Europe’s transformation: where People matter

"(...) The initiative Growth in Transition held its fourth international conference, entitled „Europe’s Transformation: Where People Matter”, on 14–15 November 2018 at the Austria Center Vienna.During the two-day event, plenary and parallel sessions featured inspiring speakers from politics, science, civil society and the private sector. Participatory conference formats enabled a dialogue between relevant stakeholders. With Austria holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2018, the conference was successful in reaching out to an international audience. The conference addressed transformation towards a sustainable society from very different perspectives. Conference topics ranged from social and distributional aspects of a fair society to the role of the financial sector in facilitating a sustainability transformation. In order to sustain and increase prosperity and quality of life in the long term, we will need economic strategies that use the planet’s resources responsibly. A special focus was put on the sustainable management of natural resource use and the mitigation of climate change. The conference considered what measures need to be taken at national and European level to achieve decarbonisation and a low-carbon society. (...)"