Venice International University’s fifth Sustainability Symposium got underway today, bringing together dozens of influential voices from academia, government, NGOs and the private sector for an honest conversation about the challenges of achieving widespread decarbonization and ways in which to overcome them.

The introductory remarks of University president Umberto Vattani and Alcantara chairman Andrea Boragno framed the symposium in terms of the question “How?”, setting a clear solutions-oriented tone that would continue throughout the day. Vattani called the event “a great opportunity to understand how we can enhance synergies among ourselves on pressing issues,” while Boragno hammered home the urgency demanded by the threat of climate change.

The first major session of the day, which garnered wide attention on social media, was titled “How to Decarbonize: What’s Happening Now, and What’s Next on the Agenda?” and provided an informative overview of current approaches to reducing carbon footprints and innovative strategies for further mitigating them down the line.

Speaking on the alarming recently published report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Daniel Klingenfeld of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research stressed that the panel’s findings should not be regarded as mere numerical data, but as evidence of the very human cost of international inaction on climate issues. “We need to be carbon neutral, globally, by the middle of the century,” he said, rallying the diverse audience in a call to action. “We need to do more to avoid the risk.”

Bjørn Kj. Haugland, executive vice president at DNV GL Group, followed Klingenfeld’s overview of the IPCC report with a look at the evolving energy landscape and ways to accelerate the move toward renewable resources. He found cause for optimism in the rapid growth of the electric auto industry, and called on audience members to continue to push for wind power and other renewables in their respective fields, emphasizing the necessity of energy efficiency moving forward.

Timothy Nixon, managing editor of Thomson Reuters sustainability, rounded out Session 1 with a talk on the need for transparency in industry as decarbonization efforts advance. Nixon focused on the importance of cementing rapports with business leaders, noting that the key to success is “convincing businesses that it is in their own interest to move on a transparency basis and towards decarbonization.”

Session 2, titled “How Corporations Can Ramp Up Climate Action,” kicked off promptly at the end of the first. The first speaker, United Nations Global Compact senior manager Heidi Huusko, nodded to the courage of unflinching youth leader Greta Thunberg as she began her presentation, and called on corporations to answer the demands of the youth. At the same time, Huusko stressed the importance of meeting companies halfway and recognizing the strictures of the business world. “We try to have ‘commitment areas’ where we push companies to do a little bit more,” she said.

Huusko’s presentation was followed by one from Equnior ASA senior vice president Bjørn Sverdrup, who homed in on the oil and gas sectors of the global economy. He noted that shifting the energy market toward sustainability is a two-way street: “This is a journey with both producers and consumers of energy. Citizens need to take more responsibility and businesses need to innovate to make the transition happen.”

Yin Bo of the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization and Ralf Pfitzner of Volkswagen rounded out the first half of Session 2. Bo communicated the urgency of implementing sustainable energy through very concrete examples, noting that the entire city of Venice—the venue for the conference—would soon be underwater absent a global commitment to change, and citing his own experience with Beijing air quality as evidence of the potential of “hydropower, wind and solar energy” to make a real difference.

Pfitzner, for his part, laid out Volkswagen-specific plans to cut back on carbon emissions moving forward, providing an illustration of the sort of corporate responsibility demanded by the previous speakers.

Session 2 picked back up at 11:30 AM following a coffee recess as Fair Fashion Founder Cara Smyth took the stage to speak on decarbonization in the fashion sector. Smyth said that the key was persuading a core group of brands to embrace more sustainable methods such that their example would lead others in the industry to follow suit to stay competitive and au courant. “The more companies are motivated, the better,” she summarized.

Up next was Paul Jefferiss, head of policy at British Petroleum, a company keen on turning over a new leaf and rebranding itself in the wake of Deepwater Horizon. Jefferiss called attention to BP’s support of the UK’s electric car industry, and expressed a desire for communion among “policymakers, corporations and the society as a whole” in the months and years to come.

Following Jefferiss was Henrik O. Madsen, chairman of the Norwegian Research Council. Madsen framed his talk on ocean life and the food industry by posing a simple question. “Fish farming is growing, and the question is: Can it be sustainable?” He highlighted the roles certain species of seaweed can play in the sustainable production of food fish, among other strategies.

Jérôme Schmitt of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative offered further thoughts on getting oil and gas companies on board with climate action. He noted the importance of forging productive two-sided relationships with companies, rather than simply making demands: “If we want to trigger the solutions, we need to be able to provide the best solutions.”

Session 2 concluded with a talk from Herman Penng, Audi’s head of e-fuels project management. Pengg inspected the vital relationship between legislation and business practices, and pushed for more effective legislation as a means of catalyzing sustainability drives in business. “In 2050 we will have very efficient electric cars,” Penng said, “but that is not enough: legislation should be efficient.”

A lunch break led into the 2:30 PM commencement of the third session. Session 3, titled “How Finance Can Help Win the Fight Against Climate Change,” and Session 4, “How Policymakers, Citizens and Consumers Can Drive Decarbonization,” featured six speakers each, and provided a balanced look at sustainability through economic and sociopolitical lenses.

Professor Gustav Martinsson of RMIT University encapsulated well the role of finance in effecting change when he noted that “Above everything, climate change is a structural issue, and finance is the resource needed to efficiently allocate capital.” Rebecca Thomas, an associate at the investment management firm Arabesque, followed this with a call for data transparency and the standardization of data across companies.

Herman Bril, director of the Office of Investment Management at the United Nations, laid out ways in which asset owners could contribute to the blossoming of new technologies and help drive climate action, while Notre Dame professor Leo Burke described how climate-conscious investors could pave the way for robust carbon pricing legislation. Sagarika Chatterjee of Public Radio International echoed this call for investor action, saying that “Investors really need to step up to face the challenge ahead.”

Arabesque chairman George Kell rounded out the finance talks by exhorting the public and private spheres to work together on climate change: “Public and private interest often collide, but unfortunately, collaboration is not always there. We need to optimize this relation.”

The final session of the day began with talks from KR Foundation chairman Connie Hedegaard and Global Renewable Independent Power Supplier CEO Alexander Voigt, who discussed the roles of policymakers in bringing about results on climate.

“We need new regulations for transports, agriculture, energy… to restructure everything,” said Hedegaard. “We need political leadership now more than ever!”

Voigt agreed, and emphasized the part of the public—particularly the young public—in motivating climate legislation. “We should get young people to engage on a local/regional level and catalyze their energy into something positive,” he said. Jessica Cheam, managing editor at Eco-Business, substantiated this theme of youth power by sharing anecdotes of her own experience engaging and inspiring young climate activists in Singapore.

Up next was Giulia Braga, program director of Connect4Climate, World Bank Group. Braga agreed wholeheartedly with the prior speakers’ emphasis on youth, and used it to segue into the official launch of a new large-scale Fashion4Climate campaign, which will have its own website and center around the touring virtual reality experience X-Ray Fashion. Created by MANND and directed by fashion photographer Francesco Carrozzini, X-Ray Fashion offers an immersive presentation of climate crises in the fashion industry via cutting-edge technology, and is sure to get young people invested and active in the fight for the welfare of our planet.

The final speaker of the day was Princeton’s distinguished ecology and evolutionary biology professor Simon A. Levin, who offered an apt synopsis of the issues at the heart of the symposium: “The challenge is to understand how to change people’s attitudes, and how to create momentum for the private sector and governments to accept that decarbonization is crucial.”

Completing the case-study presentations was Ralf Pfitzner, Global Head of Sustainability at Volkswagan AG, who launched the second day of the 5th International Symposium for Sustainability with a deep dive into VW's approach to decarbonization. With ambitions plans in place Pfitzner emphasized: " We believe that Volkswagen is capable of bringing e-mobility to the people."

• Indigenous and rural women make up more than half of the up to 2.5 billion people who use and rely on the world's collectively held lands.
• Indigenous and rural women are advocates, leaders, and experts on issues like food security and climate change. Recognizing their rights is not only a matter of justice but also critical to achieving global climate and development goals.
• Yet for too long, global development agendas have overlooked their specific needs and contributions, or chose to view them only as victims.
• In a new video, advocates from around the world speak out on why land rights hold particular significance for indigenous and rural women.

“The earth is what gives life. It is that which gives food; It is the dispensation of traditional medicines. And for people who depend on forests in their territory, it is very important because without it there is no health, there is no education, there is no collective life for Indigenous Peoples, and above all for women.”

— Fany Kuiru, indigenous Uitoto leader (pictured above)

Some of the most forceful and moving voices heard at the UN Climate Change Conference in Katowice, Poland belonged to the world’s youth, who are stepping up like never before to galvanize action against global warming and get the international community back on track to meet the goals laid out in the Paris Agreement of 2016.

As part of the Talanoa Dialogue, a Fijian boy named Timoci Naulusala and a Polish girl named Hanna Wojdowska took the podium together to deliver a moving Call for Action. Alternating in their speech, the two young delegates advocated for a renewed focus on climate both within and without the political realm, holding governments accountable while also reminding everyday people and independent organizations of their own power to make a difference.

The young speakers did not shy away from the responsibilities of their own demographic. “We call on the youth of the world to mobilize at a larger scale,” Wojdowska asserted, “to ensure that the future is secure.”  “We call upon everyone to act with agency and recognize that we are in a race against time,” Naulusala said.

In the first week of COP24, an entire day, the Young and Future Generations Day, was set aside for the sharing of young voices and young ideas for a sustainable future. Consistent across the various youth delegate presentations was a sense of resolve in the face of crisis, a bravery for which younger generations too rarely get credit. UN Youth Envoy Jayathma Wickramanayake emphasized that “Young people continue to fight, and there is a responsibility on the part of policymakers to [ensure] that young people can meaningfully and effectively participate in these discussions.”

The World Bank Group’s Connect4Climate program supported numerous activities at COP24 to bring youth messages to life, not least of all presenting sustainable T-shirts that read: “Youth Unstoppable Stepping Up Climate Action.” At the Joint MDB Pavilion, where Connect4Climate was broadcasting daily interviews on Facebook, a youth-focused discussion, “Connecting to Accelerate Climate Action: Youth Unstoppable,” brought youth climate leaders and the Fijian Climate Champion Minister Seruiratu together for a productive dialogue.

Greta Thunberg, the 15-year-old Swedish activist making global headlines for her unflinching stance on climate action, put it well: “You are never too small to change the world.”

The power of youth to band together to fend back climate change is the subject of the just-released documentary Youth Unstoppable, which presents youth climate movements from all across the globe in a vivid first-person perspective. The director of the film, Slater Jewell-Kemker, who also took part in Connect4Climate events, has received round accolades for her work.

Jewell-Kemker has become a role model for many in the youth climate movement. When introducing her film, she explained: “The reason why I took ten years to make the film was because young people have really come into their own, not only as storytellers, but as leaders. Young people have really risen to the challenge of recognizing that we are in a very particular moment as human beings, choosing what kind of world we want to live in, choosing what kind of people we want to be, in the face of a challenge that is essentially asking us how we want to survive. I find this incredibly exciting. We get to embrace each other and our relationship with the planet as a positive way to move forward.”

The Youth Unstoppable documentary trailer was presented at COP24 during the Youth Climate Action Awards Ceremony, and the film was screened in its entirety for large audiences in Katowice and Warsaw as part of the Climate Film Festival.

The impactful intersection of film, youth, and climate was further celebrated at COP24 with the announcement of the winners of the UNFCCC-led Global Youth Video Competition on Climate Change, which drew 300 heartfelt submissions from young people in more than 100 countries. Ferzina Banaji, Communications Lead for Climate Change at the World Bank Group, congratulated the creators of the video submissions: “It is inspiring to see what you are doing…and it should motivate all of us and inspire all of us to do more. It really demonstrates to us that climate action is unstoppable, and that youth are unstoppable.”

One of the winners was Andrea Sofia Rosales Vega, whose film centers on the Mexican youth group Eco Urban. Eco Urban recovers urban waste, sells it to green-minded recycling plants, and uses the proceeds to support the Economic Fund to Help Children’s Cancer. The other winner, Vikas Yadav, hails from rural India. In his movie, Yadav presents some of the ways in which Indian farmers are blending traditional and innovative agricultural techniques to minimize their greenhouse footprint while keeping true to their cultural heritage.

The most memorable youth moment of all was probably Greta Thunberg’s forceful speech in the COP24 plenary, where she told negotiators they are not mature enough and do not care enough: “You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular…You are not mature enough to tell it like is. Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don't care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet…You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.”

“You only speak of green eternal growth because you are too scared of being unpopular...you are not mature enough to tell it like it is, even that burden you leave to us children...we cannot solve a crisis without treating it like a crisis.”@GretaThunberg at #COP24 pic.twitter.com/CIbcVLmthG

 

— Connect4Climate (@Connect4Climate) December 12, 2018

The poise and commitment of young people all over the world taking a stand against climate change is enough to restore hope that, if we all band together, we really can get the job done and raise ambition, accelerating climate solutions and preventing our world from warming beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius. Thunberg embodied the conviction of the youth movement, declaring: “We have run out of excuses and we are running out of time. We have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not.”