Responsibility and Resilience in a Changing Climate

speakers

Hilda Flavia Nakabuye

Founder, Fridays for Future, Uganda

Hilda Flavia Nakabuye is a Ugandan climate, gender and environmental rights activist, farmer, and founder of Uganda’s Fridays for Future movement. Her activism focuses on gender equality, racial diversity in climate movements, and environmental concerns such as protecting Lake Victoria and challenging the fossil fuel industry.
Hilda holds advisory roles in global initiatives, including the New European Bauhaus High Level Round Table and she has spoken at high-profile events such as COP28 and the UN General Assembly, World Mayors Summit, demanding urgent climate action. She has also contributed to Greta Thunberg’s The Climate Book and appeared in documentaries highlighting climate activism.

Dr. Angela Huston Gold

CEO, The Resilience Project, Italy

Angela Huston Gold is a systems change strategist and public health expert with experience across more than 20 countries, partnering with governments, UN agencies, and civil society on water, public health, and climate action. She now leads The Resilience Project, working with young people on the frontlines of climate and social justice to build the foundations for resilient movements, while calling for large-scale structural change. Angela holds a PhD in civil engineering and a master’s in heterodox economics and political ecology.

Katrin Kivi

Ambassador at Large for Human Rights and Migration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Estonia

Katrin Kivi has been part of Estonia’s Foreign Service since 1993, serving in several key diplomatic positions in Paris, UNESCO, and the EU.  She was Estonia’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark (2011-2015), to the Council of Europe (2015-2019), and to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Singapore and Sri Lanka (2019-2023). In 2023, she was appointed Ambassador-at-Large for Human Rights and Migration, co-chaired the Media Freedom Coalition, and led Estonia’s UN Human Rights Council campaign. In 2024, Katrin became a member of the Council of Europe’s Steering Committee on Democracy (CDDEM) and a year later, she was elected Chair of the same Committee.

Dr. Benjamin Klasche

Tallinn University, Germany/Estonia

Benjamin Klasche is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Tallinn University. He is also Co-Director of the Central and Eastern European Security Hub (CEEShub). His book, A Relational Approach to Governing Wicked Problems (Palgrave MacMillan 2023), co-authored with Peeter Selg and Georg Sootla, argues for a need to rethink governance as a process to spur its potential for addressing problems such as the Climate Crisis.

Kaire Kuldpere

Environmental Manager, Utilitas, Estonia

​Kaire Kuldpere is the Environmental Manager at Utilitas, a leading energy group in the region focused on sustainable heat and power solutions. She brings extensive experience in environmental and sustainability issues, including her previous role at the National Audit Office, where she worked on complex topics across energy, infrastructure, and other sectors, also contributing to international projects. In her current role, Kaire supports the development of more sustainable and responsible energy systems.

Dr. Lauri Laanisto

Professor of Macroecology, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonia

Lauri Laanisto is a theoretical ecologist with a wide range of interests regarding mostly plants and other sessile organisms, and their interactions on larger spatial and temporal scales. He studies plant stress polytolerance and how interactions with other organisms change the tolerance patterns. He is also focusing on polar ecosystems in understanding biodiversity and functional ecology patterns in extreme climatic conditions. As the human footprint on nature is becoming bigger and bigger, he is also studying long-term effects of nature tourism and recreation on vegetation on and around nature trails across the world.

Laura Larelli

Environmental Technologist, Spacedrip, Estonia

Laura Laurelli is an environmental technologist working at the intersection of water systems, sustainability, and environmental governance. At Spacedrip, she focuses on water quality monitoring, product development, and regulatory processes related to water reuse and circular solutions. Her work combines technical expertise with systems thinking, contributing to data-driven environmental decision-making and innovation.

Laura has also worked in ESG consulting and has been actively engaged in climate and energy initiatives, including renewable energy communities and civic advocacy for fossil fuel phase-out. She brings a multidisciplinary background combining water technology, environmental data analysis, and international sustainability engagement, alongside experience in community energy initiatives and climate policy advocacy. She holds a BSc in Environmental Technology and Management from Tallinn University of Applied Sciences.

Seán O’Connell

UNDP Policy Specialist, Global Focal Point on Environmental Justice, UNDP, Switzerland

Seán O’Connell is the Global Focal Point on Environmental Justice with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), based in Geneva, Switzerland. Seán provides support to governments, justice sector actors, business, civil society and other actors on advancing environmental justice, upholding environmental rule of law and protecting the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Seán has previously been posted in Viet Nam and Lao PDR with UNDP focusing on human rights, rule of law, access to justice and responsible business practice. Before joining UNDP Seán worked with the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Justice of Ireland. Seán is an Attorney at the New York State Bar, holding an LLM in Human Rights Law.

Teele Pehk

Democracy artist and post-growth advocate, Estonia

Teele Pehk is an urbanist, and a democracy artist and fitness trainer, working on open governance and citizen assemblies in Estonia and beyond. Her favorite tool for societal change is the deliberative mini-public (citizen assemblies, climate assemblies) that she, together with her teams in different organisations, has experimented with four times in Estonia. The latest national mini-public was around Good Life. She is a member of the Degrowth Estonia NGO. 

Teele has previously worked with democracy innovation at the DD Center for Democracy, coordinated civil society collaboration at the Green Tiger Foundation, consulted on Open Governance at the Government Office of Estonia, and directed the Estonian Cooperation Assembly. As an urbanist, she directed the NGO Estonian Urban Lab. Teele is also one of Estonia’s democracy fitness trainers.

Satu Santala

Managing Director, Nordic Development Fund, Finland

Satu Santala is the Managing Director of NDF. Before joining NDF, she served as Associate Vice-President in the External Relations and Governance Department at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). She brings extensive experience in international relations and development, having held a range of roles at the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs since 1994.
Most recently, prior to IFAD, she was Director General for Development Policy. She also served as Executive Director at the World Bank, representing the Nordic and Baltic countries. She holds a Master of Political Science from Åbo Akademi in Finland.

Leonard Schurg

Head of Research and Development, The Flipflopi Project, Portugal/Kenya

Leonard Schurg is a hands-on climate tech practitioner and advisor specializing in scaling hardware from prototype to production. He works at the intersection of circular economy, process engineering, and commercial strategy, helping climate tech companies navigate the critical transition from demonstration to economically viable deployment. At Flipflopi, Leonard leads R&D and systems development, translating appropriate engineering into scalable, community-embedded solutions on Kenya’s Swahili Coast.

The Flipflopi Project is a Kenyan social enterprise that collects and processes ocean-bound plastic waste from coastal communities, transforming it into stunning furniture, blending traditional craftsmanship and circular economy. Operating out of the small island of Lamu, Flipflopi combines grassroots community engagement with material innovation, making the case that environmental justice and viable commercial models are not in tension, but an opportunity.

Heidi Solba

President and CEO, Let’s Do It World, Estonia

Heidi Solba has spent over three decades at the intersection of civic leadership, institutional strategy, and international cooperation. As President and Head of Global Network of Let’s Do It World, she built the world’s largest civic environmental network — spanning 211 countries and mobilising 114 million people — recognised by the UN as an official International Day in 2024. Her career spans the private sector, also Enterprise Estonia, and the global stage. She holds dual Master’s degrees, is honoured with Estonia’s Order of the White Star, and is a fellow of the Nelson Mandela Global Academy for Social Change.

Iryna Stavchuk

Interim Director for the Central & Eastern Europe and Ukraine Programmes, European Climate Foundation, Ukraine

Iryna is the co-founder of two prominent Ukrainian NGOs – Ecoaction and Kyiv Cyclists’ Association (U-Cycle) – and has been working for many years within civil society in Ukraine and internationally. In addition, she has coordinated Ukrainian and regional networks of civil society groups working on climate change issues.

Before joining the ECF, Iryna worked for the Ukrainian government as Deputy Minister and was responsible for climate change policies, European integration, international relations and biodiversity. She was coordinating the process of NDC updates and introduction of monitoring, reporting and verification of industrial GHG emissions as the first step for the development of a national emissions trading scheme.

Andrus Treier

CEO, Environmental Investment Centre, Estonia

Andrus Treier is the CEO of Environmental Investment Centre (EIC), he has led the organisation for more than seven years. EIC is a provider of innovative, smart and impactful solutions in the Estonian environmental landscape. With the support of EIC and various sources of financing, more than 27,000 environmental projects have been carried out with a total of more than 2.9 billion euros in grants. In addition, EIC sets up and leads projects and initiatives to enhance the good state of environment and to search and offer additional funding for environmental actions to meet the climate goals of Estonia. 

Previously, Andrus Treier has led the government owned guarantee and loan institution Kredex. He has been a CEO and CFO in multiple companies and worked as an auditor and consultant in an international business consulting firm KPMG. He has a master’s degree in strategic management from University of Tartu.

Margus Tsahkna

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Estonia

Before taking on the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2023, Margus Tsahkna also served as Minister of Defence, Minister of Social Protection, and as a member of the Riigikogu across three parliamentary terms over a two-decade political career. He studied theology, law, and international law at the University of Tartu and the University of Toronto.