The programme has just been announced for the 2016 Environment Ireland conference. Now in its 12th year, this is Ireland’s largest annual conference on environmental policy and management and is attended by over 300 key players from across the environmental sector, north and south. The 2016 conference will take place on Thursday 22 September at Croke Park and is organised in association with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government. Environment Ireland will be opened with a keynote address from the new Minister for Communications, Climate Change and Natural Resources Denis Naughten, TD. During the opening session, delegates will also hear from Hans Bruyninckx, head of the European Environment Agency and the director-general of the EPA, Laura Burke. Delegates will hear from local experts including Prof John FitzGerald from the National Expert Advisory Council on Climate Change; Paul Hogan from the Department of Environment, Community & Local Government; and Jim Gannon, the recently appointed CEO of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. They will be joined by speakers from Irish Water, Ibec, Friends of the Earth and Trinity College, Dublin. Caroline Spillane, director general of Engineers Ireland, is set to speak about 'The Future of Water Infrastructure: The Benefits of a Single National Utility’. Visiting experts include Anna Beswick from Adaptation Scotland; Hugo Schally from the European Commission; Anthony Cox, deputy director of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; and Danielle Carreira, project manager for Global Canopy Programme. Ensure you don't miss out on the opportunity to hear directly from those individuals and organisations shaping the future of Ireland's environment on their priorities for delivering a cleaner, greener environment which supports sustainable economic growth. A limited number of quality exhibition spaces are available in the networking area, which is central to networking breaks and provides access to a key audience. This area will also be used for the many fringe and bilateral informal meetings between companies – which are always a feature of the event. The exhibition is booking up fast and limited spaces are available. View the full Environment Ireland programme and secure your place now at www.environmentireland.ie.