The G-STIC conference programme

The Adapt Now! report by the Global Commission on Adaptation confirms that the return on investments in improved climate resilience is very high. Global investments worth 1.8 trillion USD could even generate 7.1 trillion USD in total net benefits from 2020 to 2030, making the adoption of climate adaptation strategies a necessity from a purely economic point of view. By enhancing the resilience of society against future risks, climate adaptation strategies will also deliver significant social and environmental benefits next to these economic gains.

During the thematic opening session, a panel of experts will discuss in a live setting in Brussels with public attending how to accelerate and upscale climate adaptation actions and related policies. This panel will be complemented with online presentations from practitioners across the globe who will present concrete case studies in which technological innovation is instrumental in deploying adaptation measures at scale.

Chaired by

Sylviane Bilgischer

Cabinet of Minister Borsus (Walloon Region)

Member of Adaptation Fund (UNFCCC) and Advisor to the Minister (Circular Economy, Innovation, Energy and Climate)

Sylviane Bilgischer has several years of experience in the climate change field. Since October 2017, she has served as Climate Policy Advisor for the Walloon Regional Government’s Ministry of Budget, Finances, Energy, Climate and Airports. From 2016-2017, she worked as a climate and carbon market advisor at the Walloon Air and Climate Agency on climate finance, fluorinated greenhouse gases and the European Union emissions trading scheme (ETS, which is a pillar of EU climate policy). She has further provided policy advice on climate change, playing an active role as a national Belgian delegate to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in its international meetings. She has also served as a Technical Advisor at the EUROCLIMA Programme of the European Commission. Between 2010 and 2015, Sylviane has worked for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Peru as a Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Officer.

Keynote presentation 09:40 - 09:50

Accelerating the Transition to a Climate-prepared and Resilient Europe

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele will present the highlights of the 2020 interim report of the European Commission Mission Board for Adaptation to Climate Change, including Societal Transformation.

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele

UCLouvain

Professor of climatology and sustainable development sciences

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele de Strihou is a Belgian academic climatologist. He is a professor of Climatology and Sustainable Development sciences at the Université Catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium). As a former IPCC vice-chair, he is one of the forerunners of climate change mitigation through a strong decrease in fossil fuel consumption.

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele de Strihou has participated in most UN conferences on climate issues since 1979. He has been instrumental in creating in 2002 the UN Work Programme on Climate Communication and Education and holds numerous awards in science and science communication. He has been appointed by the UN Secretary-General member of the group of scientists in charge of the 2019 Global Sustainable Development Report.

Presentation 09:50 - 10:00

Ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation and nature-based solutions

Luc Bas will focus on the precarious status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard this. Based on this global concern, he will give his view on ecosystem-based approaches to adaptation and nature-based solutions that can be considered as innovative pathways for developing and implementing new adaptation technologies. He will illustrate this with examples from the practice of climate change adaptation actions.

Luc Bas

IUCN

Director Europe

Luc Bas is the Director of the IUCN European Regional Office in Brussels. He represents IUCN towards the EU Institutions and provides leadership and guidance for all activities undertaken by IUCN Government and NGO members within the European context. That includes informing decision-making through IUCN’s knowledge on topics such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, Red Lists, Protected Area management, Natural Capital and promoting the use of nature-based solutions across different sectors.

Before this, Luc Bas was the European Director of The Climate Group in Brussels, working with business and government to reach more ambitious EU climate policies and prepare for a real energy transition. As the International Director of The Climate Group’s States and Regions Alliance, he established one of the most significant networks of sub-national governments leading on tackling climate change.

Luc Bas worked as an adviser on international sustainable development policies for both the Belgian Federal and Flemish Governments. He represented these governments at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (SD), the OECD national SD expert panel, the Belgium Federal Council on SD, and various networks of subnational governments.
Luc holds a Master’s degree in industrial engineering and postgraduate degrees in both environmental science and international politics.

Presentation 10:00 - 10:05

Adaptation technology and sharing learning globally

To successfully limit the impact of global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, we need to deploy climate mitigation and adaptation solutions faster and on a larger scale. The use of mitigation technologies on a massive scale needs to be combined with incremental and transformational adaptation measures. Only then will we be able to safeguard humans and ecosystems from the risks of climate change.

Saleemul Huq

International Institute for Environment and Development

Senior Fellow in the Climate Change Group

Before joining IIED, Saleemul Huq was director of the Bangladesh Center for Advanced Studies, which he founded in 1984. He was founding director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development at the Independent University, Bangladesh. Saleemul Huq has been involved in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for which he has served as a Lead Author and Coordinating Lead Author in Working Group II, focusing on impacts, vulnerability and adaptation.

Saleemul Huq has published reports and articles on climate change, particularly on climate change adaptation. He is a lead author of the chapter on Adaptation and Sustainable Development in the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). His current focus is on supporting the engagement of the Least Developed Countries in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. He is researching the least developed countries’ vulnerability to climate change and the impact of adaptation measures.

Keynote presentation 10:05 - 10:10

Case study 1 – accelerating climate change adaptation

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim will bring in her expertise on indigenous peoples’ adaptation to climate change, traditional knowledge, and climate change mitigation. She will highlight from firsthand experience how climate change impacted entire communities and why indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge is crucial to turn limited resources into something bigger for the whole community.

Hindou Ibrahim

Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad

President

Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is an expert in indigenous peoples’ adaptation to climate change, traditional ecological knowledge, and climate change mitigation strategies. She is Co-Chair of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change.

From a Mbororo pastoralist community in Chad, Hindou Ibrahim founded the Association for Indigenous Women and Peoples of Chad (AFPAT) and works to empower indigenous voices and ensure their inclusion on international platforms. She has lead several concrete projects that improved access to basic need of indigenous peoples, while promoting their unique contribution to the protection of the environment. 3D participatory mapping, for instance, helps to prevent resources-based conflicts in one of the poorest and most vulnerable regions of the world.

Keynote presentation 10:10 - 10:15

Case study 2 – accelerating climate change adaptation

Kim Kyoung-Woong will focus on Asian Adaptation Strategies, in particular highlighting concrete knowledge transfer activities and projects for climate adaptation in a perspective of South-South and Triangular cooperation.

Kyoung-Woong Kim

GIST, Korea

Director International Environmental Research Institute (IERI)

Presentation 10:15 - 10:20

Case study 3 – Knowledge is an agency – using scientific knowledge to support resilience

Building resilient farming systems can only be achieved when farmers can both access and utilise the best possible information and knowledge to make informed decisions. While many initiatives have sought to improve access to general agronomic advice, the PlantWise programme focuses on providing scientific advice specific to the farmer’s needs and issues. This session focuses on how existing systems can be supported and enhanced at scale through both innovative technology and people, and the value of strengthening trusted relationships.

Jonny Casey

CABI

Climate Change Manager

Jonny Casey is the Climate Change Manager at the Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI). He leads their research on the impacts of climate change in agriculture, particularly in climate-smart pest management and climate policy analysis. Jonny has experience as a researcher, project manager, policy advocate, and programme evaluator in climate adaptation, gender equality, market systems analysis, and technology innovation systems.

Presentation 10:20 - 10:35

Q&A – accelerating climate change adaptation

Presentation 10:35 - 10:40

Introduction to the climate deep dive sessions

Francesca Vanthielen

Moderator

Presentation 10:45 - 10:50

Closing remarks – accelerating climate change adaptation

Sylviane Bilgischer

Cabinet of Minister Borsus (Walloon Region)

Member of Adaptation Fund (UNFCCC) and Advisor to the Minister (Circular Economy, Innovation, Energy and Climate)

Climate

Deep dive session

Sector-oriented climate services

26/10/2020, 11:30 - 13:00

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Just like the weather service brings a daily forecast enabling people to plan activities, climate services concern medium to long term projections of climate-related indicators. By providing tailored and understandable climate information, climate services can be fundamental to assist decision-making, be it for farmers with forecasts of drought, tendencies in temperature for urban planning or weather extremes for disaster management. In this deep dive, the need for climate services at various levels of decision-making will be highlighted and discussed by several renowned speakers.

Chaired by

Raf Theunissen

VITO

Program Manager Land Use and Climate Impacts (LUCI) team

Raf Theunissen is part of the management team at VITO’s department of Environmental Modelling. Since April 2019, he is program manager of VITO’s dynamic Land Use and Climate Impacts team. This team consists of 15 experts in climate, land use modelling and system dynamic modelling for which Raf provides support in project supervision and financial management.

Raf Theunissen holds a degree in aerospace engineering with a specialisation (a Master after Master degree at the Von Karman Institute and a PhD at VKI, TU Delft and VUB) in optical flow measurements. He is internationally recognised for his expertise in Particle Image Velocimetry algorithms.

Before joining VITO, Raf was a senior lecturer in experimental aerodynamics at the University of Bristol (2010-2019). Besides lecturing, he was tasked with PhD supervision and research in adaptive algorithms to advance optical measurement techniques.

Presentation 11:35 - 11:50

Investing in Climate Services: World Bank’s experience

Hydrological and meteorological (or “hydromet”) hazards are responsible for 90% of total disaster losses worldwide. According to the World Bank report “Unbreakable”, average annual losses reach close to 520 billion US dollars a year. The impacts of extreme natural disasters force some 26 million people into poverty every year.

In response to increased demands for quality hydromet services in developing and emerging countries to mitigate climate risks, the World Bank has been providing financial, technical and advisory support to national governments to modernise and manage the hydromet value chain needed to collect data, develop forecasts, and deliver the services to the public and to risk managers.

The World Bank’s portfolio for the hydromet sector has more than tripled over the last 10 years, now almost reaching a total of 1 billion US dollars in more than 60 countries. The lending operations and technical assistance by the World Bank have resulted in extensive experience and lessons learned and have revealed a number of emerging issues to consider, including public private engagements and partnerships with development partners.

Makoto Suwa

The World Bank

Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist

Makoto Suwa is a Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist at the World Bank. He leads and supports a wide range of World Bank activities and projects that aim to strengthen weather, climate, and hydrological services in Africa. Prior to joining the World Bank, Makoto worked for the World Meteorological Organization, at both its headquarters in Geneva and its Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa in Nairobi. He also taught at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology and Lycée de Kigali in Rwanda, and briefly worked for JICA’s Office for Climate Change in Tokyo. Makoto holds a PhD in geosciences (climate science) from Princeton University and a master of environmental management degree from Duke University.

Presentation 11:50 - 12:05

The need for Climate Services in Africa, with applications to agriculture

Climate variability and change is impacting development sectors in Africa with clear effects on the agriculture and food security sector. Crop yields, food production, prices in commodity markets and arable land are exposed to climate change. Disruptions on the onset and withdrawal of the rainy seasons, wet and dry spells during the season, heavy rains and floods during the harvesting period, droughts and floods, strong winds are well known climate hazards impacting food security, soil fertility, water availability, inflation on commodity markets, reduction of crop yields and food production, increase of food imports. Due to unusually heavy and/or widespread rain over locust development areas, outbreaks occur almost every year.

Climate services are required to reduce negative impacts, benefit from possible opportunities and build resilience in highly vulnerable areas (mostly arid and semi-arid lands in Africa). Climate projections are analysed to estimate future climate scenarios and support adaptation of agriculture calendars, seasonal climate forecasts are essential to guide updates of agriculture calendars required ahead on the upcoming rainy season to reduce climate impacts on food systems.

VITO and ACMAD, the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development, are collaborating to provide an online tool called AGRACLIM for the generation and communication of climate services to build resilience of the agriculture sector. Training for Meteorological services, agriculture extension services, farmer federations, planners and decision makers of the agriculture and food sector is being organized to pilot and upscale provision of climate services for smart agriculture across Africa.

André Kamga Foamouhoue

ACMAD, the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development

Director General

André Kamga Foamouhoue is the Director General of the African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development. Prior to joining his current position, he was Chief of Climate and Environment Department of ACMAD. He is also a member of the American Meteorological Society as well as the WMO International Coordination Team for the Climate Service Information System of the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS).
André’s career has taken him to NOAA/NCEP Climate Prediction Center as a visiting scientist at the African Desk, the UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Regional Climate Modeling with PRECIS, the WMO as Scientific Officer at the Climate Prediction and Adaption Branch of the Climate and Water Department, the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast as the EU-funded African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) project Work Package Leader.

André Kamga Foamouhoue was a co-chair of the WMO’s World Weather Research Programme /THORPEX Africa Regional Committee and spearheaded the development by a task force of the THORPEX Africa science and implementation plans. He is well known in the meteorological community for his key role in the demonstration phase leading to the designation in 2015 of ACMAD as a full-fledged multifunctional WMO Regional Climate Centre (RCC) for all Africa, the first WMO designated RCC in Africa.

Presentation 12:05 - 12:20

Event attribution of extreme event: producing high-resolution data and climate modeling

This year, series of extreme events – Siberian heatwave and wildfire, torrential rain storms over East Asia, and Californian wildfire – have been reported. Understanding a particular extreme event is challenging such as identifying roles played by different weather and climate factors and even simulation of such events using climate model. Here we are presenting two case studies: production of high-resolution climate data using deep neural network method and event attribution study on the cyclone Fani. In the first example,
we apply various machine learning algorithms that are widely used in the super-resolution image process to produce high-resolution fire risk information based on Fire Weather Index (FWI) derived from the Canadian forest fire danger rating system. Our result indicates that overall performance is similar with high-resolution RCM based product but much higher efficiency. Also, it is difficult to achieve the same result in traditional statistical downscaling approach due to complexity in producing FWI. In the second example, we demonstrate relative importance of regional warming and anthropogenic aerosol effects on the Cyclone Fani.

Jin Ho Yoon

School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering - Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

Professor

Jin-Ho Yoon currently works as an Associate Professor at the School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. Jin-Ho leads the “Climate Analysis and Modelling” lab focusing on climate extremes, climate variability, climate change and climate modelling.

Professor Jin-Ho Yoon has been teaching and researching climate change and climate modelling since he joined GIST in March of 2016. Prior to that, he worked on climate change and climate modelling from 2010 to 2016 at the PNNL Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US Department of Energy). Professor Jin-Ho Yoon was selected as the lead author of the 6th Assessment Report for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Presentation 12:20 - 12:35

Climate Service in practice: what does a Climate Service look like?

Filip Lefebre will present the activities of the VITO Urban Climate Service Center that is specialized in the delivery of data, tools and services to support cities and towns in their ambition to become more climate resilient with a particular focus on heat related issues. The presentation will include a presentation of the UrbClim urban climate model and how the model results are used for multi-sectoral urban adaptation activities. Tangible results will be shown from the H2020 Climate-fit.city project, the C3S European Health project as well as from contract work for administrations and other stakeholders from different policy levels.

Filip Lefebre

VITO

Urban climate service manager

Filip Lefebre works as a business developer and project manager in the Climate Service team of VITO’s Environmental Modelling business unit. This team delivers innovative, sustainable and scientifically sound products and services to better manage, predict and control our shared natural resources (air, water, land, soil, eco-systems) based on computer modelling and information technology. He holds a PhD in Physics on regional climate modelling of the Greenland ice sheet (2001) from the Catholic University of Louvain.

VITO’s Climate Service team is specialised in the processing of past, present and future climate data into information and services inside a customer-oriented organisation. The service team’s expertise covers urban climate services as well as climate-health, biodiversity, and agriculture services.

Panel discussion 12:35 - 13:00

Panel discussion and Q&A – Climate Service in practice

Makoto Suwa

The World Bank

Senior Disaster Risk Management Specialist

André Kamga Foamouhoue

ACMAD, the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development

Director General

Filip Lefebre

VITO

Urban climate service manager

Jin Ho Yoon

School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Engineering - Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology

Professor

Raf Theunissen

VITO

Program Manager Land Use and Climate Impacts (LUCI) team

Education

Deep dive session

Aligning curricula with the need for innovation

26/10/2020, 09:30 - 11:00

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The pace at which technology develops today is unmatched. Technological processes learnt today might even no longer be relevant tomorrow. It is clear that curricula are no longer capable of providing the right skillsets for the future. Even if we were to change the content of these curricula right now, they would be outdated again in a few years. If we want to align curricula with the need for technological innovation properly, it is far more relevant to change the way how we update curricula rather than change their contents itself.

Chaired by

Jan De Groof

College of Europe

Professor

Jan De Groof is professor at the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium) and at Tilburg University (the Netherlands), at the National Research University – Higher School of Economics in Moscow and extraordinary professor at the Edu-HRight Research Unit, North West University (South Africa) and previously at Ghent University (Belgium), teaching international and comparative educational law and policy. His academic work and numerous publications have covered many education rights-related issues but also constitutional and human rights law. His doctoral students, coming from several continents, focus on various aspects of the Right to Education.

De Groof has been visiting professor and/or taught at universities worldwide. He is founder and president of the European Association for Education Law and Policy (ELA) and co-founded the Russian and South-African Education Law Associations. He chaired – at the request of all regional Education Law and Policy Associations – the two World Conferences on Human Dignity, the Right to and Rights in Education (Amsterdam/The Hague, Brussels). De Groof holds the UNESCO Chair for the Right to Education and is former UNESCO Chargé de Mission on the Right to Education (2007-2010). He was and remains intensively involved in consultancy for national parliaments, governments and stakeholders, not the least in time of transition (Russia: 1990-2000, South Africa: 1995-2002), often in cooperation with multilateral organisations. He is member of the ‘Council of Senior Advisors’ of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), accredited to the UN, and vice-chair of the Legal Committee of EQAR. Furthermore, De Groof has been Team Leader of the EU-Project ‘The Rule of Law – Curriculum Reform of Legal Studies in Universities, especially in Iraq’.

In 2015 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Pretoria (South Africa), giving “recognition to his significant role as leader in various fields of education and law, his global influence in education law during the late 20th and the 21th century, as well as his assiduous campaigning for justice and good governance in education,” and also chaired the Law Sessions in the framework of the World Congress on Catholic Education (Vatican, November 2015).

Presentation 09:35 - 09:50

The challenges of digital learning environments

It has been argued that lifelong learning is the critical skill for our modern world, where industries and careers will often shift in response to the ongoing, dramatic shifts in our rapidly evolving world. Central to being adept with the skill of lifelong learning are a sense of urgency over one’s learning and an understanding of how to construct one’s own learning pathway and meet one’s own learning needs. These are all sub-skills that are essentially removed from traditional models of education.

In order to support learners in developing the critical skill of lifelong learning, we must deeply rethink how we organise learning environments and education systems, to one where they are empowered to drive their own learning from a young age. Progressive learning environments have understood this for some time and have been implementing these models for decades. Interestingly, these models also more effectively aligned with the extensive research from the Learning Sciences on how people learn best.

Jennifer Groff

MIT Media Lab & Education Arcade

Researcher

Jennifer Groff is a research assistant and PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab and the MIT Education Arcade. Her research focuses on redesigning learning environments and experiences through learning technologies and system innovations.

Jennifer is a former teacher. For her innovative teaching in the classroom she was named a Microsoft Innovative Teacher Leader in 2005 and a Google Certified Teacher. She is the author of numerous frameworks on innovation in education systems, transformation, and design over educational reform, including the i5 framework and the ‘whole-mindedness’ pedagogical approach. Her current work is the LearningGraph, a platform that supports a universal model of learning progressions and standards to support learning technologies and education systems.

Jennifer Groff is the co-founder of the Centre for Curriculum Redesign, an international NGO dedicated to redesigning the general curricula for the 21st century. She was also the Vice President of Learning & Program Development for the Learning Games Network, a non-profit spin-off from the MIT Education Arcade.

Presentation 09:50 - 10:05

Taking the SDGs into schools

Guido Schmidt-Traub

Sustainable Development Solutions Network

Executive Director

Guido Schmidt-Traub is Executive Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and a member of the Governing Council of Future Earth. He has served as climate change advisor to the Africa Progress Panel secretariat and was CEO of Paris-based CDC Climat Asset Management.

From 2008-2010 Guido was Director and Partner at South Pole Carbon Asset Management in Zurich, a leading developer of greenhouse gas emission reduction projects. Prior to managing the MDG Support Team at UNDP (2006-2008) he served as Policy Advisor and then as Associate Director of the UN Millennium Project in New York, which was tasked with developing a concrete action plan for the world to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Earlier Guido was Partner at IndexIT Scandinavia, a private equity fund for early-stage technology companies, and consultant at McKinsey & Company in Germany. He holds a PhD and a Masters in Economics, as well as a Masters in Physical Chemistry.

Presentation 10:05 - 10:20

Aligning Engineering Education with Sustainable Development

The needs for innovation are changing along with time. Today, innovations, in context of the 4th industrial revolution, are needed for sustainable development. The UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) show a blueprint for building a future of peace and prosperity for all on a healthy planet. Every one of the Goals requires solutions rooted in science, technology and engineering. To train the young engineers to be able to carry out innovations to transform the world to sustainability using the emerging technologies of the 4th industrial revolution, the curriculum and methods of engineering education should be aligned with SDGs and the 4th industrial revolution.

Among many others, World Federation of Engineering Organizations is working hard with our partners on (1) embedding necessary knowledge and skills of sustainable development into curriculum of all engineering profession accordingly; (2) strengthening skills of using Information Communication Data Technology and Artificial Intelligence (ICDT&AI) for all engineering learners; (3) extending inter-disciplinary as well as international cooperation capability and (4) enhancing engineering ethics education for responsible engineering practices. It is necessary to establish a global benchmark standard of graduate attributes to guide the evolution of engineering education and ensure its quality.

Gong Ke

World Federation of Engineering Organizations

President

After obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology, he studied further in Technical University of Graz (Austria), where he worked on radio wave propagation in satellite links and obtained his Doctor Degree of Technological Science in 1986.

From 1987 to 2006, he worked in Tsinghua University, Beijing, as a full professor in Electronic Engineering (1994), Head of the Department of Electronic Engineering (1997-1999), Director of the State Key Laboratory of Microwave and Digital Communication at Tsinghua University (1997-2004), Vice President (R&D) of Tsinghua University (1999-2006), Director of Chinese National Research Center for Information Science and Technology at Tsinghua University (2004-2006). He served as the President of Tianjin University from 2006 to 2011. He carried on as the President of Nankai University in 2011 and stepped down in 2018.

Presentation 10:20 - 10:35

Distance education for all: cure or curse in times of pandemic?

As the COVID-19 crisis enforced schools around the world to close, catastrophic consequences for young people’s education careers have been the result. Countries where digitalisation was sufficiently advanced, have embraced distance education using all sorts of digital media, up to the point where schools advocate the continuation of blended (on-site and distance) education for the future. However, this transition necessitates enormous investments in equipment, new learning materials and training. Moreover, inequalities (whether they relate to access to ICT tools or to skills) across the population seem to be at odds with the right to inclusive education for all. Social distancing must, therefore, go hand in hand with outreaching, bonding and solidarity, and we need to examine how countries in the global North and South are coping with this transition.

Idesbald Nicaise

KU Leuven

Professor

Ides Nicaise (KU Leuven) has a background in economics and works since 1989 as a research manager at HIVA (Research Institute for Work and Society), a multidisciplinary research institute of the University of Leuven (Belgium). He further specialised in social policy, more precisely the relationships between education, labour market policy and social inclusion in both developed and developing countries.

At the Department of Education Sciences at the University of Leuven, Ides Nicaise teaches ‘Economics of education’, ‘Lifelong learning and equal opportunities’ and ‘Education and Society’. Besides his professional activities, he is chairing the Belgian Combat Poverty Service.

Presentation 10:50 - 11:00

Technological advancement and Education for Sustainable Development: New solutions and challenges for ESD for 2030

Technological advancements can help address some of the traditional sustainability challenges but also bring about new challenges. How can Education for Sustainable Development(ESD) help to harness the potential of technological developments towards sustainability, in light of the new global framework ESD for 2030 and its implementation in the next decade?

Won Jung Byun

Section of Education for Sustainable Development, UNESCO

Senior Project Officer

Won Jung Byun is currently Senior Project Officer in the Section of Education for Sustainable Development(ESD) at UNESCO Headquarters. Won’s work at UNESCO is mainly focused on ESD policy, in particular on preparing for the new global framework on ESD for the period of 2020-2030 called ‘ESD for 2030’. The new ten year framework will be launched at UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development (May 2021, Berlin, Germany).

Before joining UNESCO, she has worked as executive director for the United Nations University’s programme Regional Centre of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE) Tongyeong, Republic of Korea since 2005 and co-founded Tongyeong Education Foundation for Sustainable Development and an education centre called Sejahtera Forest, to promote ESD at local, national and regional level. Won also served in various committees including as Regional Coordinator for 42 RCEs in Asia-Pacific in 2009-2014.

Education ICT

Deep dive session

Digital technologies for lifelong learning

26/10/2020, 11:30 - 13:00

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As the capacity to innovate is increasingly becoming a key driver of economic and social development, employees continuously need to adapt to dynamic and fast-changing working conditions. Occupational and technical skills are, therefore, no longer sufficient. In addition to job-specific technical skills, employees need to have strong transversal and foundation skills. These include the skills to learn fast, adapt to change and manage business. Enterprises need to foster lifelong learning, making the best possible use of what digital technologies have to offer.

Chaired by

Jan De Groof

College of Europe

Professor

Presentation 11:35 - 11:50

Lifelong learning: education for all ages

The rate of technological evolution both in everyday life and in the workplace makes it in many cases not possible for a traditional educational model to equip students with skills that will last a lifetime. At the very best, they should equip students with the ability to learn new skills throughout their life. That raises the question however of how such new skills can best be acquired.

Online learning is undoubtedly a promising avenue as demonstrated by the emergence of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) and other open courseware offerings. However, there are difficulties in maintaining engagement in such portals and courses. Perhaps the greatest challenge for lifelong learning and the potential contribution of enterprises is how to render learning online both enjoyable and effective.

This is challenging for a whole range of reasons, starting with the need to elicit what topic might be of interest and use to the learners. In addition, it is indispensable to determine the gaps in their knowledge, identify the materials that are most likely to engage them and assess their progress. Finally, assistance should be provided either through additional materials or from other learners when difficulties are detected.

John Shawe-Taylor

University College, London

Director Centre for Computational Statistics and Machine Learning

John Shawe-Taylor, UNESCO Chair in Artificial Intelligence (AI), is a professor at University College London (United Kingdom) where he is Director of the Centre for Computational Statistics and Machine Learning (CSML). His main research area is Statistical Learning Theory, but his contributions range from Neural Networks to Machine Learning to Graph Theory.

John Shawe-Taylor obtained a PhD in Mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London in 1986. He subsequently completed an MSc in the Foundations of Advanced Information Technology at Imperial College. He has coordinated a number of European wide projects investigating the theory and practice of Machine Learning, including the NeuroCOLT projects, and is currently the scientific coordinator of a Framework VI Network of Excellence in Pattern Analysis, Statistical Modelling and Computational Learning (PASCAL).

Presentation 11:50 - 12:05

Digital technology innovation in taking forward education in India

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced educational institutions across the world to develop innovative methods of ensuring provision of quality education to students. In the Indian context, both national and state educational institutions have been catalyzed to transitions to digital modes of education at the school and university level. This movement has further increased access to academic resources amongst students and the general public, thereby promoting lifelong learning opportunities amongst them. It has led to innovations such as development of android apps that make it easier to access course material or even undertake online tutorials. Advent of online learning platforms is changing the perception and the mechanics of education in a way that one can learn without going into a formal and a physical system. Now even formal courses are being made available 24X7 on online platforms. Thus digital revolution is pushing new frontiers and introducing new dimensions that can make formal and informal learning a life-long possibility.

Shazia Azmat Fatima Rehman

Government of Delhi

Change-Maker in Education

Shazia A.F Rehman completed her master’s in economics from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics, she is an alumni of Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University and Delhi Public School, Noida. She is currently working as a Change-Maker in Education fellow with the Government of Delhi and contributing to the digital interventions and innovation in Education in Delhi.

Shazia has been involved in public policy projects and research in the development sector and has experience in working with prominent institutions like the University of Oxford, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Brookings India and the Centre for Advanced Studies in Policy Research (CASPR). She has gained international exposure while she was based in Kampala, Uganda to work on the research collaboration between the Uganda Revenue Authority (Ministry of Finance, Uganda) and the University of Oxford. Her research interests lie in the fields of development economics, public policy and governance. She endeavors to contribute to efficient policy formulation and implementation in India.

Presentation 12:05 - 12:20

Readiness strategies for digital lifelong learning

Lifelong learning requires foundational skills to keep learning and adapting throughout life, to be developed in schools at early ages. Then, it also entails universal access to adult learning, for those already in the labour market to up- and re-skill and stay employable, especially if low qualified. Firms can play a key role to facilitate learning opportunities for their employees and new entrants.

Providing that quality assurance mechanisms are in place, education and training providers in the private sector can develop a relevant offering for this and uptake a business opportunity. Digital technologies have a great potential for lifelong learning, keeping in mind that sustainable technological solutions have to be inclusive, at a territorial and individual level, and that technology represents only one of many dimensions for digital learning.

Sara Baiocco

Centre for European Policy Studies

Researcher

With a background in development economics and an MSc in local economic development at the London School of Economics, Sara Baiocco decided to focus her PhD on labour and the impact of digitalisation on employment.

Since September 2018, she is a researcher in the Jobs and Skills Unit of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). At CEPS, Sara continues her policy-oriented research on skills, employment and working conditions in the continuously changing world of work.

Presentation 12:20 - 12:35

Connecting passion with profession or why I will never retire …

What is the canvas for continuous and lifelong learning? What role does life expectancy play? Why should countries, businesses and other organizations consider it their responsibility to care for their people’s continuous and lifelong learning? How does Melexis go about in stimulating people towards continuous learning? What’s in it for me, really? And some myth busting …

Françoise Chombar

Melexis

CEO Melexis & President Flanders STEM-Platform

Françoise Chombar is co-founder and CEO of Melexis. Melexis designs and develops innovative microelectronic solutions for the automotive industry, and is also growing in the smart appliance, home automation, industrial and medical equipment sectors. Françoise Chombar is a member of the board of directors of Umicore, a global materials technology and recycling group. She is also a member of the board of directors of Soitec, an international semiconductor materials manufacturer.

Françoise Chombar is chairwoman of the STEM platform, an advisory board of the Flemish Government that encourages young people to follow a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) education. Françoise Chombar was mentor for 17 years of the SOFIA network, a coaching, networking and training program for female entrepreneurs and women in management. As a ‘STEMinist’, she advocates more STEM and more inclusiveness and gender balance. That commitment is driven by her deep belief in its positive social impact.

In 2012, Françoise Chombar received the title of Honorary Ambassador for Applied Linguistics from UGent. She won the Vlerick Award in 2016 and the Global Prize for Women Entrepreneurs in 2018. That year she was also elected ICT Personality of the Year by Datanews and appointed Science Fellow at the VUB. In July 2019, she received the Honorary Sign of the Flemish Community.

Presentation 12:35 - 12:50

SusTech4Africa: business growth support by and for talents

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the main drivers of job creation and economic growth in developing countries. Creating opportunity for MSMEs in these countries is an important way to promote development and reduce poverty.

Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs (OVO) facilitates socio-economic initiatives in low- and middle-income countries. It brings companies and entrepreneurs in Belgium into contact with initiatives of this nature. OVO encourages collaboration through financing and accessibility to expertise.

OVO has developed a Business Growth Support value chain based on intercultural and intergenerational interaction with great emphasis on mutual knowledge transfer. This is a means by which expertise, knowledge, skills and capabilities are transferred from a knowledge base to those in need of that knowledge. The purpose of the knowledge transfer is to catalyse and facilitate sustainability, growth and innovation of the private sector in Africa and Belgium.

Björn Macauter

Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs

General Manager

Since 2015, Björn Macauter has been working as General Manager at Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs. He holds a master’s degree in Applied Economic Sciences, a degree in International Politics and a master’s degree in Public Management. He started his career at Amnesty International Flanders as coordinator of political affairs. At the Regional Economic and Social Consultation Committee Mechelen, he experienced the strength as well as the pitfalls of intersectoral cooperation.

In 2012, he took up the challenge of developing LAScentrum, a training centre for welding techniques, into a self-supporting social enterprise. In less than 3 years, he succeeded in this goal by using his entrepreneurial skills and gathering the right people around him.

Within Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs he has paid a lot of attention to the further development of Entrepreneurs for Entrepreneurs as a networked organization, the effective deployment of voluntary experts, increasing the mutual transfer of knowledge between African and Belgian companies and entrepreneurs, and involving young people – the entrepreneurs of the future.

Presentation 12:50 - 13:00

Dare to be CEO of your own life

How much longer do you want to put it off? How long can you manage your organisation, your team or your life without making some fundamental change? Above all, how long can you avoid being overtaken by others because you stick to your method and your comfort zone?

Our society is changing and crying out for a new model. We are living in a digital age where everyone and everything is connected, where competition no longer comes from the sector, and customers, users and citizens are in the driver’s seat. Data are gold, and sharing is the new having. The digital age requires a new approach and a new model.

Dare to help build a different business world, with a balance between short and long term results, but just as much to help make a different society that is ready for the next generation.

Saskia Van Uffelen

Digital Agenda

Digital Champion of Belgium

Saskia Van Uffelen has been working in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector for over 25 years. She has held national and international sales and marketing functions in leading companies such as Xerox, Compaq, HP, Arinso, Bull and Ericsson. As Corporate Vice President at GFI, she currently oversees the development of the BeNeLux region for this French ICT group.

In 2012, the Federal Minister of Economic Affairs appointed Saskia Van Uffelen as the ‘Digital Champion’ representing Belgium at the European Commission. To stimulate the roll-out of the Digital Agenda in Belgium, she sensitizes all parties involved in 5 areas: digital economy, digital government, digital infrastructure, digital security and digital skills.

As a role model, Saskia Van Uffelen received various awards including ICT Woman of the Year (2011, Data News), Inspiring Woman in Science, Technology and Research (2013, Luxembourg), the Golden Spur for Economic Excellence (2016, Flanders) and the Etion Leadership Award 2019. In 2019, she was also nominated Belgian Manager of the Year.

Circular Economy ICT

Thematic session

Digital technologies for circular value chains

26/10/2020, 15:30 - 17:00

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Digital technologies enable new circular value chains. Hence, digital solutions provide an opportunity for capitalising on existing circular economy solutions and capturing additional value. That creates a need for new circular business models such as Products as a Service (PaaS), sharing platforms and peer-to-peer interactions. Although there is a general awareness about the need for a digital circular economy, too little connections exist between the digital and circular economy communities. Debate and interaction between both communities is therefore essential to start building bridges and creating a solid basis for a common vocabulary.

Chaired by

Karl Vrancken

VITO

Research Manager Sustainable Materials

Karl Vrancken is Research Manager Sustainable Materials Management at VITO. He is responsible for the strategic management of VITO’s Materials programme. He has a part-time assignment as professor at the University of Antwerp (Department of Bio-engineering), where he teaches sustainable resources management.

Karl has broad experience as a researcher and project manager in projects on sustainability assessment and transition, waste management and treatment, secondary raw materials, best available techniques (BAT) and integrated pollution prevention and control. He has also worked as a Detached National Expert with the European IPPC Bureau in Seville (Spain), where he was the author of the BAT Reference Document for the Foundries sector.

Karl is the initiator and chairman of the European Circular Economy Research Alliance (ECERA) and strategic advisor of the European Topic Centre on Waste and Materials for a Green Economy, a consortium of European organisations working in partnership with the European Environment Agency (EEA). During its start-up phase, he was interim Chief Operations Officer to the Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) EIT RawMaterials that was founded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). He is an expert speaker on circular economy in the media and at various national and international conferences.

Keynote presentation 15:35 - 15:55

Digitalis: How digital technology can build a sustainable society

Wherever people live in Europe, they are all citizens of Digitalis. This new country counts 4 billion inhabitant who are all interconnected through the Internet. Any time soon, everybody on this planet will be connected and have access to information, education, healthcare and culture.

However, this requires us to reinvent what we have built so far – using new available technologies. But whereas previous industrial revolutions depended on raw materials such as coal, oil and steel, this new digital revolution is entirely based on knowledge. As knowledge becomes abundantly available to everyone, this new digital revolution is ultimately based on us. It is in our hands to build a more sustainable society.

Thierry Geerts

Google Belgium and Luxemburg

CEO

After Thierry Geerts graduated as Solvay Business Engineer at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 1989, he started working as an auditor for Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC). Quite soon, his passion for media, online marketing and innovation led him to management and board positions at various companies, including Corelio Publishing, Radio Nostalgie, Clickx and Passe-Partout. In 2008, he became CEO of Corelio Business Development and Arkafund.

Since 2011, Thierry Geerts is Country Director of Google Belgium-Luxembourg, which positions him in the heart of the digital revolution, marketing and innovative entrepreneurship. He’s a member of the “Digital Minds for Belgium” and “AI4Belgium” Expert group of Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister De Croo, a member of “Le Conseil du Digital” of the Walloon Minister of Economy and a member of the board of IAB Europe.

Presentation 15:55 - 16:10

Circular Economy 4.0: How digitalisation can boost the circular economy

Circular Economy shows that digitalisation helps overcome existing information gaps, enabling to make better informed decisions and create new markets with concrete applications in mechanical engineering. The most important levers of digitalisation that are relevant to the circular economy are the result of improved product management, optimised product use and performance, enabling to connect and close material and data flows. As digital solutions connect to the 5 R’s of the Circular Economy – Repair, Reuse, Remanufacture, Recycle, Rethink – they can create new conditions and opportunities for new circular business models.
Potential rebound effects and side effects, however, imply that not every action taken to achieve digitalisation will necessarily be meaningful in terms of sustainability, as specific use cases from the mechanical engineering perspective illustrate.

Frederike Krebs

Mechanical Engineering Industry Association

Adviser Technical, Environmental & Sustainability Affairs

Since 2017, Frederike Krebs is following policy developments in EU technical, environmental and sustainability affairs for VDMA’s European Office in Brussels. Frederike is responsible for representing VDMA’s interests in these policy fields towards EU policy- and decision-makers. At the same time, she has an internal advisory role in informing member companies as to which policy developments might affect their daily business and to create common positions on issues of interest.

Presentation 16:10 - 16:25

The Smart Circular Economy – a common framework across digital and circular disciplines

Digital technologies, such as IoT, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, are considered essential enablers of the circular economy. However, little systematic guidance has been provided so far on how digital technologies can be applied to capture circular economy’s full potential for improved value creation and capture.

The Smart Circular Economy framework addresses this gap. This framework synthesizes organising principles for understanding the relationship between digitalisation and circular economy, and describes the business analytics capabilities needed for their operationalisation. As such, the framework is useful to create a common language for aligning activities across the boundaries of digital and circular disciplines. It is, also helpful to identify the gap between the current and the required digital maturity for various circular strategies and identify which strategic initiatives are needed to close it. In addition to this, the framework organises a database of 100 example smart circular strategies.

Eivind Kristoffersen

SINTEF

Research scientist

Eivind Kristoffersen is a 27-year old research scientist at SINTEF. He is a PhD candidate at NTNU and an international ISO expert contributing to the new Circular Economy ISO/TC 323 standard.

With a background as an IT solution architect and a mechanical engineer, Eivind is convinced that the sustainable transition must be a digital one. In his own research and doctoral studies, he is particularly interested in how we can create new and smart circular economy solutions through the increased use of artificial intelligence. His research therefore focuses on bridging the gap between the digital world and sustainability through the strategic use of information systems and IT business value for circular economy. As the work package leader of a large 3-year Nordic action research project, he combines first-hand industrial insights from leading Nordic companies with novel research frameworks and tools.

Presentation 16:25 - 17:00

Q&A – digital technologies for circular value chains

Circular Economy ICT

Deep dive session

Digital technologies and novel data sources

26/10/2020, 17:30 - 19:00

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Circular business models have a stronger need for data compared to linear models. Digital technologies, on the other hand, enable access to a broad range of novel data sources and provide transparent insights into the value chain. That creates opportunities for new business approaches and circular management of materials and products. We need to think beyond current needs, however, exploring options enabled by digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, and earth observation.

Chaired by

Karl Vrancken

VITO

Research Manager Sustainable Materials

Presentation 17:35 - 17:50

Artificial Intelligence and remote sensing for marine plastics detection and identification

Marine plastics have become a severe environmental problem, with a considerable negative impact on marine biodiversity and human health. To act upon this problem, it is essential to have a better view on the actual problem and have standardised methods for following up implemented measures. Remote observations, either from satellites, drones or fixed cameras can be used to identify plastic litter exploiting spectral information in the images and using Artificial Intelligence techniques.

Els Knaeps

VITO

Expert

Els Knaeps graduated from the university of Leuven (BE) and Purdue (US) in 2005. She holds a master’s degree in Geography and a second master’s degree in GIS and Remote Sensing. Els started her professional career as a researcher at VITO and gained a wide experience in coastal and inland water quality monitoring, with a focus on atmospheric correction, suspended sediment retrieval in turbid and highly turbid waters and marine plastics monitoring. In 2008, Els became Project Manager Water and Coastal Applications within the VITO Remote Sensing Unit.

Presentation 17:50 - 18:05

Why organizations should consider data-driven and user-centric models ?

More than 10 years ago, Adobe drove its own transformation, switching from a licensing model to a subscription model. We will see how such a transformation involves deep organization, technology and business model changes to succeed and what the benefits are.

Paul Corman

Adobe

Digital Strategist

Formerly a Senior Consultant in Digital Transformation at Thales, and now a Digital Strategist at Adobe, Paul Corman leverages Business, Marketing and IT expertise to advise top-level management about Digital Strategy.

Because today Digital can’t be considered without holistic consideration, Paul’s purpose is to help clients to achieve business impact through digital transformation and build a strategy to capitalize upon digital opportunities and existing technologies. To achieve that, organisations need to offer a better experience to their customers and business users, with technology as an enabler.

Presentation 18:05 - 18:20

Circular Economy accelerated by Digital Transformation: SAP’s Point of View

SAP is the market leader in enterprise application software, helping companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 77% of the world’s transaction revenue touches an SAP system. Raik will present the current software technology trends at waste, recycling, and environmental services companies. SAP’s goal is to help such companies so that we accelerate the transformation to a Circular Economy.

Raik Kulinna

SAP

Global Lead for Waste, Recycling, and Environmental Services

Raik Kulinna is globally responsible for the solution management for waste, recycling, and environmental services companies at SAP. Furthermore, he drives SAP’s innovation technologies for utilities and waste & recycling companies.

Presentation 18:20 - 18:35

Digital platforms and industrial ontologies for circular economy challenges: MANU-Square H2020 platform perspective

The MANU-SQUARE (MANUfacturing ecoSystem of QUAlifiedResources Exchange) project creates a European platform-enabled ecosystem acting as a virtual marketplace to achieve optimal matching between available manufacturing capabilities to production needs. This platform boosts and optimises the creation of innovative, sustainable and circular business networks, reintroducing and optimising the loop of unused resources that would be wasted otherwise. This platform features semantic matchmaking between supply and demand, based on the use of industrial ontologies, semantic descriptions of manufacturing resources, and inference rules. As a result, this platform overcomes the shortcomings of traditional approaches for matching supply and demand of manufacturing resources. Among the platform’s many advantages in real-world scenarios are manufacturing knowledge sharing, and the development and use of industrial ontologies.

Marko Vujasinovic

Innova

Senior consultant

Marko Vujasinovic (PhD) is a senior consultant at Innova Srl Rome and is specialised in technologies and platforms for eHealth and eManufacturing. Marko has nearly twenty years of international experience in applied R&D. His most recent experience includes technical contributions in the EU-funded projects NIMBLE (Collaboration Network for Industry, Manufacturing, Business and Logistics in Europe), MANU-SQUARE (MANUfacturing ecoSystem of QUAlified Resources Exchange) and DigiPrime (Digital Platform for Circular Economy in Cross-sectorial Sustainable Value Networks). Before Marko joined Innova, he held a guest researcher position at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (United States), where he worked in the fields of enterprise systems interoperability and manufacturing systems integration, based on the use of ontologies and other semantic technologies.

Presentation 18:35 - 19:00

Q&A – digital technologies and novel data sources

Energy

Deep dive session

Environmental impacts of geothermal energy

26/10/2020, 15:15 - 16:45

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While geothermal sources could play a significant role in ensuring access to energy for all, production today is only at 7% of the estimated global potential. Negative perceptions raise concerns with decision-makers and potential investors about the possible environmental impact and risks of deep geothermal energy production. Social resistance often results in significant slowdowns to the deployment of deep geothermal resources. Life cycle assessment of geothermal projects is the best way to address these concerns and to guarantee deep geothermal energy production complies with environmental regulations.

Chaired by

Philippe Dumas

European Geothermal Energy Council

Secretary General

Since September 2008, Philippe Dumas is the Secretary General of the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC), an international association founded in May 1998 and based in Brussels, Belgium.
EGEC unites more than 120 European companies and organisations working in the geothermal field and represents 500+ entities from 22 European countries.

The main goal of EGEC is to foster market development for geothermal energy and to work for the improvement of business conditions in Europe.

Presentation 15:20 - 15:35

Towards a sustainable society: how can geothermal help?

The heat beneath our feet has been serving mankind for thousands of years in various forms: cooking, bathing, heating. From the hot springs in Japan to the geysers in Iceland, these manifestations of the earth´s heat have become the synonym for geothermal energy. Over the past decade, countries like Costa Rica, Indonesia, the Philippines, Turkey and Kenya have taken the lead regarding the deployment of geothermal power, adding a significant amount of clean power to the energy mix in their regions.

More recently, attention and focus of policy makers around the globe is shifting to the ´heat transition´: how can we phase out fossil-fuel based heating and cooling in our society´s energy consumption in cities and industries. The focus on clean heat has turned into an opening for geothermal energy to position itself beyond electricity and is clearly on the rise as a viable solution for deep decarbonisation.

Going forward, promising technologies around lithium extraction from geothermal production sites and scalable baseload power through innovative drilling offer blueprints of where society may benefit from in the next decade. Geothermal resources can help to achieve many of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) are the three major goals served by the geothermal sector.

Marit Brommer

International Geothermal Association

Executive Director

Marit Brommer is the Executive Director of the International Geothermal Association (IGA) since 2017. She has 15 years of experience in the extractive industry where she has worked as subsurface portfolio manager. At the IGA, she is focusing on creating strong partnerships with international operating organisations and industries. She is engaged in strategic initiatives, to consistently add value to the geothermal sector by creating opportunities for geothermal development underpinning the vision of achieving a net-zero future.

IGA is a global platform representing the geothermal sector and serves 5500 members through 35 affiliated country members. Its mission is to facilitate and promote the uptake of geothermal resources. The IGA flagship, the World Geothermal Congress, takes place every three years. This congress convenes the global geothermal sector and sets the future agenda.

Presentation 15:35 - 15:50

Environmental aspects, regulation and mitigation measures of geothermal energy production

Understanding the potential for producing damages and for limiting their occurrence and consequences is a main goal of sustainable geothermal development. Through best practices and technologies, including monitoring and mitigation measures, negative environmental effects are avoided whenever possible, or otherwise minimised.

In the framework of the European GEOENVI project, the environmental effects from geothermal development have been categorised based on safeguard subjects, i.e., endpoint indicators. Potential environmental impacts and risks have then been confronted with available mitigation measures and environmental regulations at the European level and in national case studies. It appears that environmental regulation, practices and technologies are already rather comprehensive. However, some regulatory challenge has been defined for topics that raise concerns among the principal stakeholders.

A process is needed to arrive at a set of recommendations on environmental regulation, taking into account best practices of national regulations and sharing guidelines among countries.

Adele Manzzella

Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources, Italian National Research Council

Coordinator of geothermal activities and projects

Adele Manzella is a senior researcher. She has a geophysical background and is an expert in geothermal energy. Shallow and deep crustal and geothermal investigation, technical and social aspects of geothermal energy, and data organisation are her main fields of research. She coordinated two main geothermal assessment projects in Italy and actively participated in numerous European geothermal research and coordination projects.

Presentation 15:50 - 16:05

Life Cycle Assessment as a tool to determine the environmental impacts of geothermal projects

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considers deep geothermal energy as a promising way to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. Despite promising comparisons with other renewable energy sources and to address the public’s concerns regarding deep geothermal energy, it is essential to thoroughly quantify all potential environmental impacts – including the potential impact on human health or ecotoxicity.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the preferred tool to do that. It is a standardised, multi-criteria and holistic methodology to estimate the potential environmental impact of a product or system. Applying LCA to geothermal energy systems can provide reliable and scientifically robust estimates of their potential environmental impact, even though many challenges still exist to conduct an LCA.

The European GEOENVI project sought to address these challenges by developing a set of guidelines for LCA practitioners to ensure the harmonisation and comparability of future LCA studies of geothermal systems. In addition, simplified models were developed to estimate a set of environmental impacts for four types of geothermal systems, based on a limited set of input parameters in order to increase the accessibility of LCA tools for non-LCA experts. These models apply to (1) enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) for heat generation with very low direct emissions, (2) geothermal flash power plants producing electricity and a limited amount of heat from a geothermal source with moderate to high content of NCGs, (3) combined Heat and Power (CHP) geothermal plants with low direct emissions, and (4) heat production plants including a demonstration ORC producing electricity for self-consumption with very low emissions.

Melanie Douziech

Center for Observation, Impacts, Energy of MINES ParisTech

Assistant Professor

Mélanie Douziech is following a Tenure Track as an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Observation, Impacts, Energy of MINES ParisTech – PSL/ARMINES in Sophia Antipolis. Her focus lies in the development of novel tools and methodologies for the life cycle assessment of renewable energy technologies.

Within the European GEOENVI project, Mélanie Douziech has been involved in the development of environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) guidelines for geothermal systems. She has been working extensively on developing simplified models to ease the LCA of enhanced geothermal systems for heat generation. During her PhD at the Radboud University in the Netherlands, she focused on techniques to better apprehend the uncertainty and variability in the chemical footprint modelling of consumer products.

Presentation 16:05 - 16:20

Social perception of geothermal energy projects: From global challenge to local reality

Geothermal energy developers increasingly recognise the importance of non-technical dimensions for the successful implementation of projects. Both practitioners and scientists stress that the deployment of geothermal energy does not exclusively depend on technological innovation. It is also crucial to consider social aspects when planning geothermal infrastructures.

Having recognised that geothermal energy projects impact on local communities, social dimensions have gained importance in the planning of such projects: whereas those projects may provide benefits, they might also bring some risks. However, existing studies have highlighted that the acceptance of projects does not simply depend on the balance between the benefits for a community and the risks this community might have to bear. Project acceptance is rather linked to local stakeholders’ perception of the project and how this project relates to the local context.

It is therefore crucial to understand the key factors influencing the perception of geothermal energy projects, discuss how to take them into account in strategic planning and review the potential tools and approaches.

Olivier Ejderyan

ETH Zürich, Department of Environmental Systems Science

Senior Researcher

Olivier Ejderyan is a human geographer at the Transdisciplinarity Lab of the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH Zürich. He is also affiliated with the Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research – Supply of Electricity (SCCER-SoE).

Olivier’s research deals with the socio-political dimensions of geothermal energy. It looks at how social perception and discourses shapes conflicts and controversies in deep geothermal energy development. His research contributes to the governance of deep geothermal energy policies and projects through guidelines to better take into account local social characteristics.

Olivier participated in several interdisciplinary research projects on geothermal energy and conducted or supervised research on the social dimensions of geothermal energy in Switzerland, France, UK, Chile, and South Korea.

Presentation 16:20 - 16:35

Two views from practice

After the presentations brought by researchers on the environmental and societal aspects of the production and use of geothermal energy, two scientists involved in the development of VITO’s geothermal projects in Mol (Belgium) and other projects in France, will present reflections as practitioners and operators of geothermal energy.

Ben Laenen

VITO

Research Coordinator

Ben Laenen graduated as a geologist in 1992 and obtained a PhD in Sciences – Geology in 1997 at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). After his PhD, Ben Laenen worked as a post-Doc at the University of Köln (Germany). During that time, he studied secondary oil migration in the Bashaw Reef complex (Alberta, Canada).

Since 2000, Ben Laenen works as a researcher at VITO. He started as a junior researcher the Energy department, mainly working on GIS-related project, data management and 3D subsurface modelling. From 2006 till 2010, he worked as project leader in the Resources group, planning and coordinating projects in the fields of geological exploration, gas and CO2 storage, waste conversion using CO2 and geothermal energy.

From 2005 onwards, he worked as a geologist and geothermal expert in several geothermal projects in several European countries, Canada, China and Rwanda. Since September 2010, Ben Laenen is a research coordinator. In that position, he was one of the founders of VITO’s geothermal test site at Balmatt (Mol, Belgium). He is now responsible for defining and elaborating VITO’s strategic research programs in the fields of deep geology and geothermal energy.

Albert Genter

ES-Geothermie, Electricité de Strasbourg

Deputy General Manager

Since 2014, Dr Albert Genter is the Deputy General Manager of ES-Géothermie, a subsidiary of Electricité de Strasbourg (ES) located in Alsace (Franc). ES-Géothermie is operating the Soultz-sous-Forêts and the Rittershoffen geothermal power plants since 2016.

Albert Genter has 34 years of experience in deep geothermal energy. As a structural geologist, his main expertise is fractured reservoirs in crystalline rocks with a special focus on Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). As a scientist, Albert Genter is involved in R&D and industrial geothermal projects throughout France and Europe. He is involved in the full life cycle of geothermal projects and contributes to the exploration, drilling operation, stimulation and exploitation of reservoirs, with a special focus on the environment impact.

Presentation 16:27 - 16:35

A view from practice – Challenges for operating Enhanced Geothermal System plants in the Upper Rhine Graben with high environmental responsibility

Geothermal energy is a promising renewable energy source in the Upper Rhine Graben. Several deep industrial geothermal plants or projects are in operation or under development in this area. Such projects could significantly contribute to the decarbonisation of the energy sector by producing electricity, heat at high temperature (>160°C) and co-producing decarbonised lithium dissolved in the geothermal fluids.

However, the life cycle of such geothermal projects being at least over 20 years, geothermal plants are seriously regulated by mining authorities. That is done to monitor the possible hydro-mechanical impacts of exploited geothermal reservoirs, such as induced seismicity or unexpected vertical movement like subsidence or uplift (GPS survey), such as the Rittershoffen geothermal plant located in the French part of the Upper Rhine Graben.

During geothermal exploitation, such operating plants tend to produce zero CO2 emissions by adopting suitable technical mitigation measures. For example, the natural fluids being rich in dissolved gas like CO2, geothermal plants are designed with operating pressure over 20 bar to keep CO2 in solution. After more than four years of continuous geothermal exploitation in Ritterhoffen, no damages have been observed, no induced seismicity has been felt, and the geothermal plant is producing with a sustainable availability over 95%. In parallel, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has shown that the CO2 emissions are below 6g of CO2 per kWh, demonstrating that a geothermal plant can contribute to decarbonisation with minimised environmental impacts for local citizens.

Albert Genter

ES-Geothermie, Electricité de Strasbourg

Deputy General Manager

Presentation 16:35 - 16:45

Q&A – Environmental impacts of geothermal energy

Plenary

Plenary session

High-level inaugural session

26/10/2020, 13:30 - 15:00

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Five years ago, world leaders adopted the 17 SDGs at the UN Sustainable Development Summit, triggering an ambitious global action programme to move the world onto a more economically sustainable, socially equitable, and environmentally sound development path.

With just ten years to go, it’s becoming ever more clear that achieving these SDGs with business-as-usual is just not possible. Nearly 700 million people do not have access to safe drinking water while essential health services are out of reach for at least 50% of the world’s population, to give but two examples. Breakthrough technological transformations are urgently needed.

To set the scene, high-level representatives from countries championing technological transformation and innovation for the SDGs provide their perspective on why deep changes are needed, how they can be enabled and be deployed to work for the benefit of all.

Presentation 13:30 - 13:35

Introduction video

The three previous editions of the G-STIC conference successfully helped putting technological transformations for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the international policy agenda, and strengthened the global commitment toward processes that advance Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for the SDGs.

A short introduction video captures the vision, spirit and key outputs emanating from these past conference editions.

Panel discussion 13:35 - 13:40

Welcome by two conference hosts

Dirk Fransaer

VITO

Managing Director

Dirk Fransaer is a Belgian engineer and the Managing Director of VITO since 2001. He graduated as a civil engineer at the University of Ghent (Belgium) in 1980 and as a biomedical engineer at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) in 1985.

VITO is a nonprofit research and technology organization in Belgium, focusing on today’s major societal challenges. From climate change and food security to sustainable energy and resource scarcity, VITO’s research agenda focuses on helping governments and companies around the world to initiate societal transitions in line with Agenda 2030 and its associated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In his capacity as Managing Director of VITO, Dirk Fransaer has been standing at the forefront of technological innovation for sustainable development for almost two decades. Dirk Fransaer’s vision and leadership turned VITO into one of the leading technological research institutions around the world, with over 800 employees from 45 different countries.

Kris Verhellen

Extensa

CEO

Francesca Vanthielen

Moderator

Keynote presentation 13:40 - 13:50

Why do we need deep technological transitions to achieve the SDGs and climate goals?

The scenarios depicted in the Limits to Growth report (commissioned by the Club of Rome, 1972) have proven to be all too true and scarily precise, while the Agenda 21 action plan of the United Nations (1992) already described the intention and spirit of many of the SDGs. If we were not able to deviate from the business-as-usual path towards greater sustainability during the last 27 years, how can we possibly achieve the SDGs in 11 years?

The answer to this key question is simple: drastic changes are needed, of which technological changes represent one critical dimension. Changes in the social, financial, regulatory, institutional systems are urgently needed as well, and financial inclusion is of vital importance.

H.E. Jairam Ramesh

Member of Rajya Sabha (Upper House)

Former Minister of Environment of India

Jairam Ramesh is a well-known economist, government official and senior pioneer of the Indian National Congress. He is a Member of Parliament representing Andhra Pradesh state, a position he has held since June 2004.

In 2011, Jairam Ramesh was elevated to the Union Council of Ministers of India and appointed Minister of Rural Development and Minister of the new Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Between May 2009 and July 2011, he was Minister of State at the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Mr. Ramesh has been a columnist for The Business Standard, Business Today, The Telegraph, The Times and India Today, and has also anchored a number of popular television programmes on business and the economy. In addition, Jairam Ramesh is the author of the books: “Making Sense of Chindia: Reflections on China and India” (2005), foreword by Strobe Talbott, “Mobilising Technology for World Development” (Co-editor, 1979), “To the Brink and Back: India’s 1991 Story” (2015) and “Old History, New Geography” (2016).

Keynote presentation 13:50 - 14:00

Impact of the EU policy on the SDGs in times of COVID-19

H.E. Paolo Gentiloni

European Commission

Commissioner for Economy

Paolo Gentiloni has been appointed European Commissioner for Economy in 2019. His primary responsibilities include the coordination of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in the context of the European Semester cycle of economic governance, and further deepening the European Economic and Monetary Union.

Commissioner Gentiloni is coordinating the launch of the InvestEU programme and setting up and implementing the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan. He leads international efforts to find an agreed approach on the taxation of the digital economy and pursuing efforts to make a common consolidated corporate tax base a reality in the EU. In the framework of the European Green Deal, he is leading the review of the Energy Taxation Directive and preparing the proposal for a Carbon Border Tax.

Before his appointment as EU Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni has been a Member of the Italian Chamber of Deputies since 2001. He was Prime Minister of Italy from 2016 to 2018, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation from 2014 to 2016, Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2014 and Minister of Communications from 2006 to 2008. As a former professional journalist, he has also been the Chairman of the Broadcasting Services Watchdog Committee from 2005 to 2006 and a spokesperson for the Mayor and Commissioner in the City of Rome from 1993 to 2000.

Keynote presentation 14:00 - 14:10

Accelerating the transition to a sustainable economy in the UAE

H.E. Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri

United Arab Emirates

Minister of Economy

Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri was appointed Minister of Economy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) under the new government structure approved in July 2020. Prior to his appointment, Al Marri held important positions in the government as a senior, top-ranking official.

He was the Secretary General of the UAE Cabinet since 2017, during
which he was instrumental in strengthening the interdependence between the federal and local governments. In this role, he also spearheaded many initiatives to get the pulse of the people and know their sentiments, as well as build the UAE’s long-lasting relations with
international organizations such as the World Economic Forum.

He is also the former Director General of the Executive Office of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He was part of the high-profile team that was behind the launch of ‘Area 2071’, the nucleus of the future envisioned in the UAE Centennial Plan 2071. Furthermore, the UAE Minister of Economy, in his previous post, took part in the unveiling of the Hatta Economic Zone development project and the relaunching of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Leadership Development.

In addition, he was the CEO of the Dubai Future Foundation, enabling him to play a vital role in the successful launch of Dubai 10X and other initiatives of national importance. The Dubai 10X initiative, in particular, aims to strengthen the emirate’s bid to become the city of the future.

Al Marri is a member of the Boards of Directors of different federal entities. His memberships allow him to actively support the development of priority sectors in the country such as the Golden Visa initiative, which seeks to attract talented individuals from across the world.

The UAE Minister of Economy holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Sheffield in the UK. Also, he is a graduate of the UAE Government Leaders Program and Mohammed Bin Rashid Center for Leadership Development.

Keynote presentation 14:10 - 14:20

How can technological innovations transform the Industrial and economic infrastructure?

H.E. Jan Jambon

Government of Flanders

Minister-President, Flemish Minister for Foreign Policy, Culture, IT and Facilities

Since September 2018, Jan Jambon is the Minister-President of the Government of Flanders and Flemish Minister for Foreign Policy, Culture, IT and Facilities. Before that, he has been a Member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Security and the Interior of Belgium.

Jan Jambon started his professional career working as a System Engineer and Account Manager at IBM between 1984 and 1992. Jambon graduated from the Vrije Universiteit in Brussels. He holds a Master degree in Computer Science and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Antwerp.

Panel discussion 14:20 - 14:55

Roundtable: Living the change

Champions of change from different sectors of society will zoom in on specific integrated technological solutions that are already deployed at scale. Real-life examples will highlight how new technologies require new approaches, new ways of doing things, new institutes, new laws and regulation and new funding mechanisms. In doing so, these world-renowned speakers will share with the G-STIC audience how they are making change happen and how they overcome the challenges related to upscaling these solutions.

Nikhil Seth

UNITAR

Executive Director

Nikhil Seth was appointed UN Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in 2015 by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as UN Assistant Secretary-General.

Before assuming the post of the UNITAR Executive Director, Nikhil Seth was the Director of the Division for Sustainable Development, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) at the United Nations Secretariat in New York. In this role he served as head of the Rio+20 secretariat and of the secretariat for the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States, spearheading the preparations for these conferences in Rio, Brazil, and Apia, Samoa.

Under Seth’s direction, UN-DESA was also responsible for supporting the intergovernmental negotiations for the post-2015 development agenda, which was adopted at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit 2015 in September 2015.

Seth started his career with the United Nations in 1993. He served as Special Assistant and Chief of Office to the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs from September 1993 to June 2001, as Chief of the Policy Coordination Branch in the Division for ECOSOC Support and Coordination from June 2001 to January 2003, as Secretary of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the Second Committee of the General Assembly from February 2003 to August 2006, and as Director of the DESA Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination from August 2006 to August 2011. In this function, he guided the ECOSOC’s work in implementing several new key mandates, including its Annual Ministerial Review and Development Cooperation Forum.

Before joining the UN Secretariat, Seth was a delegate to the UN in the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations and involved with various UN conferences and summits including the Rio Summit on Environment and Development and the climate change related process. After joining the UN, he has been involved in the organisation of the Copenhagen Summit on Social Development, the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development, the Mauritius Conference on Small Island Developing States, the Millennium Summit, World Summit on Sustainable Development and the UN World Summit, beside the Rio+20 Conference.

Satya Tripathi

UN Environment Programme

UN Assistant Secretary-General, Head of the New York Office

Satya Tripathi is UN Assistant Secretary-General and Head of New York Office at UN Environment. Being a development economist and lawyer with over 35 years of varied experience, Tripathi has served with the UN since 1998 in key positions in Europe, Asia and Africa in the areas of Climate Change, Human Rights, Democratic Governance and Legal Affairs.

He was Chair of the Committees on Laws, Treaties and Administrative matters for the UN-mediated Cyprus unification talks in 2004. As the UN Recovery Coordinator for Aceh and Nias, he facilitated international cooperation and funding of over US$ 7 billion for post-tsunami and post-conflict recovery efforts in support of the Indonesian government and affected populations. He has also been the Executive Head of UNORCID, a UN System Office of 10 UN Agencies established by the UN Secretary General in 2011 to facilitate the implementation of a US$ 1 Billion REDD+ partnership between Indonesia, Norway and other stakeholders on climate change mitigation and adaptation through the conservation of forests and preservation of peat-land and bio-diversity.

Tripathi was instrumental in establishing the Tropical Landscapes Finance Facility (TLFF) in Indonesia in 2016 and the Sustainable India Finance Facility (SIFF) in 2017 to leverage ‘private finance for public good’ at mega-scale to achieve transformative social and environmental impact in developing countries. He previously served on the World Economic Forum’s Global Advisory Council on Forests; and in India as a member of its national civil service.

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele

UCLouvain

Professor of climatology and sustainable development sciences

H.E. Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti

African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States

Secretary-General

Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti has devoted almost 30 years of his professional career to diplomacy and international relations, in an incredibly complex and challenging global environment for Angola, a young independent state at the time.

This long experience allowed him to enhance his negotiation and dialogue skills. His action, know-how, unwavering commitment, and dedication have significantly impacted democracy in Angola and led to the international recognition of Angola as a major player in the achievement of political stability in Africa and the world.

His leadership is acknowledged at national and international levels. His experience in crisis management allowed him to successfully fulfil his mission at the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) where he chaired the Inter-Ministerial Committee.

Since 1993 and for almost 25 years, Mr Chikoti has participated in all sessions of the United Nations General Assembly, and the Executive Council (Council of Ministers), as well as the Summit sessions of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union (AU).

At the regional level, he has actively participated in key Ministerial and Summit-level meetings of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), while also being an advocate for these institutions at the international level.

In 2013, he represented the Republic of Angola at the BRICS Summit in Durban, South Africa, during which the strategic partnership between the New Partnership for Development in Africa (NEPAD) and the BRICS Member States was defined. During the same year, Mr Chikoti led the Angolan Delegation at the 5th Tokyo International Conference for Development in Africa (TICAD).

In 2018, he was appointed as a member of the Team of Facilitators in the Political Dialogue process in South Sudan.

During his tenure as Deputy Minister and as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Angola was twice elected a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (2003-2004; 2015-2016). During these periods, he served as the regional spokesperson for Peace and Security in Africa, while also promoting the African agenda at the international level.

Erik Novaes

AB InBev

Vice President Sustainability

Erik Novaes is an experienced Supply Chain professional, currently leading Procurement and Sustainability for AB InBev’s European Zone. With robust and varied professional experience across Latin American and Eurasian markets, Erik has spent the last 17 years dedicated to delivering value on the ground at AB InBev, holding roles in Logistics and Manufacturing through Procurement, Procurement Performance and Sustainability. Erik was appointed to Vice President for Procurement and Sustainability Europe in January 2020, managing the purchase of goods and services that go into brewing great beers for more than 50 million European, Russian and Ukrainian consumers every day.

Erik holds a Bachelor in Business and an MSc in Transportation Engineering from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro – UFRJ.

Kehkashan Basu

Green Hope Foundation

Founder President & Youth Ambassador World Future Council

Iconic youth leader, global influencer, champion of children and women’s rights, peace and sustainability campaigner, 20-year-old Kehkashan Basu is a trailblazer who has been challenging the status quo and the social strictures that impede the progress of future generations.

Winner of the 2016 International Children’s Peace Prize, Kehkashan is a tireless advocate for the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the youngest recipient of Canada’s Top25 Women of Influence. She is a United Nations Human Rights Champion, a National Geographic Young Explorer, the youngest ever Global Coordinator for the UN Environment Program’s Major Group for Children & Youth, and a Climate Reality Mentor. She is also a TEDx speaker, an author, musician and the Founder President of the global social innovation enterprise Green Hope Foundation. Green Hope Foundation works in 16 countries empowering young people, especially those from vulnerable communities, in the sustainable development process.

Kehkashan is the recipient of the inaugural 2020 Voices Youth Award for Peace, a 2020 L’Oreal Women of Worth Honouree and a winner of the 2019 Innovator of the Year Award, the John Muir Conservation Award for Habitat Restoration, the Energy Globe Award and the Turner Prize for Social Change. She has recently been featured as one of the Top100 SDG Leaders of the world. A powerful voice for future generations, she has spoken at over 200 global forums across 25 countries.

Francesca Vanthielen

Moderator

Presentation 14:55 - 15:00

Closing remarks

Dirk Fransaer

VITO

Managing Director

Climate

Deep dive session

CO2 as a resource

26/10/2020, 17:00 - 18:30

The IPCC’s ambition to limit temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrial levels not only requires the gradual reduction of CO2 emissions from industry, fuel burning and land use. CO2 capture and valorisation strategies need to be deployed as well. While Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) pathways are a postponement of CO2 emissions, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) from industrial point sources is considered as feedstock supply. Direct Air Capture (DAC) would imply an upgrade from a pure CO2-emission-avoiding tool to a net-zero-emission tool in the battle against climate change.

Plenary Water

Special session

EUROPEAN PREMIERE BRAVE BLUE WORLD

26/10/2020, 18:55 - 20:45

Watch this session

The Brave Blue World documentary paints an optimistic picture of how humanity is adopting new technologies and innovations to re-think how we manage water.

Brave Blue World is supported by its production partners WEF, DuPont Water Solutions, Suez and L’Oréal, its impact partners Xylem and aqualia, and its collaboration partners Water.org and the Water Alliance.

This exclusive European premiere, organised by Capture (Centre for Advanced Process Technology for Urban REsource recovery), Vlakwa (Flanders Knowledge Center Water) in collaboration with B-IWA (Belgian committee of the International Water Association), watercircle.be (Flemish Water Technology Network) and Aquaflanders (Federation of Flemish water companies and sewer managers), will be followed by a high-level panel discussion.

Presentation 19:00 - 19:45

Documentary Brave Blue World

Paul O’Callaghan, a water industry expert and the CEO of BlueTech Research, visites sites around the world that are employing novel ways of tackling existing water problems. As he meets with pioneers and innovators who are addressing global water and sanitation challenges, their stories reveal a hopeful future for our most precious resource.

Panel discussion 19:45 - 20:40

High-level debate: opportunities for the water sector enabled by new technologies

Paul O'Callaghan

Blue Tech Research

Founder & CEO, Executive Producer Brave Blue World

After being awarded a biochemistry degree, Paul O’Callaghan worked for the Body Shop alongside the pioneering environmentalist Anita Roddick. Paul then volunteered for the World Wildlife Fund in Malaysia, after which he completed a Master’s degree and returned to research the effects that deforestation was having on water quality.

Paul’s next role was with Atkins, one of the globally leading engineering management consultancies. Whilst working as an engineering consultant, he observed the prolonged length of time it took to bring water technologies to the marketplace. As a result, he founded BlueTech Research in 2011 with a clear mission to support innovation.

Paul’s latest project, the Brave Blue World documentary, is designed to increase awareness of existing solutions for the water crisis. He co-produced the documentary that has attracted support from a host of A-list celebrities. Paul regularly lectures and has recently spoken at Davos 2020, Web Summit 2020 and at Harvard and Cambridge Universities. He advises many global Fortune 500 corporates including L’Oréal, Microsoft and PepsiCo on their water strategy policies. He is currently also studying for a PhD in Water Innovation.

Egbert Lox

Umicore

Senior Vice President

Egbert Lox earned his MSc (1982) and PhD (1987) in Chemical Engineering at the University of Ghent (Belgium). He joined the central research laboratories of Degussa AG (Germany) in 1987, where he built up the R&D group for automotive emission control catalysts and assumed consecutive management levels in that area till 2006.

From 2006 to 2012, Egbert Lox took care of the management of the corporate R&D team of Umicore, which deploys its activities in Belgium and Germany. Between 2013 and September 2020, he assumed the position of Senior Vice-President Government Affairs, based in Umicore’s headquarters in Brussels (Belgium). Since October 2020, he is Senior Vice-President assigned to the Chief Technical Officer.

Egbert Lox represents Umicore in the Board or Executive Committee of several industry associations in Belgium, France, Germany and the EU. He lectures on automotive emission control catalysts, amongst other subjects, at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany. In 2015, he was granted the honorary professorship at this university.

He is a permanent member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Arts (KVAB) and an elected member of the Academia Scientiarum et Artium Europaea (EASA, Salzburg, Austria).

Christiane Malcorps

Solvay

Global Head of Facility Excellence

Veronica Manfredi

European Commission

Director for Quality of Life in DG Environment

Francesca Vanthielen

Moderator

Food Water

Deep dive session

Technology mix for sustainable irrigation

26/10/2020, 09:30 - 11:30

Watch this session

Anywhere around the world, sustainable irrigation is critical for realising food and water security. Even if technological solutions with significant water saving potential have been in play for some time, upscaling their use has been challenging in various hydrogeological and socio-economic conditions. Hence, most regions continue to suffer from low efficiency in irrigation water use. Enhancing that efficiency requires more than deploying technologies such as micro-irrigation systems, digital tools, and solar-powered water pumps. It demands a mix combining the use of technologies and best practices with effective policies and sustainable finance mechanisms, as well as inclusive water management.

Chaired by

Alok Sikka

International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

IWMI Representative India & Principal Researcher

Alok K. Sikka is with the International Water Management Institute, Delhi Office as IWMI Representative-India since April, 2016. Prior to joining IWMI, he served as Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Technical Expert (Watershed Development) (in the rank of Additional Secretary to Govt. of India), National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), Planning Commission, Government of India, New Delhi. He was Director of ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, Patna and Basin Coordinator for Indo-Gangetic Basin under the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food from 2002-2007. He is Ph. D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering with specialisation in Hydrology and Water Resources Engineering from Utah State University, Logan, Utah.

Besides working with ICAR for many years at the Indian Institute of Soil & Water Conservation, Dehradun and its Research Centres, he was with the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee; visiting Professor at University of Arizona, Tucson; and Faculty at the Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA. He has more than 251 publications and is recipient of many national awards including Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He has a rich and diverse experience of over 38 years in research, institutional and policy issues, teaching, training, extension and consultancy in the areas of natural resource management, soil & water conservation, watershed management, water harvesting, hydrologic modelling, water management, drought management, climate change, water productivity and farming systems.

Presentation 09:30 - 09:45

Opening remarks: Technology mix for sustainable irrigation

Alok Sikka

International Water Management Institute (IWMI)

IWMI Representative India & Principal Researcher

Presentation 09:45 - 10:00

Keynote address by Shri U. P. Singh

Shri U.P. Singh

Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, Goverment of India

Secretary

Shri U.P. Singh is a 1985 batch Indian Administrative Service Officer of Odisha Cadre. He did his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT, Kanpur. Having hold important assignments in both Central and State Governments, he possesses rich and varied experience.

He joined the Ministry of Water Resources & River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation on 1.6. 2016 as Additional Secretary and also held the post of Mission Director, National Water Mission (NWM). Later he assumed the charge of Director General, National Mission for Cleaning Ganga (NMCG) on 7.10.2016. Prior to joining the Ministry of Water Resources, RD & GR he worked as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. He has the experience of working in different sectors like Water Resources, Finance, Steel and Transport.

Presently he is Secretary in the Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Ministry of Jal Shakti, w.e.f. 1.12.2017. He is deeply involved in policy, planning and management of water resources in India. He oversees the implementation of PMKSY Projects, Inter-Linking of Rivers, two World Bank funded projects, viz. National Hydrology Project and National Ground Water Management and Improvement Scheme. These projects envisage revolutionizing water resources management in the country.

Presentation 10:00 - 10:15

Succes stories on agri-irrigation technology in Israel

Dan Alluf will discuss the technologies and the research in the area of irrigation water use in Israel and illustrate this with regional examples of replications. He will highlight his experience & success stories in implementing Israeli know-how & agri-irrigation technology solutions and collaborative business models in Indian fields and other parts of the world.

Dan Alluf

Embassy of Israel

MASHAV Counsellor, Science and Agriculture

Dan Alluf heads the Agriculture and Water segments at the embassy of Israel in India & Sri-Lanka. He brings 17 years of Managerial Experience in both Private and Public sectors across global markets, with specialisation in Drip-irrigation and Water Management. Dan holds a Master degree of Business Administration and a B.Sc. graduate in Plant Science, Agriculture Economy & Marketing. He is team leader of the Agriculture ISRAEL-INDIA Government-to-Government cooperation, the “INDO-ISRAEL AGRICULTURAL PROJECT” (IIAP) and the “INDO-ISRAEL VILLAGES OF EXCELEENCE” (IIVOE) in cooperation with MIDH GOI and State governments. He heads the water cooperation on the Israel- India Government-to-Government level and leads the “INDIA-ISRAEL BUNDELKHAND WATER PROJECT” in cooperation with Govt. of India, Uttar Pradesh Govt. & JAL SHAKTI GOI.

Presentation 10:15 - 10:30

Adaptive Measures in Farm Level Water Management for Higher WUEs

Globally, rising temperatures will translate into increased crop water demand. Therefore, special impetus should be given towards mitigation at farm-level by enhancing the capabilities of community-adopted climate-resilient technological options. Together with an approach at a catchment level, this will help to increase the overall efficiency of water use.

The relative quantities of water being lost at the different levels in an irrigation system needs to be considered carefully and measures should be taken to reduce the losses and manage the water resources efficiently. The largest volume of water lost is normally at the field level, where both the irrigated surface area and percolation losses below the root zone are high. The second major loss of water happens at during the distribution of water from field-to-field in the field channels.

The Climate Adapt Project (funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway and coordinated by NIBIO, Norway), AP Micro Irrigation Project (funded by NABARD, India), Base line studies on Water Use Efficiencies of Irrigation Projects (Funded by Govt. of India) have made significant contributions to capacity building, design and implementation of various measures to improve water use efficiency in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in India. The outcomes from these projects have helped in developing policy guidelines and wider adaptation of efficiency measures in the two states.

Kaluvai Yella Reddy

International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID)

Vice President

Kaluvai Yella Reddy is the Dean (Faculty of Agril. Engg & Technology) of ANGR Agricultural University, Andhra Pradesh, India. He has more than 35 years of experience in teaching, research, project management and administration. He obtained B.Tech (Agril Engg) from Dr PDKV, Akola, M.Tech and Ph.D degrees from IIT, Kharagpur and PG Diploma from University of Arizona, USA.

As Principal Investigator, he developed Solar Powered Micro Irrigation System in 2002 with the financial support of Govt of India.
As Project Manager, he successfully completed $ 3.5 million FAO funded AP Water Management Project.
As Technical Advisor to Andhra Pradesh Micro Irrigation Project (APMIP), he strengthened and supported the $ 570 million project in achieving 1.1 million ha under MI systems in 10 years.
As Director of WALAMTARI, Hyderabad (2012-2018) he contributed for the growth of the Institute as one of the best in India.
He organized over 25 national and international conferences and workshops and Published over 120 scientific papers.
He received the ‘International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage ICID WATSAVE Technology Award’ in the 20th Congress of ICID held in Lahore (2008).
He was elected as Vice-President of (ICID) in the 68th International Executive Committee meeting held in Mexico City in Oct 2017.

He visited more than 20 countries on official and technical assignments.

Presentation 10:30 - 10:45

Waterwise: A Plant Based Sensor and Advanced Analytics Approach for Refining Irrigation Scheduling

Across irrigation industries, there remain significant opportunities to improve yield and water use efficiency with accurate irrigation timing. Efficient irrigation relies on determining crop water status and predictions of future crop water needs. Through the CSIRO Digiscape “WaterWise” initiative we have developed a series of advanced analytics platforms that combine the use of monitored and forecasted crop water stress status (reliant on continuous canopy temperature measurements and weather data) to provide necessary information on irrigation timing. Improved accuracy in these decisions is supported by utilising underpinning knowledge of crops’ physiological response to temperature. The initiative is developing approaches to speed up the application of this technology for use in other irrigated crops (a minimum toolbox approach). Currently, WaterWise is being evaluated using a web-based application linked to real-time sensors, and it is intended that these systems will form part of an integrated approach to irrigation management.

Rose Brodrick

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO)

Research Scientist

Rose Brodrick, Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Canberra Australia. Dr Brodrick’s research is focused on developing new technologies and integrated digital systems for the agricultural industry to improve farm productivity. Her primary research area is using sensing technology (in-field, aerial and satellite) to develop solutions for crop management. The teams Dr Brodrick leads are working on projects to responding to challenges generated by drought, variable and changing climates, by developing and delivering new knowledge, technologies and system solutions tailored to assisting in on-farm decision making.

Brodrick has 20 years of experience in working with irrigators (cotton, tomatoes, sugarcane, tree crops) to develop management solutions in irrigated agriculture. Her research into crop physiology and agronomy has led to changes in production practices within the Australian Cotton Industry, and she has strong collaborations with researcher overseas. Dr Brodrick leads the CSIRO’s WaterWise Project that brings together a multi-disciplinary team that are developing digital solutions for precision irrigation in high-value crops as part of the CSIRO’s Digiscape Future Science Platform. Ultimately the aim is for these systems to part of a fully integrated irrigation toolbox for growers delivering savings in water that can be used to boost productivity or increase cropping area.

Presentation 10:45 - 11:00

Cloud based Irrigation Management

Manna, an irrigation intelligence leader, provides growers around the world with the actionable information they need to make better-informed and more confident irrigation decisions. Its sensor-free, software-only approach leverages high-resolution, frequently refreshed satellite data and hyper-local weather information to deliver highly affordable and accessible solutions for site-specific irrigation recommendations.
In order to increase water use efficiency of Micro-irrigation systems and conventional flood irrigation, farmers need to have accurate forecasts & estimates of water requirement for crops on real-time basis i.e minimum weekly basis. This helps farmers apply precise amounts of water to the crop based on farm conditions as well crop conditions and resulting in increased production, increased quality of production and savings in water & electricity.
At present, more than 2000 Indian Farmers (Area -4000 Ha), are using this software and have received excellent results.

Sangita Ladha

RIVULIS Irrigation India Pvt Ltd.

Director-Business

DSangita Ladha is M-Tech – Agricultural Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur and Doctorate in Agricultural Development. She has been spearheading operations with leading organisations in Irrigation and Water Management and is currently associated with Rivulis Irrigation India Pvt Ltd as Director Business.

Her domain expertise is Precision Farming, Automated Irrigation and Water Management, Protected
Cultivation – Green-house Technology, Agri-Value Chain Management and Digital informatics-based agro-advisory services. She has nearly 30 years of experience in the area of Design, Marketing and Business Development of Micro-irrigation Systems and in Development and Management of Practical and Innovative Indo-Dutch Training Centers for horticulture and in particular for promotion of Greenhouse Technology in the country. She has expertise in Conceptualization, Development, Marketing and Promotion of hi-tech horticulture projects, advanced and practical training programmes and handling turnkey contracts largely in the area of Greenhouse/Protected Cultivation and in Water Conservation-Drip/Sprinkler/landscape irrigation.

She was formerly Director of Indo-Dutch advanced and practical training centres in hi-tech horticulture, namely International Horticulture Innovation and Training Centre (IHITC), Jaipur and of Horticulture Training Centre, (HTC), Pune and was instrumental in bagging and execution of innovative projects under USAID and Euro-AID. She was associated with M/s Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd, as the Vice President for Marketing and Business Development and was handling Corporate affairs and Policy advocacy in New Delhi.

Presentation 11:00 - 11:15

Leveraging technologies for participatory enhancement of irrigation water use efficiency

The dominant use of water for irrigation, especially in the South Asian region that has the highest water withdrawal (about 92%) for agriculture, necessitates adopting innovative approaches and technologies to improve the current water use in irrigation sector. Creating models that can overcome the persistent barriers in the sector with widescale impact requires convergence of innovative technologies with practitioners on the ground particularly the farmers.

This presentation shall bring to the fore the potential opportunities of enhancing the irrigation water use efficiency through innovative technologies and participatory irrigation management through stakeholder prioritised interventions with an upscaling potential for a wider impact. It shall highlight some of the innovative approaches adopted to test technological solutions at the grassroot level through a participatory multi-stakeholder platform involving the local farmers in Punjab (India) and creating an attractive package of affordable & prioritized agri-water efficient interventions for crops like paddy and wheat. These prioritized interventions resulted in significant water savings (up to about 30%) as compared to the conventional farms.

The presentation shall also introduce an innovative ‘Optiflo’ technology tested in Maharashtra (India) that promises additional water savings in an existing micro-irrigation system through a pressure-independent flow controller which gives a near-constant flow rate and reduces the associated water losses.

Mr. Anshuman

Water Resources, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)

Associate Director

Jaiswal Anshuman, Associate Director, Water Resources Division of TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute) has been working in the field of water sector since last 23 years. His key qualifications include M. Tech. in energy & environmental management from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), N. Delhi (India).

His expertise in the water sector lies in the areas of Integrated water resource management (IWRM), Water use efficiency, Water audits, Water conservation & watershed management, Urban & rural water supply & demand management, Climate change and water security; Provision of drinking water, Water quality and pollution studies, Adequacy & efficiency studies of WTPs & ETPs, Water policy & regulation, Training & capacity building in water & environmental management; Environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies etc. He also has expertise in water laboratory & analytical instrumentation, quality control & ISO 9001 systems. He has carried out several comprehensive research and implementation projects in context of water resources (surface water, groundwater), issues (water scarcity, pollution, use efficiency etc.), sectors (irrigation, domestic & industrial) & stakeholders (Central/state Governments & local communities). He has presented several papers at national and international fora and has several relevant national & international publications.

He has been a member of several advisory committees. Currently he is Designated Member, Expert Committee on ‘Ecology, Environment, Earth & Ocean Sciences and Water’ (E3OW) under CSIR (Ministry of Science & Technology, GoI), Designated Member, Domain Expert Group for ‘Deployment of Water technologies’ under CSIR (Ministry of Science & Technology, GoI), Member of Sectional Committee for Water Quality for Industrial Purposes under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Member of Sectional Committee for Water Quality for Industrial Purposes under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS); Jury, National Water Awards (awarded by Ministry of Jal Shakti, GoI); Advisor, Water Digest, Jury Member, Water Digest Water Awards, Organised by Water Digest and UNESCO.

Presentation 11:15 - 11:30

Q&A – Technology mix for sustainable irrigation

Energy

Thematic session

Accelerating integrated technological solutions against background of energy transition

26/10/2020, 11:00 - 12:45

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The global energy transition must be accelerated to achieve both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change. Fulfilling future global energy needs, reducing energy poverty, increasing scarcity of fossil fuels and combating climate change pushed for a new energy paradigm driven by sustainable energy development.

During the thematic opening session, experts will discuss various aspects of the energy transition and its technological paths, including the assessment of the prospects, benefits, risks and side effects of the energy transition, as well as the energy technology path in representative typical areas with unique energy resources, such as geothermal resources. We will explore different pathways to global sustainability and enabling environments to accelerate sustainable energy development.

Chaired by

Bai Yu

Guangzhou Institution of Energy Conversion

Deputy Director, Science & Technology Division

Presentation 11:00 - 11:10

Opening remarks – Energy Session

Longlong Ma

Guangzhou Institute of Energy of Conversion (GIEC), Chinese Academy of Sciences

Director-General

Longlong MA, professor and director of Guangzhou institute of energy conversion, CAS, and selected as Leading Scientist of Ten Thousand Talents Program of China, has been working in the field of efficient transformation from biomass to bio-energy for more than 20 years. His research focuses on the liquid hydrocarbon fuels from bio-syngas, bio-oil production and up-grading from biomass pyrolysis, biofuel and chemicals from biomass feedstocks. Especially, Prof. Longlong MA devoted fundamental and application research to liquid hydrocarbon fuels such as C5/C6 alkanes, C8-C15 alkanes and aromatics from raw lignocellulosic biomass by catalysis in aqueous phase and put forward the multiphase reaction technique and dynamic liquid membrane theory. As the team leader, he has undertaken and accomplished a number of nationally important science and technology projects during 8th-13th Five-Year Plan” in China such as the National Basic Research Program, National High-tech R&D Program, Key Program for international S&T Cooperation Projects, Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China. He has published more than 230 articles, 70 patents and 8 books. Prof MA and his team have won the 2nd prize of the State Science and Technology Advancement Award once, the 1st prize of Guangdong Science and Technology Award twice, South Guangdong Innovation Award once for their outstanding work.

Ibrahim Hafeezur Rehman

VITO Arabia Science and Technology

CEO

Ibrahim Hafeezur Rehman is presently Director of India Operations of VITO and also CEO – VITO Arabia Science and Technology LLC, Dubai. VITO is an independent Flemish (Belgian) research organization in the area of clean technology and sustainable development.
With a Master in Organic Chemistry; specialization program in Environment Management from University of Manchester; and a Doctorate from University of Utrecht; Dr Rehman has over 30 years experience in the field of sustainable development in general and water and energy management in particular.
Rehman has led a large number of research and implementation projects in India and across number of other countries in the field of energy, water and environment. Rehman has served on various National and International Committees and Boards of Government/Multi-lateral organizations/Corporates. He has worked in different countries such as India, Belgium, UAE, and Thailand and led a large number of transformative Projects and Campaigns in India, Africa, South East Asia, etc. He is also a co-author of several books and has written a number scientific (and policy) papers/articles in reputed journals (including Nature) and magazines.

Keynote presentation 11:10 - 11:25

Opportunities and Risks of the Energy Transition in Germany: Present Status, Future Prospects and Stumbling Blocks

Globally, the transition towards more sustainable and less fossil-fuel intensive energy systems is made possible by technological advances, changes in business models, regulatory reforms and behavioural adaptations. In addition, resource availability, national energy security, and competitiveness priorities are also in the focus of energy policies. Deficient governance of energy systems could jeopardize both national and global economic prosperity, and advances towards sustainability in particular. While political will and public acceptance are essential, so too is a clear-eyed assessment of the prospects, benefits, risks and side effects of the energy transition.
Addressing the present situation in Germany and highlighting the accomplishments so far as well as the stumbling blocks ahead, the coupling of technological diffusion, regulatory policymaking and individual behaviour is still a problem to overcome. Most progress has been made in the electricity sector, followed by domestic heat production. The share of fossil fuel in the mobility sector has not decreased during the last decade and poses the main challenge for reaching the goal of climate neutrality in the year 2050. Furthermore, opposition towards wind generators and transition grids has become another major obstacle to the construction of renewable energy generating stations. Only when all technological, economic and social factors are aligned, the transition towards climate neutrality may be in reach within the next three decades.

Ortwin Renn

Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies

Scientific Director

Ortwin Renn serves as Scientific Director at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam (Germany). He is Professor for Technology Assessment and Environmental Sociology at the University and directs, together with Marion Dreyer and Agnes Lampke, the non-profit company DIALOGIK, a research institute for the investigation of communication and participation processes. He is Adjunct Professor for Integrated Risk Analysis at Stavanger University (Norway) and Affiliate Professor for Risk Governance at Beijing Normal University.

Renn’s main research activities at the IASS focus on the role of systemic risks as threats to sustainable development, and the structures and processes for sustainable transformations in Germany and beyond. His research is mainly directed towards transitions of energy systems and energy governance. He aims to contribute to the mission of the institute to become a highly reputable and acknowledged international centre for transdisciplinary studies on sustainable development.

Ortwin Renn holds a PhD in social psychology from the University of Cologne. His career has included teaching and research positions at the Jülich Research Centre (Germany), Clark University (Worcester, USA), the Swiss Institute of Technology (Zurich) and the Center of Technology Assessment (Stuttgart). He is a member of several boards, including the National Academy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China, the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (Vienna), the National German Science Academy Leopoldina, and the Governing Board of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech).

He is also engaged in multiple commissions and boards. He chairs Working Group “Making Sense of Science”, that was established in 2018 and initiated by SAPEA (Science Advice on Policy of the European Academies of Science) and SAM (Scientific Advice Mechanisms) for providing scientific advice to the EU Commission. On a regional level, he is in charge of the action platform “Sustainability”, i.e. a State of Brandenburg network for coordinating sustainability initiatives from the private, public and civil society sectors.

In the past, Ortwin Renn served on the panel on “Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making” of the US National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC (from 2005 to 2007) and on the German Federal Government’s Commission on Energy Ethics after Fukushima (2011). He was elected president of the International Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) for the period from 2012 to 2013. Ortwin Renn has published more than 30 books and 250 articles. The book Risk Governance (Earthscan: London, 2008) is his most prominent monograph.

Presentation 11:25 - 11:40

The Energy Transition and Implications for End-Use Sectors: Perspectives from Industry

Examining the energy transition from the end-use perceptive is warranted for more nuanced and targeted interventions for tackling broad commitments and interlinkages related to SDG 7, 9 and 13. Taking industry as an example, the pace of progress with the integration of sustainable energy has been slow. Globally, the industrial sector – refining, mining, manufacturing, agriculture and construction – accounts for the largest share of energy consumption of any end-use sector, currently at more than 50%. Industry emissions are larger than the emissions from either building or transport end-use sectors and represent just over 30% of global GHG emissions.

Over the last decade, there have been significant developments in the deployment of energy efficiency, renewable energy and low carbon technologies in the industry – evidenced by the improvements in industrial energy productivity and emissions reductions. However, much work is still required to place the industry within a long-term resilient, competitive and low carbon trajectory. For instance, despite an increase in the use of renewable energy, the industry’s energy mix has remained mostly unchanged over the last decade, with a limited decline in the share of fossil fuels, just 4% from 73% to 69%. The keynote examines the intersection of energy transition priorities with industrial development goals and country ambitions and suggests a process for policy coupling in view of different industrial capabilities and geographies

Tareq Emtairah

UNIDO

Director Energy Department

Tareq Emtairah is the Director of the Department of Energy at UNIDO. His work experience spans over 22 years in developed and emerging economies with a progressive focus on sustainable industrial transformation, energy transition, policy advocacy, applied research and capacity development. Before joining UNIDO, he worked as a senior research fellow at the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University, Sweden. Prior to that, he served as the executive director of the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE) based in Cairo, from 2012-2015.

Emtairah holds a PhD in Industrial Environmental Economics from Lund University in Sweden; a Master’s degree in Environmental Management and Policy also from Lund University; a Diploma in Engineering (Materials Science) from Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan and a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering and Materials Science from the State University of New Jersey in the United States of America.

Presentation 11:40 - 11:55

Energy Transition in India: Grid Integration Imperatives are now more important than Price Reductions

The price of solar electricity has plunged in India, and solar electricity is now the cheapest electricity available in the Indian electricity market when the sun is shining. However, peak electricity demand occurs in the evening and at night, when the sun is not shining. That highlights the importance of the need for rapid performance improvement and price reduction in storage technologies. In recent tenders, prices for round-the-clock renewable electricity (electricity from renewables and with storage) to be delivered two years from now, are competitive with coal electricity. That suggests that price reduction in renewables may no longer be the constraint to the large-scale integration of variable renewable electricity (VRE) into the grid.

The major challenge is now the integration of variable renewable electricity in the gird. The electricity system must balance supply and demand in real-time, and the increasing volatility of supply and demand suggests that a portfolio of interventions, demand management, and storage (both inter-day as well as seasonal) are essential for real-time balancing. That also indicates that a range of regulatory changes would be needed to enable and prioritise the interventions which will allow real-time balancing. However, the longer-term success in the increased absorption of variable renewables into the grid depends on the financial health of the power distribution companies. In general, the power distribution companies are in a difficult financial state, and upgrading their technical capabilities will be a challenge. Ironically, the deployment of variable renewables (distributed solar PV at agricultural feeders) can be a possible solution since it would reduce the primary source of revenue losses to the electricity distribution companies.

Ajay Mathur

The Energy & Resources Institute

Director-General

Ajay Mathur is the director general of The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, and a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. Mathur earlier headed the Indian Bureau of Energy Efficiency, and was responsible for mainstreaming energy efficiency through initiatives such as the Star Labeling program for appliances, the Energy Conservation Building Code, and the Perform, Achieve & Trade program for energy-intensive industries. He was a leading climate change negotiator, and was the Indian spokesperson at the Paris climate negotiations.

He served as the interim director of the Green Climate Fund during its foundational period. At TERI, Mathur has spearheaded the move to accelerate action towards a low-carbon and cleaner economy through the adoption of renewable energy in the Indian electricity sector, enhancing efficiency in buildings and industry, and promoting environmental quality through recycling of material wastes and biotechnology-based solutions. He also co-chairs the Global Energy Transitions Commission, and one of the climate initiatives of the One Planet Summit.

Presentation 11:55 - 12:10

Large-scale Karst Thermal Storage Identification Method and Large-scale Sustainable Mining Technology

In order to support the industrial development of middle-deep geothermal district heating, it is important to find geothermal aggregation areas with large reserves of heat resources that are easy to develop and utilise, and to develop the corresponding key technologies for efficient and sustainable development and utilisation. After two decades of exploration and practice, on the basis of inheritance and development, we have perfected the theoretical principle of geothermal system analysis including source, channel, reservoir and cap rock, and the identification method of geothermal reservoir heat-aggregation mechanism.

The first large-scale karst geothermal system was identified on the Northern China Niutuozhen uplift, and a new geothermal genesis model was proposed, which was developed into a low-temperature convection-conduction geothermal system in a sedimentary basin. This is an exceptionally large geothermal system in the Bohai Bay Basin formed on a unique geological-geothermal background. This karst geothermal system is dominated by carbonate rocks of the Wumishan Formation of the Middle and Upper Proterozoic, with large reservoir thickness, high temperature, good reservoir permeability, excellent water quality, easy mining and reinjection. A complete set of reservoir production technologies have been developed for the sustainable utilisation of such geothermal resources through the development of production-reinjection optimisation technologies, dynamic monitoring and numerical simulation technologies.

Based on the combination of political, industrial, academic and research aspects, since 2009 we have implemented a 1 million square meters of geothermal district heating demonstration project in Xiongxian, Hebei. After about five years of construction, it was certificated as the “Xiongxian Model” by the National Energy Administration in 2014 and extended to the whole country. The project is larger than Iceland’s Reykjavik Geothermal Heating Project and is the largest geothermal heating project of its kind in the world to date. After more than 5 years of operation, monitoring and inspection, this project has achieved high quality development standard of 100% reinjection, which is a real demonstration project of geothermal district heating in China. Based on the comparative study of similar reservoir in North China and the whole country, we find that there are many similar reservoirs, and the prospect of technology promotion and application is great.

Zhonghe Pang

Geothermal Resources Research Center - Chinese Academy of Sciences

Director

Zhonghe Pang is the Director of the Geothermal Resources Research Centre at Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He also serves as the President-Elect of the International Commission on Tracers of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (ICT-IAHS), Chairman of the Isotope Sub-Committee of the Chinese National Committee of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (CNC-IAHS), Geothermal Ambassador of the International Geothermal Association (IGA), and Director of the Geothermal Committee of the Chinese Geophysical Society.

Pang has obtained his Doctor’s degree from the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1988, ass the first PhD majoring in Geothermics in China. He was once S&T Director of Geothermal Energy at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Geothermal Planning Consultant for the International Energy Agency (IEA). He has led and completed a number of significant nationally and internationally funded research projects on groundwater resources, geothermal resources and CO2 geological storage.

His major academic achievements include the development of a new theoretical geothermometry for geothermal waters named FixAl method which is widely recognized and applied, the development of a new theory of geothermal resources genesis regarding “conduction-convection” binary heat accumulation in large geothermal fields, leading the research on the roadmap for the development and utilisation of deep geothermal in China, pioneering in frontier technologies such as CO2-EATER, underground heat storage and multi-energy complementation.

Presentation 12:10 - 12:30

Q&A – Energy Session

Presentation 12:30 - 12:35

Overview of the Energy Deep Dive Sessions

Environmental impacts and public perception of geothermal energy (VITO)
Geothermal energy in district energy systems (GIEC)
How SDG-proof is deep geothermal energy? (CIFAL-UNITAR)
Increasing the sustainability of energy storage (VITO)
The future of ports and energy hubs (The Blue Cluster)
Energy statistics, modelling and forecasting in support of NDCs (VITO)

Bai Yu

Guangzhou Institution of Energy Conversion

Deputy Director, Science & Technology Division

Ibrahim Hafeezur Rehman

VITO Arabia Science and Technology

CEO

Presentation 12:35 - 12:45

Closing remarks – Energy Session

Guy Vekemans

VITO

Strategy Coordinator Sustainable Energy

In 1991, Guy Vekemans started as an expert on energy in buildings at the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO) after which he became a programme manager at the Energy Technology unit. Since 2010, his focus was on the strategic support of the activities on smart grids and smart cities. In 2016 he was appointed Sustainable Energy strategy coordinator for VITO-EnergyVille. EnergyVille was initially set up as a common research initiative between the energy research groups of VITO, the University of Leuven and IMEC.

As business development manager since 2017, Guy Vekemans also contributes actively to Flux50. Flux50 is the Flemish energy cluster, a network of over 130 industrial companies and research institutes bringing energy innovations to the market. Guy Vekemans is active as (board) member in several organisations, including the Organisation Sustainable Energy Flanders (ODE), the Benelux Business Roundtable Energy working group, the European Energy Research Alliance and the Joint Programme Smart Cities.

Plenary Climate

Special session

CO2 capture: from postponed, cyclic to zero emissions economics and opportunities

26/10/2020, 17:30 - 18:30

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The IPCC’s ambition to limit temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrial levels not only requires the gradual reduction of CO2 emissions from industry, fuel burning and land use. It also needs the introduction of CO2 capture technologies, in the form of negative emissions. Starting from 2030, a net reduction of 700 megatons of CO2 is required per year, of which the half originates from ‘CO2 capture and valorisation’ strategies, reaching net zero CO2 emissions by 2070.

This target setting for CO2 capture however needs some more attention, in the frame of existing and new CO2 valorisation options such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), allowing CO2 fixation, and its utilisation alternative (CCU) that foresees the ‘zero emission aspect’ in the mineralisation route, with for example building materials as an end product.

But how can we make CCU become a key pillar of the transition to a sustainable economy and create an action plan to develop CCU into a new industrial sector? What are the enablers and hurdles to accelerate CCU adoption, and what policy, institutional and regulatory changes are required to accelerate the uptake of CCU breakthrough solutions?

Chaired by

Deepak Pant

VITO

Senior scientist sustainable chemistry

Keynote presentation 17:35 - 17:45

How to make CCU become a key pillar of the transition to a sustainable economy and fight against climate change

Walter Eevers

VITO

Director R&D and Vice-President CO2 Value Europe

Panel discussion 17:55 - 18:25

Roundtable

Philippe De Smedt

CEFIC

Sector Group Manager

Thomas Wyns

VUB

Researcher Environment & Sustainable Development

Ludo Diels

University of Antwerp

Chair of the Advisory Board of Processes4Planet to the European Commission

Mark Sisouw de Zilwa

ING

Managing Director - Energy / Head Technical Team EMEA/ Asia Pacific (

Health

Deep dive session

Air quality and its linkages to health

26/10/2020, 11:30 - 13:00

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Air pollution is the single largest environmental health risk, causing more preventable diseases than any other environmental pollution and killing 7 million people every year. Exposure to air pollution is a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases such as heart diseases, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, lung cancer and respiratory infections such as childhood pneumonia. With 9 out of 10 people breathing polluted air, the burden on public health is substantial. Reducing air pollution requires us to address the main sources, including the inefficient production, use and distribution of energy, the low energy efficiency in houses, buildings and manufacturing, and unsuitable solid waste management systems.

Chaired by

Randeep Guleria

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

Pulmonologist & Critical Care Specialist, Director & CEO of AIIMS

Randeep Guleria did his medical studies at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh, from where he secured his MD in general medicine and DM in pulmonary medicine. He joined the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and rose in ranks to become a professor and the head of the department of Pulmonology and Sleep Disorders. He is currently the Director and C.E.O. of AIIMS, New Delhi. He is associated with the World Health Organization (WHO) as a member of its Scientific Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunisation and influenza vaccination. He is a life member of the Association of Physicians of India, Indian Chest Society and the National College of Chest Physicians of India. He also serves as a consultant to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna on issued related to radiation protection.
Guleria has been the personal physician to late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, former Prime Minister of India since 1998 and is credited with research on pulmonary diseases. His research findings have been recorded by way of 36 book chapters and 268 articles; ResearchGate, an online knowledge repository has published 117 of them. He is credited with efforts in establishing a centre for respiratory diseases and sleep medicine at AIIMS, which is reported to be a first in India. He is a recipient of the Raj Nanda Pulmonary Disease Fellowship from the Raj Nanda Trust and the Royal College of Physicians, UK and is an elected fellow (2011) of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS). He sits on the editorial boards of a number of medical journals such as the Indian Journal of Chest Diseases, Lung India, Journal of American Medical Association and Chest India.
Randeep Guleria was included by the Government of India in the 2015 Republic Day honours list for the civilian award of Padma Shri. He lives in Delhi, adjacent to the AIIMS campus.

Presentation 11:35 - 11:50

Overview of impact of air pollution on health

In India, Government initiatives had begun to reduce solid fuel use for tackling household air pollution. This scheme had planned to provide clean and safe cooking fuel (liquefied petroleum gas) to 50 million low-income households by March 2019, by adding 10,000 more distributors, increasing access, and covering nearly all the upfront costs of switching for low-income households.

Encouragingly, the original target of 50 million households was met in August 2018, and the government has now increased the target to reach 80 million households through this scheme with a total budget of US$1·8 billion.

Liquefied petroleum gas meets the International Standards Organization and WHO recommendations, and can potentially help in achieving the WHO air quality standards within homes, but adoption and sustained use of clean fuels by households will be needed. Income, education, and urban location have been shown to be associated with the adoption of cleaner stoves and fuels, and better understanding of the role of uninterrupted fuel availability and prices as well as household size, composition, and gender roles in decision making can help to achieve sustained use. Targeted and innovative subsidies for liquefied petroleum gas appear necessary to increase and sustain the use of clean cooking fuels and have the potential to transform the

Randeep Guleria

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

Pulmonologist & Critical Care Specialist, Director & CEO of AIIMS

Presentation 11:50 - 12:05

Connecting Local and Global Research on Air Pollution and Health

The last four decades have seen expansive growth in exposure, epidemiologic, and toxicologic research linking air pollution to a variety of important lung, heart, and other health outcomes. The growing body of evidence has led global and national health and air pollution agencies, including the World Health Organization, the European Union, the United States, and more to conclude that air pollution is a serious risk factor for public health. In the last decade the systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease from all risk factors – under the aegis of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, USA – has applied this detailed science to conclude that air pollution from outdoor and household sources, is the leading environmental risk factor for poor health, and the fourth highest risk factor overall (following only diet, high blood pressure, and tobacco use).
As this evidence has grown, scientists and public officials in many low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) have, somewhat understandably, questioned whether the earliest evidence – largely from higher income countries – could be applied to their populations, with different underlying health, diets, and cultures. However, a large number of new studies in LMICs, starting with studies conducted under the auspices of the Health Effects Institute by investigators in China, India, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, and added to by studies supported by LMIC governments, are also finding robust evidence of links between air pollution and health, supporting efforts by LMIC governments to take action to control air pollution.
This presentation will summarize the worlds evidence and the Global Burden of Disease findings (including from HEI’s new State of Global Air 2020) and present the latest results from LMICs and how they reinforce the effects of air pollution on lung and heart health.

Dan Greenbaum

Health Effects Institute

President

Dan Greenbaum is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Health Effects Institute. In that role, Greenbaum leads HEI’s efforts, supported jointly by government and industry, to provide public and private decision makers in the US, Asia, Europe, and Latin America with high quality, impartial, relevant and credible science about the health effects of air pollution to inform air quality decisions in the developed and developing world. HEI is a lead contributor to the Global Burden of Disease for Outdoor Air Pollution and publishes The State of Global Air report and website each year.
Greenbaum has been a member of the U.S. National Academies Board of Environmental Studies and Toxicology and vice-chair of its Committee for Air Quality Management in the United States. He currently serves on the NASEM Committee for the Environmental Health Matters Initiative, and recently chaired the NRC Committee reviewing the US National Assessment of Climate Change and Human Health. In May 2010, Greenbaum received the Thomas W. Zosel Outstanding Individual Achievement Award from U.S. EPA for his contributions to advancing clean air; in June 2017 he received the Haagen Smit Award from the California Air Resources Board for his and HEI’s contributions to air pollution science and policy.
Greenbaum has over four decades of governmental and non-governmental experience in environmental health. Just prior to coming to HEI, he served as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection where he was responsible for the Commonwealth's response to the Clean Air Act, as well as its award-winning efforts on pollution prevention, water pollution and solid and hazardous waste. Greenbaum holds Bachelor’s & and Master’s degrees from MIT in City Planning.

Presentation 12:05 - 12:20

Nanobiotechnology for a Sustainable & Clean Environment

For achieving most of the seventeen goals of sustainable development, the eco-friendly, cost-effective and sustainable green synthesis of nano-metal and metal oxides with different applications in petroleum bio-upgrading and treatment of environmental pollution is very promising for dimensioning the hazard of climate change and acid rains; producing clean and renewable fuels, saving food and water resources and protecting life beneath water and on land.
Valorisation of agro-industrial wastes into nanomaterials concomitantly with the concept of reaching the point of zero-waste is a very encouraging sustainable solution for waste management, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and polluted water treatment. This consequently would overcome the problems of climate change and water scarcity, and have a positive impact on human health and ecosystem.
Thus, nanobiotechnology and its wide applications proved to solve many problems in water treatment, energy and industrial sectors with a real achievement for the social, environmental and economic pillars of sustainability.

Nour El-Gendy

EPRI – MSA – Cairo University, Egypt

Professor

Nour El-Gendy is a professor of Petroleum and Environmental Biotechnology at the Faculty of Nanotechnology for Postgraduate Studies, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt. She is the Head Manager of Petroleum Biotechnology Lab and Former Acting and Vice Head of Process Design & Development Department at the Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute (EPRI). Furthermore, she is Head of the Technology Innovation Support Centre (TISC) office, vice head of the Centre of Excellence and member in Entrepreneurship Hub at the October University for Modern Sciences and Arts, MSA University.
Besides the above positions, El-Gendy is a member of the Office of Technical, Monitoring and Performance Evaluation, Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT) – Water, Energy and Environment Committee Coordinator. She is Former Advisor for the Egyptian Minster of Environment.
El-Gendy is expert in the field of environmental biotechnology and sustainable development, nanobiotechnology, environmental pollution and climate change, wastewater treatment, biofuels, petroleum upgrading, green chemistry, valorisation of wastes and biocorrosion. She has published 9 chapters, 6 books and 112 research papers, and supervised 27 MSc and PhD thesis. Dr El-Gendy is also an editor and reviewer in 56 and 108 international journals. She has participated also as PI, Co-PI or research member in many international research projects concerning with bioethanol, algal biodiesel, application of nanobiotechnology in upgrading of petroleum and bioremediation of petroleum polluted environment. Dr El-Gendy has participated in 51 international workshops and training courses, and 80 international conferences and seminars. She is also a member in many international associations and organizations concerning with environmental sciences. Her biography is recorded in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering.

Presentation 12:20 - 12:35

Air Pollution and One Health

‘One Health’ is a collaborative interdisciplinary approach to optimise public health from local to global scale by designing and implementing programmes, policies and research that account for interconnections between people, animals, plants and their shared environment. All the disciplines encompassing One Health have a similar paradigm as all of them contribute in each other’s overall health and general well-being. Moreover, the past century has witnessed changes in global climate and land use, such as urbanisation, deforestation and farming practices. The expanding human populations often result in close contacts with not only domestic animals, both livestock and pets, but also wild animals. Similarly, plants and microbes form an integral component of human ecosystem. Interactions with them could be beneficial, or harmful, thus resulting in passing of diseases between plants, animals and people, which quickly cross borders to spread globally through international trade and travel.
Air pollution is known to cause variety of negative health outcomes in humans, including reduced lung function, increased susceptibility to infections, increasing airway inflammation, neurological disorders and increased cardiovascular dysfunctions. Air pollution is emerging to be the biggest contributor to increased mortality due to respiratory diseases such as COPD, asthma and lung cancer. Not only humans, but plants and animals as well are known to be adversely affected by it. Animals exposed to polluted air develop adverse respiratory effects, decreased immunity and reproductive success, neurological and brain damage as well as genetic changes. Moreover, plants, although tolerant to low bouts of air pollution, show signs of stress and decreased growth and reproductive abilities in high air pollution habitats, and are also known to harbour opportunistic microbes, which may be transmitted to humans, thus causing diseases.
Thus, transdisciplinary research, discussions and development of policies between experts in public health, animal health, plant health and the environment are the need of the hour in order to monitor and forecast the adversities that may be caused due to air pollution. Thus, ‘One Health’ is especially important in the current day scenario where the significance of zoonoses monitoring and control has become global priority.

Vartika Mathur

Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi

Head, Animal-Plant Interactions lab and Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, Sri Venkateswara College University of Delhi

Vartika Mathur is the Head, Animal-Plant Interactions lab in the Department of Zoology, Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi, with more than 16 years of teaching and research experience. She is also the in-charge of microbial culture facility and has a repository of more than 450 microbial symbionts isolated from various plants and animals.
Mathur was the first Indian to receive the prestigious NFP PhD fellowship from NUFFIC in the Netherlands. She was awarded ‘Young Scientist of the year (2015)’ by the International foundation of Environment and Ecology, and the European Mobility grant for International Laureates (2010) by CDI-UEB, for advanced research in University of Rennes, France. She has been awarded 15 National and International research grants from various Government and private organisations, including Nuffic, NAM S&T Centre, UGC, SERB, DST, DU, Eureka Forbes and PI industries. She has authored 3 books, 15 publications in International and National peer-reviewed journals, 8 book chapters and e-chapters, and 1 patent to her credit.
She has been working on ecological, chemical and molecular aspect of intricate animal, plant and microbe interactions for their sustainable utilisation in health, agriculture and environment sectors. Her ongoing National and International research collaborations focus on interdisciplinary research for natural resource management and sustainable strategies for therapeutics, biodiversity conservation, crop management and environmental protection.

Presentation 12:35 - 12:50

Oxidative Properties of Ambient Particulate Matter – A new framework for assessing the health effects and toxicity of PM2.5

The capability of ambient particulate matter (PM) to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), conveniently called the oxidative potential is proposed as a better metric for relating the PM pollution with health effects. Using measurement data of the oxidative potential of ambient PM from different geographical locations of the world, current studies in this direction are helping to develop useful insights on the origin of PM toxicity leading to a better assessment of the human health effects of ambient particulate pollution.

Vishal Verma

University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA

Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Presentation 12:50 - 13:00

Q&A – Air quality and its linkages to health

Health ICT

Deep dive session

Digital revolution and social technologies for pandemic control and social resilience

26/10/2020, 17:00 - 18:30

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During the pandemic, social technologies associated with digital tools became essential to the implementation of Nonpharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs). Partnership between communities and scientists developed several initiatives, focused on increasing the protection of vulnerable populations as well as establishing innovative methodologies, associating geoprocessing, big data and social cartography, to implement active surveillance of COVID-19. At the same time, health professionals used telehealth, robotics, and artificial intelligence tools to reach out to patients at home, or in the isolation areas of the hospitals. The use of such technologies enabled them to reach out to distant communities and save precious resources. This deep dive session will discuss successful experiences and will identify opportunities and challenges to further develop and implement the use of these tools in public health interventions.

Chaired by

Luiz Paulo Assad

Laboratory of Computational Methods in Engineering, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (LAMCE)

Technical Coordinator of the Environmental Modelling Centre at LAMCE

Luiz Paulo Assad has a degree in Oceanography from the State University of Rio de Janeiro, a master’s degree in Physical Oceanography from the University of São Paulo and a doctorate in Civil Engineering from the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute of Graduate Studies and Engineering Research. He is currently an adjunct professor in the Department of Meteorology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and also a permanent professor in the Graduate Program in Meteorology of that department. Researcher and technical coordinator of the Environmental Modeling Nucleus of the Laboratory of Computational Methods in Engineering (LAMCE/COPPE) that represents the Rio de Janeiro AIR Centre Office. He is also a collaborating professor in the Civil Engineering Program at COPPE. He has experience in the field of Physical Oceanography, with an emphasis on oceanic computational modelling, acting mainly on the following themes: global and regional oceanic computational modelling, ocean-atmosphere interaction processes, oil dispersion modelling in the ocean, and analysis of environmental data.

Presentation 17:05 - 17:25

Integration of Environmental Computational Modelling, Data Science and Digital Social Technology to support COVID-19 surveillance.

This presentation intends to synthesize and indicate how atmospheric, oceanographic and climate numerical computational models could be integrated to social and economic information using Data Science techniques and Digital Social technologies to support the challenges associated with COVID-19 surveillance and diffusion forecast.

Luiz Paulo Assad

Laboratory of Computational Methods in Engineering, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (LAMCE)

Technical Coordinator of the Environmental Modelling Centre at LAMCE

Presentation 17:25 - 17:45

Social technology as a tool for disease tracking among vulnerable populations

The Observatory of Sustainable and Healthy Territories of Bocaina (OTSS) is an initiative that emerges from the partnership between the Forum of Traditional Communities of Angra dos Reis, Paraty and Ubatuba (FCT) and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), supported by the National Health Foundation (Funasa) and Fiotec. The project was created with the aim of promoting Well Living, expanding and qualifying sustainable development in the traditional territories of the Bocaina region with the Caiçaras’s, Indigenous’s and Quilombo’s peoples.

With the perspective of territorialising the Agenda 2030 and promoting well-being through the development of sustainable and healthy territories, the OTSS has as its axes the promotion of social and environmental justice, focusing on:
territorial defense based on legal advice, advocacy and social control;
production of a georeferenced information base and data about the territory, including participatory methodologies such as Social Cartography;
ecological sanitation;
differentiated education;
incubator of social technologies;
agroecology; community-based tourism;
evaluation and territorial monitoring of the Sustainable Development Objectives of the United Nations Agenda 2030.

OTSS is present in more than 100 communities located in a region of exuberant socio-biodiversity, where unsustainable practices of development (real estate speculation, large enterprises, predatory tourism) jeopardise the rights of these peoples, the propagation of their way of life and the sustainability of the Bocaina territory.

Edmundo Gallo

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz)

Coordinator of the Observatory of Sustainable and Healthy Territories of Bocaina (OTSS)

Edmundo Gallo has a medical degree from UFPA (1984). He is apecialist in Social Medicine from UFMG (1986), a Master in Public Health from Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (1991), and a Doctor of Science from Fiocruz (2009). He was Municipal Secretary of Health of Belém-PA (1997-1999), Secretary-General and President of the National Council of Health Secretariats (1997-1999), Director of Investments and Strategic Projects of the Ministry of Health (2002-2005) and a consultant to international bodies and government agencies.

Edmundo Gallo has worked in the area of Public Management, with emphasis on Planning and Strategic Management and Sustainable Development and Health Promotion. He is a Principal Researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Senior Researcher at the University of Coimbra – Center for Functional Ecology and General Coordinator of the Observatory of Sustainable Territories and Healthy from Bocaina.

Presentation 17:45 - 18:05

The role of mobile technologies in track and tracing strategies

Digital contact tracing applications have appeared for the first time in the beginning of 2020, with COVID-19, to complement traditional tracing in a galloping outbreak that quickly became a world-wide pandemic. Testing and tracing are central to break the chains of contagion of any infectious disease.

The “manual” contact tracing protocol is, however, highly dependent on people’s memory, and it is resource and time consuming. Intuitively, a digital proximity tracing protocol that could be run by any individual would easily scale out and contribute to the completeness and efficiency of the process. This is the aim of the many digital contact tracing apps being deployed and whose efficacy will need to be assessed in a few months. This talk will present Europe’s take on digital contact tracing with emphasis on the Portuguese system; technology, system’s architecture, data protection, usability and evaluation.

Rui Oliveira

University of Minho

Associate Professor at the Department of Informatics of University of Minho, Director of the Minho Advanced Computing Centre

Rui Oliveira is an Associate Professor with habilitation at the Department of Informatics of University of Minho, director of the Minho Advanced Computing Centre, Co-Director of the UT Austin Portugal program, and member of the board of INESC TEC. He obtained a PhD degree in Computer Science from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in 2000. His main research contributions have been in the field of fault-tolerant distributed agreement and epidemic multicast algorithms and in the conception, development and assessment of dependable database systems. He coordinated the H2020 SafeCloud project on secure processing in the Cloud and the FP6 GORDA project on open database replication, two previous national projects on scalable dependable databases, ESCADA and StrongRep, and the U. Minho team at the FP7 CumuloNimbo and LeanBigdata projects.

Rui Oliveira counts over 100 research papers on large-scale and dependable distributed systems, and has served on the programme committee of several highly reputed conferences. He has been PC co-chair of IFIP DAIS and IEEE SRDS, General chair of SRDS and ACM Eurosys. Rui Oliveira serves on the Steering Committees of SRDS, Eurosys, Global CENTRA and the Atlantic Interactions Research Centre.

Health

Deep dive session

Major technology clusters for COVID-19 prevention and treatment

26/10/2020, 15:15 - 16:45

Watch this session

The ability to identify, develop, and produce the necessary tools to strengthen preparedness, prevent infections, and treat patients is critical to control the current COVID-19 pandemic. These tools include diagnostic testing, vaccines, respirators, intensive therapy units, robots, big data and artificial intelligence. International, national and local authorities, private companies, and civil society organisations took on the challenge and built alliances to intensify the research and development needed to face this unprecedented crisis. This deep dive will explore the relevant achievements of these research, development, and innovation experiences. It will also highlight the underlying strategies behind the development of technology for diagnostics, surveillance, and treatment, for saving lives and controlling the pandemic spread.

Chaired by

Marco Krieger

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz)

Vice-President of Health, Production and Innovation

Marco Krieger has a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the Federal University of Paraná (1987), a Master’s degree in Biological Sciences (Biophysics) from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1989) and a PhD in Biological Sciences (Biophysics) from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1997). He is currently the Vice-President of Health Production and Innovation in Health, Fiocruz, an institution linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Health (Brazil). Previously, he was Deputy Director of Technological Development, Prototyping and Production at the Carlos Chagas Institute, Fiocruz (2009-2017), and Technical Coordinator of the Fiocruz production facility for Nucleic Acid Diagnostics. He has experience in Genetics, with emphasis on Molecular Parasitology, working mainly on the following topics: Trypanosoma cruzi, gene expression, functional genomics, cell differentiation and use of Molecular Biology techniques for the development of diagnostic tests. He is the author of several publications (159, h index 27), including 6 patents.

Presentation 15:20 - 15:40

Alliance for research and development of vaccine candidates

Mariângela Simão

World Health Organization (WHO)

Assistant Director-General Access to Medicines and Health Products

Mariângela Simão joined WHO in November 2017, as part of WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’ leadership team. She previously worked for UNAIDS since September 2010 and prior to that, she worked for the Ministry of Health in Brazil as the Director of the Sexually Transmitted Diseases, HIV/ AIDS and Viral Hepatitis department.

Simão worked in the Brazilian public health system since 1982, from the primary health care level to a series of managerial positions throughout the years. As a public health professional, at municipal, state and national levels, she played an active role in the decentralisation of the national health system, acquiring an extensive experience in health system strengthening. She has also served on the boards of a number of organizations and government committees related to public health and HIV.
Heading the National Sexually Transmitted Diseases/HIV/AIDS Department (including Viral Hepatitis from 2009), she had the responsibility of overseeing and implementing the national Sexually Transmitted Diseases/AIDS/Viral Hepatitis policies, including universal and free-of-charge access to treatment, care and comprehensive prevention programs. Dr Simão attended medical school in Brazil, with degrees in Paediatrics and Public Health, and a MSc in Mother and Child Health in the UK.

Presentation 15:40 - 16:00

Transforming diagnostics to solve global health issues

Rangarajan Sampath

Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND)

Chief Scientific Officer

Rangarajan Sampath joined FIND as its Chief Scientific Officer in September 2017, where he leads the organisation’s R&D and clinical departments and contributes to shaping and implementing FIND’s portfolio strategies. Dr Sampath is a key member of FIND’s Executive Management team, which defines the overall business strategy and direction of the organisation, mobilising resources to enable the implementation of FIND’s mission.

Prior to this, Dr. Sampath served as a Volwiler Senior Research Fellow and Senior Director of R&D for the Ibis Division of Abbott. He led Ibis’ R&D efforts in infectious disease diagnostics, antimicrobial resistance diagnostics and surveillance, and was responsible for applications development, validation, data analysis and reporting for the Ibis PCR/ESI-MS based IRIDICA platform. Dr Sampath was the co-founder of Ibis Biosciences, Inc. and a co-inventor of the IRIDICA (CE-IVD) infectious disease diagnostics platform.

Sampath is a recognised leader in the field, with over 200 publications and presentations and over 40 issued patents in infectious disease diagnostics. He was an invited participant at the White House National Forum on Antibiotic Stewardship and was an active member of the AdvamedDx Industry Forum for the global commitment on developing diagnostic tests to fight AMR. He has been an invited speaker at many public forums such as at the Institute of Medicine, Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and Parenteral Drug Association (PDA). He was a key member of an FDA/PDA task force involved in defining the future of viral screening for cell substrates. Dr Sampath is currently serving his first of three-year term as a member of the Diagnostics Committee for IDSA. His research interests include antimicrobial strategy development, pathogen discovery, fevers of unknown origin, tropical diseases, epidemiological surveillance and biothreat detection.

Presentation 16:00 - 16:20

Challenges to fast-track the development of vaccines

Tonya Villafana

AstraZeneca

Global Head for the COVID-19 pipeline

Presentation 16:20 - 16:40

COVID-19 Long-term Suppression Strategy, Republic of Korea

As we have entered several months of the COVID-19 pandemic, there are surges of cases in many parts of the world. Traditional pandemic preparedness plans address containment and mitigation strategies against novel pathogens. However, given the limited pharmaceutical intervention, containment measures entail large economic costs, which adversely affect public health safety. In this context, the challenge is to find the balance between keeping the economy and society functioning, while also maintaining the spread of SARS-CoV-2 under control.

The Republic of Korea was one of the initial outbreak countries in earlier phase but has now flattened the curve with less than 50 new cases per day during the past 2 months. In preparation for ‘long-tail’ of COVID-19 incidences, the strategy has shifted to protect both public health and societal functions; thus, forming a hybrid strategy, namely COVID-19 Long-term Suppression (LTS) strategy.

Young June Choe

Hallym University College of Medicine

Assistant Professor Department of Social and Preventive Medicine

Young June Choe is an Assistant Professor in Social and Preventive Medicine at Hallym University College of Medicine, South Korea, and a Public Health Research Consultant at UNICEF. A paediatrician by training, subspecialised in infectious diseases at Seoul National University College of Medicine and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, his primary responsibility is teaching introductory module in epidemiology to med students. His research addresses quantification of and understanding the mechanisms of immunisation programmes’ impact on public health. In recent years he’s been focused on studies of respiratory virus transmission in the community and the effectiveness of control measures.

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