Wrapping up the three-day 4th Nobel Laureates Symposium on Global Sustainability, Professor George F. Smoot, 2006 Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics and Mary Ritter, International Ambassador & Former CEO of Climate-KIC, addressed an audience of more than 150 people at the closing public program, “Innovating for a Sustainable World: Securing a Future for Humanity.”

“I really want to focus on ‘Securing a Future for Humanity.’ Don’t take that for granted. There are many species who have been way more successful than humans that are now extinct,” he warned the audience. “We reached the planetary limit in terms of where we are exploiting things, about 20 years ago and it’s just been accelerating, we are using more and more and shipping more and more stuff around.”

“Any realistic vision of a sustainable future requires us to understand, design, and model the interconnected food, energy, and water system,” Professor Smoot noted. It will require advances in our science, engineering, economics, and some adjustments in our policy, he added. He cited the example of government support for LED light research and the energy efficient product that was developed as a result. In cities, where 40% of energy use comes from lighting, there is a huge potential for cutting energy use and costs. The city of Los Angeles cut its energy bill by 65% after switching to LED lights, Professor Smoot explained.

Ms. Ritter introduced the centers and academic programs that Climate-KIC (Knowledge Innovation Community) runs and the eco start-ups and SMEs that the organization has supported. Climate-KIC is the European Union’s main climate innovation initiative and Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on mitigating and adapting to climate change.

“Yes, there are big institutions and it is really important to have big business and it is really important to have universities, research institutions, very important to have the small and medium enterprises and the governments, the cities and the regional governments, but actually it is citizens that will in fact adopt and undertake many of the innovations that are needed for climate change. So everybody is important, and basically it is together that we are going to achieve addressing climate change,” Ms. Ritter concluded.

Professor Smoot and Ms. Ritter joined a panel discussion with Sonalie Galari-Este Figueiras, Founder & CEO, Ekowarehouse and Jong Lee, Chairman, RGL Holdings Ltd. Moderated by Charles Ng, Associate Director-General of Investment Promotion, Invest Hong Kong, the panels tackled the issues of how to encourage sustainable innovation from a technological, economic, and societal perspective.

Over the course of the Symposium, held for the first time in Asia, participants calling upon cities to tackle the dual challenge of population growth and climate change and seize the opportunity to lead the transition to sustainability. The Hong Kong Symposium focused on the role of cities in the face of climate change, under the title “4C: Changing Climate, Changing Cities” – a reference to the fact that global warming, if unabated, will reach four degrees Celsius already by the end of the century.

At the end of the symposium, the distinguished scientists signed a memorandum. The Symposium was co-hosted by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the Asia Society Hong Kong Center.

“We were honored to host such a thoughtful group of academics, young scientists, Nobel laureates and leaders from all over the globe for this first Nobel Symposium in Asia for such a powerful discussion on Climate Change, ” S. Alice Mong, Executive Director of the Asia Society Hong Kong Center said. “It has been a fabulous partnership with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research,” she added.

Shuttle services generously provided by BMW