Over the weekend I was at an environment conference on the tiny island of San Servolo, just off the coast of Venice. You are surrounded by water on all sides, stretching for miles.
Given this visual reminder of how low-lying Venice is it’s hard not to think about the increasing threat of flooding and the long-term implications of climate change for this historic city and the surrounding region of wetlands as well as towns and villages along the coast.
Venice is, after all, famous for its aqua alta, (high waters) and floods. It sits on the Mediterranean’s biggest lagoon which has an average depth of less than one metre. With increasing numbers of extreme storms, it’s clear that rising waters here are likely to cause greater and greater damage to people’s homes and livelihoods.
So in many ways the view was an ideal geographical prompt for the fourth Dolomite Conference on Global Governance of Climate Change and Sustainability, organised by the Vision thinktank. The conference brought together speakers from around the world to discuss climatic challenges and ideas for what could mitigate those changes. Debates ranged widely. From the way flooding and wild fires may make it difficult, or even impossible, for people to access insurance for their homes to how the health of soil is not being valued and its ability to grow crops is steadily declining.
I spoke to some delegates to see what they thought was the biggest challenge that their home faced from climate change.
Los Angeles
Paulina Velasco is the deputy chief of staff for district six in Los Angeles. She sees the biggest challenge ahead as “making sure that we have all the people in the room who know what’s going on”.
“Not just the academics talking about the statistics, but also people in the community, the people who have asthma because the air quality is so bad and they live next to a freeway, ensuring that it’s not just one way [of] looking at things from a high level, but making sure that everyone has an understanding and we can act as a community.”
Looking ahead to the upcoming LA Olympics 2028, Velasco felt there was an opportunity to change behaviour that could help the city tackle climate change threats.
“The question is not just what’s going to happen in the Olympics or what’s going to happen in the world cup, but how are we going to recycle all the plastic or make sure we drive less.”
It was about what was going to happen so that people act differently, taking more public transport, for instance, in ways that can be sustained after the Olympics, she said.
Brazil
Julia Paletta, a PhD researcher at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said the issue that concerned her most about Brazil was emissions coming from land use change. Brazil is an agricultural country and the pressing issue was extending agriculture into new areas, such as the Amazon, causing deforestation. By some estimates the Amazon rainforest could become a dry grassland if deforestation continues at pace.
“With Brazil hosting Cop30 [the UN climate conference] this year I think the big discussion is going to be around the Amazon,” she added. She felt it was going to be “a very important moment for the global community being there and seeing the Amazon”. Not only because this was a pristine area, but also a very important place to be preserved. “It’s very important not only to Brazil, but overall to the world.”
Belgium
Taube Van Melkebeke is head of policy at the Green European Foundation, a foundation aligned to the European Green party arranges debates and training around green issues.
She said: “The biggest hurdle for Belgium is a lack of systemic planning that really takes into account different dimensions, both the short and the long term, such as social and economic aspects, and energy security.”
“I think there is a lack of political long term-ism, which is, of course, partially embedded in our political systems. But I also do think that there is a lack of political will and political insights to really connect the dots.”
Read more: Flood-prone Houston faces hard choices for handling too much water
I often find that conferences can be gloomy places where people come together to discuss problems and can easily disappear into a rabbit-hole of depression, rather than proposing solutions. This conference’s organisers decided to do something different, by asking postgraduate students to put forward discussion points with suggestions of what could change, not just what was wrong.
There was an excellent session on soil erosion, which covered everything from the weight of tractors and farm vehicles, to how societies have focused on machinery and forgotten the importance of keeping the soil healthy. Students from Bocconi University came up with proposals and then experts from farming, policy and government were asked to respond.
It is this kind of approach that could make a long-term difference. Putting people from different walks of life into the same room, and asking them all what happens next and what could work has got to be a fruitful way of creating change, and that feels positive.
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