for the Transformative Step of the Day – an initiative supported by the Global Compact and UNEP.

GlobalFOCUS Dare! is held at the Sheraton Hotel in Stockholm on December 6th, 13:30 to 17:30 and is organized in partnership with The Swedish Institute, Folksam and Himin Solar Energy Group, among others.