Brazil Climate Day 2025 at Frankfurt School

On July 3, 2025, the Brazil Climate Day took place on the campus of Frankfurt School of Finance & Management under the motto "Setting Sails for COP30." Organised by the FUTURE Institute for Sustainable Transformation, the event brought together decision-makers from business, politics, and academia to discuss key topics around climate, energy, biodiversity, and sustainable finance.

Cross-sector dialogue on energy, innovation, and financing

The event placed a strong focus on the upcoming UN Climate Conference COP30, which will be held in Belém, Brazil. Joern Soyke, Executive Director of the FUTURE Institute, opened the conference together with the Brazilian Consul General, Roberto Abdalla.

The program featured three interdisciplinary panel discussions as well as keynote contributions:

• Panel 1 – Energy as the basis for any production process:
  Together with Prof Dr Jörn-Henrik Thun from the FUTURE Institute, Dr Gabriele Haas, Partner at Noerr, Pia Schütz, Vice President Purchasing at Maxion Wheels, and Stefan Pinter, Head of Public Policy EMEA and member of the EMEA Management Team at Suzano, discussed how cross-sector learning in production processes can support the energy transition.
• Panel 2 – Private sector’s contributions and views:
  Moderated by Regina Karoline Schueller, Frankfurt Office Director at the IFRS Foundation, Dr Christoph Jaekel, Vice President Corporate Sustainability at BASF, Greta Drumstaité, Head of Policy & Advocacy Europe at Raízen, Wilmar Henning, Managing Director of WEG Germany GmbH, and Mathias Pütz, Strategic Procurement Lead at Schaeffler AG, shared insights into concrete sustainability strategies and the role of industry in climate action.
• Panel 3 – Mobilising resources – climate financing:
  Moderated by Joern Soyke, Henrique Vasconcellos, ESG Unit Head at Banco do Brasil, Jörg Eigendorf, Chief Sustainability Officer at Deutsche Bank, Peter Hilliges, Chief Climate Officer at KfW Development Bank, and Milena Bertram, Chief Sustainability Officer at Finance in Motion, discussed opportunities and challenges in mobilising capital for the green transformation.

Digitalisation, biodiversity, and integrated thinking

Further highlights included a keynote by Matthias Hartmann (Techem Energy Services GmbH) on the role of digitalisation in decarbonising the real estate sector, and a fireside discussion on biodiversity and bio-innovation as strategic assets for health and science, featuring Prof Dr Jörn-Henrik Thun and Marcela Chacón Castro (Director for United Nations Relations & Global Affairs, Bayer AG).

Participants agreed: the time for climate talk is over – the global community must act now to drive sustainable transformation forward while also preparing for the impacts of climate change.