This year’s forum focuses on the joint contribution to protecting the environment: every person and every aspect of human action is called upon to contribute. Based on that, the forum's theme is Building Future Together … The Turning Point: Together We Can.

“Attacked recently by many pandemic crises, war disasters, socio-economic and climate catastrophes, we risk compromising the future of humanity,” said Alfonso Cauteruccio, president of Greenaccord Onlus.

“We need a radical paradigm shift, cultural and moral, that allows us to move from antipathy to empathy, from belligerence to brotherhood, from individualism to pluralism, because as we indicate in the title of our XVI international forum, the first after Covid, we will save the future only if we rebuild it together, in the conviviality of differences and the reduction of inequalities,” he added.

In all social, political, sportive, and economic fields of life, women are procuring incredible successes and their paths are increasingly inspiring the younger generations, who are looking for positive examples in a society increasingly wavering apart by violence and indifference. In particular, also due to the intimate relationship with the integrity of landscapes and the evidence that sports and competitive activity contribute to physical and psychological well-being, sport is at the centre of the second session held today, Thursday 10 October.

“We decided to open the forum with a reflection on women's empowerment to improve the conscious recognition of the value of what women are doing, with their creativity and genius and generosity, in the world, which includes activism, scientific research, political sensitivity, and concrete choices. It is clear that women have an extra edge and know how to be more determined,” stressed Cauteruccio.

A special space, planned with the contribution of Coni and Ussi (Unione Stampa Sportiva Italiana), will be allocated to the contribution of sport to environmental sustainability. Sport is a cure for the body and mind, an essential need, and if practised outdoors, it is nature that regenerates the person. Finally, the contribution of sports journalism to raising awareness among those who practise any sport should not be underestimated.

Ecological conversion, however, as periodically underlined by the main international reports that monitor the public policies' progress based on the institutions of mitigation and adaptation to climate change is above all a complex "political issue." The subsequent sessions, starting from Friday 11 October in Frascati, are therefore dedicated to the contribution of politics and institutions, as well as that of economics and finance and technology and business, with the primary and ambitious objective, through the participation of prestigious national and international speakers, not only to photograph the cognitive frameworks of our contemporary world, but also to provide a range of perspectives and opportunities for a fair and just ecological and energy transition.

In detail, observing what is happening in Europe, Africa and emerging countries, such as China or Latin America, the evolutions, between successes and critical issues, of sustainable development and the circular economy, renewable energy, regenerative and precision agriculture, urban de-carbonization, eco-digital technologies, and climate finance will be investigated.

"Paraphrasing the sociologist Beck, in our modern risk society, the collective challenge that must see us engaged, through the ethical and conscious use of new industrial and digital technologies, is that of adapting to increasingly intense and frequent natural phenomena and that of a profound and courageous revisiting of our daily lifestyles, as well as consumer practices,” stated Giuseppe Milano, general secretary of Greenaccord.

“That is because our current linear economic model has a painful impact on the planet’s fragile ecosystems, exacerbating the vulnerability of developing countries that today are the most affected by environmental disasters, despite being the least responsible for the growing carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. Today, sustainability and solidarity must be the two sides of the same coin: that in reality to be increased in the dictates of integral ecology, as Pope Francis always reminds us," he added.

A final reflection is dedicated to environmental communication, between scientific dissemination and civic diffusion, in the light of the fact that it is necessary to modify, under the pressure and influence of social media, languages and simplify contents without trivializing them to make ecological conversion "socially desirable" and, therefore, democratically acceptable.

This represents the 16th Greenaccord International Forum’s theme: we save and rebuild the world only together, learning to take care of it and preserve it for the well-being of future generations and all communities around the planet.