 Hello everyone. I'd like to wish you a very warm welcome to boosting Europe's screen transition at the World Economic Forum Davos agenda. My name is Sarah Kelly. I am thrilled to moderate this session. The central question today is how to boost Europe's screen transition. We'll get a check on the implementation of the European Green Deal and the private sector's contribution to what is one of the world's most ambitious plans for unlocking long-term growth and prosperity. Now the World Economic Forum's CEO Action Group for the European Green Deal is working to accelerate the green transition through private sector action. We're going to be hearing a lot more about that and some details on those initiatives over the next hour. It's my honor to introduce our distinguished speakers. Franz Timmermans is Executive Vice President for the European Green Deal at the European Commission. Theresa Rabera is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Ecological Transition of Spain. Liam Condon is President at Bayer Crop Science and Esther Bijet is President and CEO of Novo Science. Thank you so much to all of you for joining us and we're just waiting on the Executive Vice President to join us. I'd like to begin with Deputy Prime Minister Theresa Rabera and ask you about your experiences because you really know how to bring international parties together. You organized COP25, you were one of the architects of the Paris Climate Accord. Spain, of course, has been one of the worst hit economies in the EU by the pandemic. Through that lens, tell us a little bit more about the action plan when it comes to implementing the recovery package and the policy foundation that you are laying in Spain and maybe some of the opportunities for the private sector. Thank you. Thank you so much for this nice question and hello everybody. I'm very happy to join this very interesting panel. I think that very precisely what we need to do is to ensure that any single cent is properly invested in order to create the transformation we need to accelerate. So the recovery is perceived like an opportunity in Spain to change, to sift the future that we needed to build in any case. So at least 40% of the total public spending will be addressing climate concerns, both mitigation and building adaptation and resilience. And as it was stated from the Commission since the very beginning, the whole package will be under the principle of no harm. So everything needs to be consistent. It's not just a question of investing some part of the money to do what we need to do and we forget about the rest. It is that everything needs to be consistent. And then we need to identify what are the drivers that can facilitate the acceleration of others investing their money in the right direction. This is why we paid much attention around the energy transition, the energy transformation in the different pieces of the transformation that we need to do. So boosting energy efficiency, both the buildings and infrastructure sector, but also in terms of industry need to be prepared to be much more efficient and to work on some other pieces which are a little bit more innovative between the same thing that we need to combine the full renewable energy system with a much more sound storage system. And this will be very interesting in terms of industrial opportunities, but also in terms of addressing the market regulation and the market opportunity market mechanism to play this properly within the transformation. And a couple of additional things that I guess are quite important. One of them taking the industry connected to the transformation, so the mobility piece, for instance, thinking in terms of the whole value chain, both industrial and services and not just counting on cleaner or clean energy, but also the industrial pieces of the value chain and the services connected to this value chain and the green finance going beyond green bonds that addressing these aspects as the people working on green taxonomy as I'm sure that Thomas will be commenting later on how far we can be consistent with risk and to send the right signals in terms of value and cost without forgetting a very final and important comment in green and blue agenda, natural based solutions in order to face the challenges in terms of resilience and adaptation. And as you implement that on the public side, it's also important to highlight and one of the main goals of this session is the fact that there are financing gaps, of course, and that the commission has really, you know, drawn the line out and calls on the private sector to fill some of those. But that I'd like to turn to you, Lea, because we know that the food supply chain is estimated to contribute to about a quarter of global emissions. Agriculture is of course a really big part of that. So there's a lot of potential here for decarbonization in that area to be a real game changer. To that end, you're leading one of the CEO action group's most promising initiatives in terms of impact and scope. So if you could first tell us a little bit more about that initiative, about the CEO action group, and what you hope to achieve in what is known as a Lighthouse project. Sure. Thanks a lot, Sarah, and it's great to be with you all on this panel. So the CEO action group was actually born from some criticism at the World Economic Forum that we were spending too much time talking and not spending enough time on really driving progress through coalitions and basically multi-stakeholder approaches to really find more systemic solutions to the big challenges that we're facing today. And there's a few examples of what the CEO action group is working on. One, as you've mentioned, and one that I'm most closely connected with a variety of other CEOs and very forward-thinking companies, is the whole topic of decarbonizing the food system. As you rightly say, agriculture and food is today a big part of the challenge of climate change, but agriculture is one of the few industries in the world where you have the possibility to actually sequester carbon, not just reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but actually sequester carbon. So we can actually, if we do agriculture in the right way, we can actually make agriculture and the food system part of the solution to climate change. So against that background, what we've done is basically set up a European carbon farming coalition, multitude of companies involved, companies like Swiss Reeds, Euridish, to fill that financing gap, as you said, seeds and crop protection companies like ourselves, Bayer and Syngenta, but also big food companies like Nestle, Nova Zimes is also involved, satellite imagery companies like Planet Labs, companies like DSM, so a variety of companies all working together. We're basically trying to figure out three things. One is we've got to get in place a carbon accounting methodology for agriculture. This doesn't exist today, a standardized approach just doesn't exist today, and we've got to help develop this approach because that's the only way that we can actually track that we're making progress. Second thing is we've got to get incentivization of farmers right. Everybody wants farmers to pay more attention to the environment. Farmers live off the environment. Everybody wants them to look after biodiversity in a better manner, but initially this might cost additional costs in the short term for farmers and additional risk. So we need to make sure that they're incentivized to be part of this solution and not that they're left on the margins and left carrying only the costs. And the third part is we need to educate and better educate consumers about the climate footprint of their food choices. I think if everybody knew what the climate footprint was of their food choices, like they know about nutritional labeling or calories, they would take much more informed choices. So this is what the coalition is going to work on. We've only got nine harvests left until 2030, so we really got to move fast. And I know there's a ton of companies out there, NGOs, academia, we got to get a much bigger coalition going to have a really systemic impact. So that's my final appeal. Come on board, let's do this together, the tremendous opportunity. Nine harvests left and a unique opportunity for other stakeholders and actors to potentially get involved in your lighthouse project, which is called decarbonizing the food chain we have to mention. Esther, I'd like to turn to you, because Liam just also mentioned your company, which is a biotech company. Focusing on industrial enzymes, you have this pioneering technology that is essential really to the green future. The Commission has also acknowledged just how key this technology is to accelerating the transition and bringing the goals forward. Explain to us why this work is so important and how it can boost the future. Excellent. Thank you, Sarah, for this beautiful introduction. Very little to add from my side, but especially thank you and to UEFA for driving initiatives like today and for hosting us in the panel. The green transition, as you said, it's dear to our core values. It's dear to our purpose, to our mission, to whom we are. We are a well-living biotech company, not only enzymes, but everything that biotechnology embraces, including microorganism, and we use the biotechnology to provide responses to bring answers to the society's most pressing needs. That means solutions that they have to reduce energy. That means solutions that they lead to lower waste reduction. That means solutions that they lead to lower raw material consumption, or that they enable healthier solutions for the consumers, lower food waste. So across the whole value chain. And for sure, we welcome the EU Commission's Green Deal. The Green Deal, it's not only a solid path for transforming the green economy, but it's also the EU to a green economy. But it's also a holistic invitation for our companies, for all the companies to step up and to step in. So having said that, let me answer, then go back into your question and looking at the challenges that the society and the statement that you make that there is no question that biotechnology is part of the solution. So what we companies can do, biotech companies can do to make the transition faster. It's a very simple answer. One of them is we just have to do what we set for, for our just deliver, just continue to bring in innovation, continue to bring in solutions that will make both small steps to reaching our target, but also breakthrough a solution that will move us closer to our aim. I can confidently say that the toolbox, then the capabilities are here. Potential for biological or for biotech, it's also much, much broader and what we're seeing at this moment. And also as Tim mentioned, as was mentioned by Liam, we cannot do this alone. We must have the dialogue and we must have the cooperation with the right political pool to accelerate that implementation to innovation. I think it was Teresa who said that it's about consistency and we can only move as fast as our slowest part. And looking at that consistency, if you think on whom are we and the world that we live, we live in a world which is based on a trillion dollar fossil infrastructure and it's also based on a trillion dollar fossil economy. That's okay. It's logical. It's for a good reason. It's our history. It's our past, but it cannot be our future. And that means this world that for biotech and biotechnology solutions, they face with the standards, they face with challenge, they face with regulations, data demands, tests, assessments that they are based on the fossil and the chemical paradigm. That means that solutions that they are environmental family solutions, they need to go to the same regulations that were developed to deal with very high risk chemicals. And what that means for no reason, for no upside for the world, it leads to a delay. So we're fully in to make that transition. We're accepting the challenge. And I believe that we can do a little bit more. I mean, it's not only that we're 100% committed, but we as our companies, we have to accept the responsibility to be part of the change, to being the guidance, to bring the articulated value propositions to describe the impact that our technology can deliver in a way that it's clear, that it's comprehensive, in a way that we can guide the path for set no regulatory frameworks for the biosolutions, a parallel path that still fulfills its purpose. It still protects the safety, it still protects the society, it still protects the nature, but it decoupled from our paradigm of fossil based and then we can move faster. And I think it's possible. We have one very clear example that shows that we can do it when we as a society, as a human beings will rally to uncommon case. Just look at what we've done with COVID. If there is one, if there is one good thing about COVID is how we can rally together, change the paradigm and towards one clear purpose, which was bring the vaccination faster, change the paradigm of regulation and enable it without compromising on the quality of the solutions and answer that the society needs. So I'm excited on being part of the journey, but I know it's a long journey. So we have to go there by one step after the other. Thank you so much, Essa. And I think earlier somebody was just agreeing with you. So that's a nice sign and a panel like this. Sorry, I could not hear it very well. So that's okay. That's okay. You know, I'm hearing, of course, some common themes that are really consistent actually with some of the goals of this session, which is really to bring, you know, public and private together and to establish some opportunities where the private sector can fill some of the gaps. And so I just like to, because you know, we're going to be going into the more informal part of the session in just a couple of minutes. Before we do so, I'd like to ask the Deputy Prime Minister, Theresa Rivera, if you could just quickly, and I'm going to ask everyone to do this in about a minute or less, please tell us where you see potentially some greater opportunities between the private and the public sectors to accelerate the green transition. Perhaps you might want to talk with that a little bit in the context of some of the sectors that you are perhaps focusing on and targeting for investment in your own country, or perhaps also in the context of ways to utilize, for example, top 26 that's coming up later this year. Well, this is too many issues for just one minute, but I will try to summarize some ideas. The first of them, they need to think in the transformational pathway being pragmatic. So we know that it reached today so that people can experience the success of the transformation and facilitating what it has to come next. And in that context, it's true that energy instructors is a good field to find ourselves together, a public and private or as it was also commented when working with farmers and the recovery of ecosystems, there may be some drums of improvement where there may be some chemical services or a water industry that can be pretty interesting in terms of combining the two things. In the mid and long run, it is interesting to find out what about the most innovative approaches I was talking of storage or green hydrogen. And in terms of instrumental, it is very important to ensure that the finance industry has easy tools available to bridge what we've got with what we need. For the crop, I would say that we need to be very, how to say, aggressive and convincing. And I think that we are hearing very interesting suggestions coming on how to accelerate the energy signals, how to accelerate the finance signals, how to accelerate the fields that people take care of, soil, food security, soils and agriculture. So I think that the packet should be balanced, should be quite ambitious and quite consistent. And the messages coming in very strong, bold and consistent manners would be very, very important to push this agenda forward at the right speed in the domestic and international dimensions. Deputy Prime Minister, thank you so much for that. Liam, I'd like to turn to you next. What more would you like to see from your peers? One minute or less. Yeah, sure. So let me stay as concrete as possible and stay on the topic of the European Carbon Farming Coalition. I think beyond private companies industry, there's three areas where we can enhance collaboration. One is, of course, on the political side. For this to be successful, this coalition to be successful, there has to be an adequate regulatory framework. So I think here it's essential that we have this public element of collaboration. Second area is collaboration with academia, because whatever we're doing, we have to be making sure that it's a science-based approach and that the approach is something that can be objectively verified. And here I think academia can ensure that we're working to the highest degrees of rigor as possible. And the third one I'd say is NGOs. I think whenever you get a coalition together, and particularly a private industry is involved, there's always a question of whether or not this is only going to benefit that the company's involved. And we've got to make sure that this is an inclusive approach, that it's not only good for companies who are involved, but it's got to be good for consumers and it's got to be good for the planet. So this is where I see a tremendous opportunity for a broader-based coalition beyond private industry. Liam, thank you so much. Esther, over to you. What would you like to see? One minute or less. I would like to see more of what I'm hearing, and I would like to see it consistently form moving in that direction. Listen, the Green Deal is a huge opportunity. It's a call for action for the companies, and we are ready. We're ready to step up and take the challenge. But we need to stay firm on that direction. We have a very clear target. That's not changing. We simply need to continue to stay aligned, work in a collaborative approach, but then also don't underestimate the value of the small steps, make it much faster, much easier to accelerate the changes. So we can accelerate the changes. I think Europe has an opportunity to become the driver of change, to become the leader of change in the world. We have the technology, we have the paradigm, we have the network, we have the consumers also appreciation, and I think this is a change that we cannot miss. Thank you so much, Esther. We have joining us also today, I have to mention. The co-chair of the CEO Action Group, I mentioned the CEO Action Group a little bit earlier. He also is the CEO of AXA, Thomas Buvel. And I'd just like to, before we enter the more informal part of our session, which is really action-oriented with the many stakeholders and executives that we have joining us in this session, Thomas, I'd like to ask you first for your impressions of what you have been hearing. We had been hoped to have been joined by the Executive Vice President of the Commission, Timomans. We've been trying to connect with him. There are apparently some technical issues, but we know that CEOs such as yourself met with him last year in Davos. There was a big conversation about what the private sector could do to help the Commission with this goal of becoming climate neutral by 2050, an accelerating action, and that there are a lot of gaps to fill. So perhaps you can tell us what progress has been made over the past year, how you see the momentum right now, and where you would like to see greater action perhaps from some of the people who might be on this call right now. Thank you, Sarah. And despite the fact that the European Commission is not with us today, but he certainly was us in spirit and I'll show later on also what has happened during that year. First of all, I'm very delighted that we gather here today to really talk about this very central issue, how can we improve the collaboration and the cooperation between the private sector and the public sector to really find the right and pragmatic response to this massive climate challenge. On behalf of Fajke, with whom I co-chair the CEO Action Group, I really would like to thank all the members again and Liam has perfectly illustrated it. There are some very concrete lighthouse projects in which we work together to really rally the members. It is clear this is only a start. We wish, as Liam pointed out, to have far more people on board and I think that we're certainly going to happen and what we've also heard today, which was very much in the spirit of the beginning of this initiative, how can we make sure that the climate challenge is tackled hand-in-hand with the economic recovery programme post-COVID. The notion of building back better was very much at the beginning and throughout of all of this discussion. We started this discussion with the European Commission with Franz Tirmens about a year ago in Davos. We were still together physically, but there was a lot of engagement from both sides and I would really like to thank again the European Commission for this continued engagement and the big support that they have given us. The private sector is fully ready to take this challenge and will certainly take part in that challenge, but I do believe in going back to what you said, Sarah. There are some needs that are required from the public authorities in order to move really forward and some of them have already been mentioned and for me there is four things that are important. Number one is clearly the support. We have heard this in this session a lot, but obviously when you go further down and you look at the implementation of projects, sometimes it takes a long time. It is not as pragmatic as we always wish to have it and certainly when you look at when are the recovery programmes really getting operational, there is still a lot of time to be gained to be fast. The second one for me is around clarity. Clarity around what is this green transition in particular when you come to the transition part and you look at I would say the olive coloured sources of energy, for example nuclear, for example gas, we need clarity around that and the taxonomy that is now moving in the right direction would give us an important piece of that, but the clarity is not only on a European level to be achieved, it is also to be achieved internationally because we don't want to find ourselves later on confronted with a sector specific requirement and with a then a geographically different requirement and standard. This would be very, very, very difficult to implement and then certainly when we look at the third point which is very much around the incentives. Liam mentioned the example of the farmers. The incentives today need to be looked at to my mind across the entire value chain and Theresa mentioned that we look a lot at the energy sector, but we need to look at it along the entire value chain and for me the fourth piece is really around a standardised and it should be underlined standardised science-based metrics. Today we have an inflation of metrics, it's very difficult how to orient yourself and we need to make sure that together we come to a simple explainable measure that we can all orient ourselves towards, but I'm very grateful for the support, very grateful for the progress that we have achieved and there is a lot of energy in the group as you've seen beforehand to really continue this journey and embark as many companies as we can and as we need to to really tackle this challenge. Thank you very much Sarah again. Thank you very much Thomas, move out.