Will the Ukraine war derail the green energy transition? How can governments and the financial system work together to expand, deepen, and accelerate the global energy transition to net zero emissions? What innovation, trade, and investment opportunities exist for green growth? How can private and government finance be realigned and unified to best support countries and trading partners in meeting their climate goals in times of crisis? These and other questions engaged more than 140 participants from more than 25 countries at the third IfTI Symposium 2022. On site at the Faculty of Business Administration and Industrial Engineering of the University of Applied Sciences Offenburg in Gengenbach and online on the screen, there was agreement on the need for a green transformation of the economy, but also requires efforts. "An ecological, innovative and crisis-proof economy is the challenge of our time. Governments, companies, and civil society must work together to master this tremendous challenge," said Prof. Dr. Andreas Klasen, scientific director of IfTI and Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford.

And so more than 50 high-ranking experts from politics, business and academia presented approaches, combined with innovation, trade and environmental policy and can serve as instruments for "saving the world". Among the participants were Xiana Méndez, State Secretary at the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Economy, and Tourism; Neil Gray, Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development in Scotland with special responsibility for refugees from Ukraine; Volker Schebesta, State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport in Baden-Württemberg; and Dr. Franziska Brantner, Parliamentary State Secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection. There were also numerous representatives from international development banks as well as companies such as Siemens and Deutsche Bank. "Innovative strategies for net-zero emissions, rapid and joint action by the public and private sectors, also at the international level - these are the key results of the discussions at the IfTI Global Symposium 2022," said Andreas Klasen at the end, pleased with the great success.

The participants had gained inspiration on the day before at the German Scotland Forum at the same location. The Scottish government, Scottish Development International (SDI) and Offenburg University of Applied Sciences had invited participants to learn more about Scotland as the home of world-class green projects and companies close to net-zero emissions.