Sustainability Week: Countdown to COP26 2021 | The Economist Events | 4 October 2021 | Virtual Event

As COP26 approaches can governments, corporations, and private businesses change how society works in order to meet the Paris agreement targets on time?

Countdown to COP26, hears from global corporations, policymakers, and investors who are committed to reversing climate change through innovative thinking. Methods to lower emissions, improve sustainability and the transition to renewables that actively protect the environment will be discussed in depth. Packed with insightful panel discussions and case studies, innovative investment opportunities and hackathons, our event’s deep analysis from senior-level speakers creates opportunities that can influence the emergence of a sustainable economy.

Who should attend?
• Senior sustainability and CSR professionals from all industries.
• Business leaders and executives (managers, directors, c-suite) from all industries.
• Impact investors / responsible investors.
• ESG reporting agencies.
• Charities and organizations with an interest in sustainability issues.
• Sustainability and climate academics e.g. researchers and professors.
• Relevant government bodies, departments, and policymakers.

2021 Speakers

Erna Solberg
Former prime minister, Norway

Grace Fu Hai Yien
Minister for sustainability and the environment, Singapore

Lea Wermelin
Minister of environment, Denmark

Roberto Cingolani
Minister for ecological transition, Italy

Juan Carlos Jobet Eluchans
Minister of energy, Chile

Tom de Bruijn
Minister of foreign trade and development cooperation, The Netherlands

Md. Shahriar Alam
State minister for foreign affairs, Bangladesh

Gabriel Makhlouf
Governor, Central Bank of Ireland

Eduard van Gelderen
Chief investment officer, PSP Investments

Marc Engel
Chief supply chain officer, Unilever
IKEA
Jesper Brodin
Chief executive, Ingka Group - IKEA

Jean Case
Chief executive, Case Impact Network and chairman, National Geographic Society

Kitack Lim
Secretary general, International Maritime Organization

Inger Andersen
Executive director, United Nations Environment Programme and under-secretary general, United Nations

Vivek Pathak
Director of climate business, International Finance Corporation

Lars Stenqvist
Chief technology officer, Volvo Group

Jennifer Morgan
Executive director, Greenpeace International

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema
UN assistant secretary general and executive secretary, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity

Gautam Narasimhan
Senior adviser for climate, energy and environment, UNICEF

Musonda Mumba
Director, Rome centre for sustainable development, United Nations Development Programme

Varun Sivaram
Senior director for clean energy and innovation, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate

Gregory Barker
Executive chairman, En+ Group and former minister of state for energy and climate change, UK

Punit Renjen
Chief executive, Deloitte Global

Marco Taricco
Partner and co-chief investment officer, Bluebell Capital Partners

Innes McKeand
Head of strategic equities, USS Investment Management

Huw Evans
Director general, Association of British Insurers

Ben Caldecott
Director, Oxford sustainable finance programme, Smith school of enterprise and the environment, University of Oxford

Athar Husain Khan
Secretary-general, European Business Aviation Association

Ovais Sarmad
Deputy executive secretary, United Nations Climate Change secretariat (UNFCCC)

David Morgan
Director of flight operations, Easyjet

Glenn Llewellyn
Vice-president, zero-emission aircraft, Airbus

Ralf Pfitzner
Head of sustainability, Volkswagen Group

Janet Drysdale
Vice-president, sustainability, Canadian National Railway

Emma Stewart
Inaugural sustainability officer, Netflix

Didier Toubia
Co-founder and chief executive, Aleph Farms

Kieran Coleman
Energy and industry lead, COP26 High Level Champions for Global Climate Action

María Mendiluce
Chief executive, We Mean Business Coalition

Dirk Voeste
Senior vice-president, regulatory, sustainability and public affairs, BASF Agricultural Solutions

Vijay Manthripragada
Chief executive, Montrose Environmental Group

Patrick du Plessis
Global head of risk monitoring, Norges Bank Investment Management

Willem Evers
Head, sustainable finance office, De Nederlandsche Bank

Alessandro d’Eri
Senior policy officer, European Securities and Markets Authority

Vitaliano Torno
President, FEVE, The European Container Glass Federation

Gianfranco Gianfrate
Professor of finance, EDHEC Business School

Kait Parker
Atmospheric scientist, meteorologist and former presenter, The Weather Channel

Charles Donovan
Visiting professor of finance, Foster school of business, University of Washington

Jennifer Howard-Grenville
Diageo professor of organisation studies, Judge business school, University of Cambridge

Saman Sarbazvatan
Chief operation officer, associate dean, and professor of technology management, digital transformation, sustainable competitiveness, and circular economy, École des Ponts Business School

Max Åhman
Associate professor, environmental and energy systems studies, Lund University

Jason Bordoff
Founding director, SIPA center on global energy policy, Columbia University

Zacharias Sautner
Professor of finance, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management

Tristan Smith
Associate professor, UCL energy institute, University College London and director, UMAS

Mario Greco
Group chief executive, Zurich Insurance

Karen A. Thole
Distinguished professor, The Pennsylvania State University

Jeffrey Simmons
President and chief executive, Elanco

Peter Herweck
Chief executive, Aveva

Boris Winkelmann
Chairman and chief executive, DPDgroup and executive vice-president of Le Groupe La Poste

Olivier Blum
Chief strategy and sustainability officer, Schneider Electric

Arco Berkenbosch
Vice-president, innovation and development, Smurfit Kappa

Ingrid Holmes
Executive director, Green Finance Institute

Dan Blaustein-Rejto
Director, food and agriculture, The Breakthrough Institute

Michiel De Smet
Finance programme lead, The Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Arlin Rickard
Chief policy advisor, The Rivers Trust

Rhea Suh
President and chief executive, Marin Community Foundation

Cristina Gamboa
Chief executive, World Green Building Council

Erin Billman
Executive director, Science Based Targets Network

Santiago Gowland
Chief executive, Rainforest Alliance

Mark Watts
Executive director, C40 Cities

Paul Druckman
Chair, World Benchmarking Alliance Supervisory Board

Peter Cashion
Chief investment officer and climate head, Financial Institutions Group, IFC

Mindy Lubber
Chief executive and president, Ceres

Matthias Berninger
Senior vice-president, public affairs, science and sustainability, Bayer

Alison Martin
Chief executive EMEA and bank distribution, Zurich Insurance

Veronica Poole
Vice-chair of Deloitte UK and global IFRS and corporate reporting leader, Deloitte UK

Aroon Hidaramani
Owner and director, Hirdaramani Group

Hakan Bulgurlu
Chief executive, Arçelik

Shibu K. John
Vice-president, strategy and business development (upstream), Primetals Technologies

Kentaro Hosomi
Chief regional officer, EMEA and chief executive, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries EMEA

Eugenia Onuschenko
Head of corporate finance, Polymetal

Anna Maria Rugarli
Sustainability vice-president, JTI

Michael Train
Senior vice-president and chief sustainability officer, Emerson

Bill Even
Chief executive, National Pork Board, United States

Brett Smith
Director, technology, Center for Automotive Research

Lei Zhang
Chief executive, Envision Group

Anya Waite
Chief executive and scientific director, Ocean Frontier Institute

Wendy Cromwell
Vice-chair, head of sustainable investment, Wellington Management

Morten Bo Christiansen
Vice-president, head of decarbonisation, A.P. Møller - Mærsk

Kingsmill Bond
Energy strategist, Carbon Tracker

Tej Gidda
Future energy global leader, GHD

Christian Bason
Chief executive, Danish Design Centre

Hon-Ming Lam
Professor, school of life sciences and director, state key laboratory of agrobiotechnology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Ita Kettleborough
Deputy director, Energy Transitions Commission

Keefe Harrison
Chief executive, The Recycling Partnership

Elinor Newman Beckett
Project manager, food and agriculture platform, SYSTEMIQ

Scarlett Benson
Co-director of Knowledge Generation, Food and Land Use Coalition

Sam Dennigan
Founder, Strong Roots

Joe Hamrock
President and chief executive, NiSource

Isabel Chatterton
Head of industry, infrastructure and natural resources, IFC Asia Pacific

Brendan Edgerton
Director, circular economy, World Business Council for Sustainable Development

Julia Salant
Head of sustainability innovation, EcoVadis

Harry Bowcott
Senior partner, McKinsey & Company

Faustine Delasalle
Co-executive director, Mission Possible Partnership and director, Energy Transitions Commission

Lenneke Schils
Global insights director, GFK

Richard Bartlett
Senior vice-president, future mobility and solutions, BP

Caroline Cox
Chief legal, governance and external affairs officer, BHP

Phil Redman
Offering lead, ESG, OneTrust

Mekala Krishnan
Partner, McKinsey Global Institute

Sushil Purohit
President, Wärtsilä energy and executive vice-president, Wärtsilä

Andrea Blackman
Global head of Moody’s ESG solutions, Moody's

Crystal GENG
Head of ESG, Ping An Group

Johannah Christensen
Chief executive, Global Maritime Forum

Michael Rea
Chief operating officer, The Carbon Trust

Mihir Swarup Sharma
Director, centre for economy and growth programme, Observer Research Foundation

Vibha Dhawan
Director general, The Energy and Resources Institute

Jyoti Kumar Bansal
Chief of branding, communications, CSR, sustainability, TATA Power

Daniel Schien
Senior lecturer in computer science, Cabot institute for the environment, University of Bristol

Georgina Grenon
Environmental excellence director, Paris 2024 Olympics

Hannah Mills
Athlete and environmentalist

George Bilicic
Vice chairman, global head, power, energy and infrastructure, Lazard

Tim Arndt
Managing director, treasurer, Prologis

Jennifer Jenkins
Chief sustainability officer, NCX

Vijay Vaitheeswaran
Global energy and climate innovation editor, The Economist

Phillip Cornell
Lead analyst, energy, The Economist Intelligence Unit

Sacha Nauta
Public policy editor, The Economist

Charlie McCann
South East Asia correspondent, The Economist

Daniel Franklin
Deputy executive editor, The Economist

Jan Piotrowski
Business editor, The Economist

Claire Casey
Global head of public policy, The Economist Intelligence Unit

Zanny Minton Beddoes
Editor-in-chief, The Economist

Emma Hogan
Americas editor, The Economist

Guy Scriven
Climate risk correspondent, The Economist

Rachana Shanbhogue
Finance editor, The Economist

Martin Koehring
Head, World Ocean Initiative and regional lead (EMEA) for sustainability, climate change and natural resources, The Economist Intelligence Unit

Matthieu Favas
Finance correspondent, The Economist

Ana Nicholls
Director, industry operations, The Economist Intelligence Unit

Avantika Chilkoti
International correspondent, The Economist

Helen Joyce
Executive editor, events business, The Economist

Lyndsey Anderson
Global head of research and insight, The Economist Intelligence Unit

Matus Samuel
Consultant, The Economist Intelligence Unit

Mike Bird
Asia business and finance editor, The Economist

Swarup Gupta
Industry manager, The Economist Intelligence Unit

Ahmad Al Khowaiter
Chief technology officer, Aramco

Ana Rivero Fernandez
Global head of ESG and investment content, Santander Asset Management, Santander

Christian Breyer
Professor for solar economy, LUT University

Cristina Rumbaitis del Rio
Senior adaptation and resilience advisor, World Resources Institute and international engagement associate, Food and Land Use Coalition

Diana Raine
Managing director, Smart Hydrogen Consulting

Samantha McCulloch
Head of carbon capture utilisation and storage unit, International Energy Agency

Zubair Fattahi
Principal, climate change and sustainability, the Economist Intelligence Unit

2021 Sponsors

DIAMOND SPONSORS:
• Deloitte
• Zurich

PLATINUM SPONSOR:
• KAPSARC

KNOWLEDGE SUPPORTERS:
• McKinsey & Company
• Wellington Management

SUPPORTER:
• JTI

GOLD SPONSORS:
• Aveva
• BASF
• Bayer
• BHP
• DPD Group
• Ecovadis
• Emerson
• Growth from Knowledge
• Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group
• Pork
• Pingan
• Schneider Electric
• Wartsila

SILVER SPONSORS:
• Elanco
• Expleo
• IPAX
• Moody's
• NCX
• NiSource
• Smurfit Kappa

INNOVATION SPOSNORS:
• GHD
• One Trust ESG

INNOVATION SHOWCASE SPONSOR:
• Mission Possible Partnership