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."