UMass Boston

View of campus from the water from a cruise boat.
Agenda

Day 1: Thursday, August 28, 2025

8:00 a.m.

Breakfast Available


8:45 – 9:30 a.m.

Words of Welcome & Opening Addresses

  • Heinz Fassman, President, OEAW
  • Hon. Michael Ludwig, Mayor, Vienna
  • Joachim von Braun, President, PAS
  • Wim van Saarloos, President, European Academies Science Advisory Council
  • His Eminence, Cardinal Peter Turkson, Chancellor, PAS & PASS
  • Hon. Norbert Totschnig, Federal Minister, Agriculture and Forestry, Climate and Environmental Protection, Regions and Water Management, Austria (video)
  • Jürgen Schneider, Head, Climate Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Climate- and Environmental Protection, Regions and Water Management

9:35 – 10:35 a.m.

Challenges and Best Practices for Resilience – Mayors and Local Leaders

Moderator: Jachim von Braun, President, PAS

  • Hon. Ricardo Rio, Mayor, Braga, Portugal, Global Parliament of Mayors Exec. Committee Chair
  • Hon. Henriette Reker, Mayor, Cologne
  • Hon. Nina Abrahamczik, Member, Vienna City Council
  • Ada Ámon, Executive Director, Budapest Climate Agency
  • Alastair Hannaford, WHO Youth Council Co-Chair, World Organization of the Scout Movement representative

10:40 – 11:00 a.m.

Coffee Break


11:05 a.m. – 12:05 p.m.

Innovations and Entrepreneurship – New Ways of Addressing Climate Adaptation of Cities and Subregions

Moderator: Elena Lopez-Gunn, Founder and Director, ICATALIST & Senior Research Fellow, Royal Elcano Institute

Panelists:

  • Gesa Ziemer, Professor, Digital Urban Cultures, HafenCity University  
  • Brigitte Mohn, Member, Executive Board, Bertelsmann Stiftung
  • Bianca Carvalho, WHO Youth Council, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines representative
  • Frederik Galtung, Co-Chief Facilitator, Catalyst Now
  • Alvaro Soldevila, Lead, Programs & Resilience Practice, Resilient Cities Network

12:10 – 12:40 p.m.

Mitigation, Adaption, Societal Transformation (MAST) - Resilience Concepts, Challenges, and Actions

Moderator: Sr. Helen Alford, President, PASS

  • Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Council, PASS
  • Cornelia Richter, Bishop designate, Evangelical Church of Austria & Chair, Systematic Theology and Hermeneutic, Universität Bonn
  • Markus Gerhartinger, Environmental Officer, Archdiocese of Vienna

12:45 – 1:45 p.m.

Lunch


1:50 – 3:00 p.m.

Innovative Financing Resilience & Insurance

Moderator: Bianca Pitt, Co-Founder, SHE Changes Climate

Participants:

  • Hon. Anne Hidalgo, Mayor, Paris
  • Hon. Matteo Lepore, Mayor, Bologna
  • Christof Reinert, Head of Risk Management Partners, on Future of Modeling Climate Risk, Munich Re Insurance
  • Urtė Petrulytė, WHO Youth Council, World Organization of the Scout Movement representative
  • Ingmar Rentzhog, CEO & Founder, We Don’t Have Time
  • Christin Braak-Forstinger, Founder & CEO, Chi Impact Capital 

3:05 – 4:15 p.m.

Weather Disasters, Recovery and Prevention

Moderator: Frank McGovern, Vice Chair, JPI Climate

Panelists:

  • Elina Bardram, Director for Climate Resilience and Information Management, European Commission, DG CLIMA
  • Hon. Cornelia Weigand, County Commissioner, Ahrweiler District
  • Hon. Paula Llobet Vilarrasa, Councilor for Innovation, Technology, Digital Agenda and Investment Capture, Valencia
  • Elena Xoplaki, Acting Head, Climatology, Climate Dynamics and Climate Change Group at the Institute of Geography, Justus Liebig University in Giessen
  • Ronit Batra, Climate Cardinals 

4:20 – 5:20 p.m.

Interactive "European / Vienna Café Consultation on MAST Solutions" led by Youth (incl. Coffee Break) (MAST – Mitigation, Adaptation, Societal Transformation)

  • All participants assemble in 12 Conversation groups in round tables
  • Each table has a Youth chair and a rapporteur from the Youth group and one scientist
  • Each table has a set of thematic challenges related to the MAST agenda to address and to identify solutions,
  • Participants may move between tables
  • The discussions are moderated by the chair from Youth participants
  • The Youth rapporteurs report back in the following session, each presenting up to 3 calls to action for solutions to the identified challenges

Youth Facilitators:

  • Corinna Fortunato, WHO Youth Council, European Network of Medical Residents in Public Health representative
  • Natalia Pidmurniak, Youth Council, Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Head of the International Medical Youth Diplomacy Department
  • Lieke Vivianne Schipper, International Federation of Medical Students Association
  • Kadrie Adem, MD, InciSioN Global Representative
  • Olha Dybkaliuk, World Scouting
  • Habib Olatunji Alagbo, WHO Youth Council representative, Health Education and Literacy Working Group
  • Evangelia Savvidou, WHO/Europe EVID-ACTION Youth Alcohol Network, Youth Advisor
  • Pauline Hastenteufel, Youth Health Organization
  • Daniel Cieślak, Youth Climate Council Poland
  • Mehmet Yağız Güzel, Vice President of Capacity, European Medical Students' Association
  • Balkiss Abdelmoula, MD, MPH, WHO Youth Council Representative, World Medical Association Junior Doctors’ Network Deputy Chair
  • Katja Čič, WHO Youth Council, Chair of Planetary Health Working Group, International Youth Health Organization representative

5:20 – 6:30 p.m.

Reporting Back of Calls to Action by Youth Leaders to Plenary

Chair: Katja Čič, WHO Youth Council, Chair of Planetary Health Working Group, International Youth Health Organization representative


7:00 p.m.

Conference Dinner

Location: Jesuit Hall


Day 2: Friday, August 29, 2025

8:00 a.m.

Breakfast Available


8:45 – 9:45 a.m.

Climate Change and Health Including Extreme Heat

Moderator: Andy Haines, Professor, Environmental Change & Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 

Panelists:

  • Muha Hassan, WHO Youth Council, WMA-Junior Doctors Network representative
  • Beth Stinchcombe, International Federation of Medical Students' Associations representative, WHO
  • Lamia Messari-Becker, Professor, Energy-efficient Building Technology, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT)
  • Eleni Myrivili, Global Chief Heat Officer, United Nations Human Settlements Programme
  • Sascha Müller-Kraenner, CEO, Deutsche Umwelthilfe

9:50 – 10:50 a.m.

The Change of European Mountain Areas – Glaciers, Water, Rocks and Landscapes

Moderator: Jakob Rhyner, Professor Emeritus, Global Change and Systemic Risks, University of Bonn & Chair, Science Advisory Committee, OEAW Institute for Interdisciplinary Mountain Research

Panelists:

  • Show of short part of new film “Requiem in Weiss” by Harry Putz
  • Thomas Stocker, Climate and Environmental Physics, Universität Bern
  • Keywan Riahi, Director of the Program on Energy, Climate, and Environment at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg (Austria)
  • Harry Putz, Filmmaker
  • Sofia Bergqvist, Youth Health Organization, Human Geographer

10:55 – 11:15 a.m.

Coffee Break


11:20 a.m. – 12:20 p.m.

Coastal Resilience (North Sea, Baltic Sea, Mediterranean)

Moderator: Costas Papanicolas, President Emeritus, Cyprus Institute

Panelists:

  • Hon. George Hatzimarkos, Governor, South Aegean Region and President, Association of Greek Regions
  • Nadia Pinardi, Professor. Physical Oceanography, University of Bologna and Director, Decade Collaborative Centre for Coastal Resilience
  • Antonio Navarra, President, The CMCC Foundation (Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change)
  • Jacek Piskozub, Vice Chair, Committee for the Climate Crisis, Polish Academy of Sciences
  • Melinda Martins, WHO Youth Council, Youth Environment

12:25 – 1:25 p.m.

Land Use, Water, Agriculture, Food System, Bioeconomy

Moderator: Cecilia Tortajada, PAS & University Glasgow and Singapore, Environmental Science and Sustainability, Water

Panelists:

  • Máximo Torero Cullen, Chief Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
  • Jaime Flores Cabeza, Deputy Director, Canal de Isabel II
  • Vera Eory, Climate Change Researcher, Edinburgh Campus
  • Julia Weatherhogg, Programme Management Officer, Adaptation Division, UNFCCC
  • Hinda Sahir, WHO Youth Council, Act4Food representative
  • Louise E.M. Vet, Netherlands Institute of Ecology & Emeritus Professor, Evolutionary Ecology, Wageningen University

1:25 – 2:20 p.m.

Lunch


2:25 – 3:35 p.m.

Foresight and Scientific and Policy Innovations

Moderator: Wim van Saarloos, President of EASAC, Professor emeritus of theoretical physics, University of Leiden

Panelists:

  • Örjan Gustafsson, PAS and University of Stockholm
  • Inge Jonckheere, Head, Green Solutions Division, European Space Agency
  • Dino Žujić, MD, Director, Standing Committee on Public Health, International Federation of Medical Students Association
  • Eleni Zika, Head of Sector, European Research Council
  • Frank Ewert, Scientific Director, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research & Professor, Crop Production, University of Bonn
  • Pascale Braconnot, Climate Scientist, Institute Pierre Simon Laplace

3:40 – 4:50 p.m.

Societal Transformation - Building Resilience with All Stakeholders in Multi-level Governance

Moderator: Katja Čič, WHO Youth Council, Youth Representative Manager, International Youth Health Organization, Slovenia

Panelists:

  • Hon. Henriette Reker, Mayor, Cologne
  • Hon. Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Former Prime Minister, Iceland
  • Hon. Serhii Morhunov, Mayor, Vinnytsia
  • John Schellnhuber, Director General, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
  • Nadia Pinardi, Professor. Physical Oceanography, University of Bologna and Director, Decade Collaborative Centre for Coastal Resilience 

4:55 – 5:25 p.m.

Way Forward with Call to Action, Statements from Youth and Closing Remarks

  • Joachim von Braun, President, PAS
  • Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Council, PASS 

5:25 – 6:30 p.m.

Refreshments