Time: Thursday May 15 at 13.00-14.30
Auditorium: TBD

Chair: Kim Daasbjerg, Professor & PI, The Novo Nordisk Foundation CO₂ Research Center, Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University 

In this session, you will learn about the carbon cycle, and why we need to capture and utilize/remove CO2; and get to know about specific carbon utilization or removal projects, and what is important for the businesses to scale in the future. Join this session to experience a TechBattle where different new technologies are presented by innovative, younger researchers from The Novo Nordisk Foundation CO2 Research Center and from Aarhus University. We need you as participants to help us vote in the battle. 

Speakers:

To be updated

Time: Thursday May15 at 13.00-14.30
Auditorium: TBD

Chairs: Troels Skrydstrup, Professor, Aarhus University and Mogens Hinge, Associate Professor, Aarhus University 

This track focus on the present plastic challenge and discusses how plastic waste can be applied as valuable resources and enable a circular plastic economy. This includes innovations in recycling technologies, strategies for increasing plastic waste utilization, and ways to increase product lifespan. The silver bullet syndrome within plastic recycling will be addressed along with a discussion on different plastic types, their applicability, and challenges within recycling.

Speakers:

Søren Kristiansen, Senior Technology DIrector, LEGO
Title to be announced

Louise Aagaard Jensen, Sustainability Manager and Lars Krog, CEO, Letbek A/S
The use of recycled plastic materials in practice for industrial manufacturing of products

Time: Thursday May 15 at 13.00-14.30 
Auditorium: TBD

Chair: Dorthe Ranvsbæk, Professor, Aarhus University and Peter Balling, Professor, Aarhus University

This track will focus on renewable energy sources (e.g. wind, solar), energy storage (e.g., batteries, P2X), the transition to sustainable energy systems, and how these can be scaled to meet global energy demands while maintaining environmental integrity. The sessions will explore next and future generations of energy technologies through contributions from established industrial and academic experts, as well as from up-coming researchers and start-ups bringing new ideas to the table. 

Speakers:

Morten Madsen, Professor, University of Southern Denmark
Designing next-gen photovoltaic technologies for agriculture and the built environment’

Marta Victoria, Associate Professor, Aarhus University
Photovoltaics everywhere

Nicolai Gayle Nygaard, Senior Lead Specialist, Ørsted
The science of giant wind power plants

Flash talk presenters:

Rasmus Schmidt Davidsen, Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Aarhus Unviersity
From nm to GW: Fixing the “leaky bucket” of silicon solar cells

Time: Thursday May 15 at 13.00-14.30
Auditorium: To be determined

Chair: Jens-Christian Svenning, Professor, Aarhus University and Jeppe Aagaard Kristensen, Assistant Professor, Aarhus University

Ecosystems play a dual role in achieving carbon neutrality through mitigation and adaptation. Forests are critical carbon sinks, but grasslands, wetlands, and other non-woody vegetation also contribute significantly, particularly through resilient soil carbon storage. Marine ecosystems, including seagrasses, whales, mollusks, and fish, are key players in "blue carbon" sequestration and sustainable food production. Large wild herbivores shape vegetation and nutrient cycles, influencing carbon dynamics, supporting semi-natural rangelands, and reducing fire risks. Wetlands, peat bogs, and coastal ecosystems also provide vital protection from rising flooding risks, by rivers and from sea-level rise, while storing vast amounts of carbon. Sustainable management of semi-natural forests and rangelands links carbon storage to biodiversity conservation, wood production, and resilience to pests and fires. By protecting and restoring ecosystems, we enhance biodiversity, resilience, and global climate goals, while mitigating increasing climate risks.

Speakers:

Brian Enquist, Professor, University of Arizona

Elizabeth le Roux and Jeppe Å. Kristensen, Associate Professors,Department of Biology, Aarhus University
Shared opportunities and challenges for rewilding as a climate solution at high and low latitudes

Bjarke Schäfer, Environmental Specialist and Marie Plambech Ryberg, Senior Sustainability Professional, Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk: Navigating Nature Positive and the harmonization with Net Zero

Time: Thursday April 15 at 13.00-14.30
Auditorium: To be determined

Chair: John Thøgersen, Professor, Aarhus University

Is there a “social tipping point” in consumers’ adoption of a climate-friendly diet, and how do we get there?

How and what we eat is important for both health and sustainability. However, despite official advice recommending changes in the average Danish diet that would benefit both health and the climate, changes are very slow, even among the youngest age groups. Therefore, researchers in both Denmark and internationally have recently started to investigate the social dynamics characterizing the “normalization” of a more climate-friendly and sustainable diet and especially the possibility of “social tipping points” in the process.

A social tipping point is the point where a sufficient share of a population has accepted an emerging social norm for self-perpetuating mechanisms to be set in motion, releasing strong forces driving the wider uptake of the new norm in society, ultimately leading to a shift in dominating norms. Current research has tried to uncover and describe the involved social dynamics in the normalization of a climate-friendly diet as well as possible contingencies, disruptions, and need for policy support.

In this session, we will learn about cutting-edge research on the possible normalization of a climate-friendly diet and possible social tipping-points in this connection from leading researchers in the field.

The first speaker is Bente Halkier, professor of sociology at Copenhagen University and member of the Danish Climate Council, who will speak about her research on the normalization of a climate-friendly diet. Second speaker is Jessica Aschemann-Witzel, professor of marketing and leader of the MAPP-Centre – Research on Value Creation in the Food Sector for Consumers, Industry and Society at Aarhus University, who will speak about her research on social tipping points in the process towards a more climate-friendly and sustainable diet. The third speaker is Jan Michael Bauer, from the Consumer & Behavioural Insight Group at Copenhagen Business School, who will present ongoing research on social influence in sustainable food choices and discuss its implications for public policy.

Following the three presentations, there will be a panel debate with the audience about how we can reach a “social tipping point” in consumers’ adoption of a climate-friendly diet.

Speakers:

Bente Halkier, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen
Normalisation as a dynamic for reducing resource-intensive food consumption 

Jessica Aschemann-Witzel, Professor, MAPP Centre, Aarhus University
Social tipping points in food systems: Concept, cases and future development

Jan Michael Bauer, Associate Professor, Copenhagen Business School
Peer Effects in Sustainable Food Choices: Evidence from High-Frequency Data and Causal Approaches

Time: Thursday May 15 at 16.00-17.30
Auditorium: TBD

Chair: TBD

Although the effects of climate change are becoming still more evident, the world’s energy consumption is still rising. In its ambition of becoming climate-neutral, the City of Aarhus works toward securing a true energy transition, and not merely an energy addition, which is otherwise the global tendency. In its upcoming Local Climate Action Plan, the City of Aarhus strives to attain this goal through a profound change in its district heating’s energy mix, by not only downscaling fossil fuels but also biomass. This will be achieved by ensuring that there’s more energy-efficient energy solutions and sources, such as large heat pumps as well as Europe’s largest geothermal installation. 

Central to this transition is the city’s municipally owned energy utility Kredsløb, who faces legal obligations to ensure that the energy solutions provided will not be an economic burden for the consumers. Mixing energy sources such as wind and solar and combining it with storage solutions (e.g. batteries) becomes key. Yet challenges are abundant. It begs the question: how can a city integrate all these solutions in its limited geography and still get stakeholders ranging from consumers, businesses, and local politicians onboard?

Speakers:

Rolf Johnsen, Director, Climate & Energiy, Aarhus Municipality

Samir Abboud, CEO, Innargi

Bjarne Munk, Director, Kredsløb

Time: Thursday May 15 at 16.00-17.30
Auditorium: To be determined

Chair: Klaus Butterbach-Bahl, Professor, Aarhus University

In order to secure global food supply within a safe planetary operating space, a more holistic view of food production is needed to exploit synergies and minimize trade-offs between technological and nature-based pathways to reduce the overall footprint on nature at local, regional and global scales. This is particularly important as agricultural soils in Denmark and worldwide are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, especially of N2O, but also of CH4, e.g. in the case of rice cultivation. In addition, agricultural soils are often significant sources of atmospheric CO2, as soil C stocks can be volatilized due to inadequate soil management, especially when organic soils are used for agricultural production. Reducing the environmental footprint of agricultural ecosystems used for feed and food production requires innovative and sustainable management strategies, such as intercropping, cover crops, inclusion of legumes in crop rotations, agroforestry, to name a few. Such strategies can not only minimize GHG emissions from agricultural soils and nutrient losses from agricultural landscapes through hydrological and gaseous pathways, but also benefit soil health and biodiversity, while increasing the resilience of agricultural production systems to climate change and climate extremes.

Speakers: 

To be updated