Two Sides of the Same Coin: Climate Change Meets Migration

12:30 Registration and welcome lunch
13:00 Opening remarks      

• Mall Hellam, Open Estonia Foundation
• Diana Tamm, NGO Mondo 

13:15-13:30 Musical introduction by Marten Kuningas 

13:30 - 14:00 Discussion with president Kersti Kaljulaid and Mark Nuttall, social anthropologist; Professor and Henry Marshall Tory Chair in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. 

14:00 - 15:15 1st Panel Discussion - Climate and Migration: Challenges and Opportunities

Participants: Mark Nuttall, social anthropologist; Anthony Agotha, Senior Diplomatic Adviser of Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans; European Commission, entrepreneur - Triin Hertmann, a sustainable investment platform Grünfin founder, former COO at TransferWise and early employee of Skype and angel investor; Kertu Birgit Anton, Estonian Youth Activist (Fridays for Future).

Moderator: Prof. Helen Sooväli-Sepping, human geographer, Vice-Rector for Green Transition at Tallinn University of Technology, editor-in-chief of the Estonian Human Development Report 2019/2020

15:15-15:45 Coffee break and snacks

15:45 Environmental activist, host and producer of podcast on climate titled Hali Hewa, Abigael Kima  (Kenya) - video introduction to the second panel

16:00-17:30 2nd Panel Discussion. Focus: Future, Forms of Activism, Emotions and Behavior

Participants: Dominika Lasota, youth activist from Poland; Alesja Jagolnik, Youth Activist, Shokkin Group, Estonia; Maarit Jõemägi, teacher at Tallinn Secondary School No. 32; Tallinn Basic School Teacher of the Year 2018, 2019 and Kaisa Jõgeva, social scientist in the making; PhD student in sustainability transition at the Institute of Social Studies of the University of Tartu. 

Moderator: Marten Kuningas, socially conscious singer-songwriter

17:30 Drinks and mingling

Mark Nuttall is a social anthropologist, whose research has been carried out mostly in Greenland, Alaska, Canada, Finland, Scotland and Wales. He is interested in the anthropology and environmental history of weather and climate; environmental change and resource use issues in rural and coastal communities; the anthropology of energy and extractive industries; place, locality, depopulation and migration; identities and borderlands; and geopolitics. Mark reads sociology and social anthropology at the University of Aberdeen and did his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He is currently Professor and Henry Marshall Tory Chair in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. See more at marknuttall.com 

Kersti Kaljulaid served as the President of the Republic of Estonia from 2016-2021. Over the years, President Kaljulaid has robustly defended the principles underlying the Estonian society: democracy, human rights, equal treatment and freedom of speech.  One of the principles of her own time in office has been the one she set out upon her inauguration: “I am never silent when our security is in question, when our freedoms are at stake or when those weaker than us are treated unjustly.”In summer 2021, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed President Kaljulaid to the position of Global Advocate for the ‘Every Woman Every Child’ strategy on the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents around the world for the next two years. The head of state was also the first Estonian to be selected by the prestigious magazine Forbes as one of the world’s 100 most influential women.Kersti Kaljulaid has become a sought-after speaker at high-level forums on digital, security and foreign-policy topics and more broadly for analysing and interpreting social change.

Anthony Agotha is a Dutch diplomat since 1996 who served amongst others as deputy director of European Integration in the Foreign Ministry, spokesman in the Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels, national expert in the Turkey Team of the European Commission, deputy ambassador in Ljubljana, first secretary in the Permanent Representation to the EU, and member of the Office of the Secretary-General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is currently senior diplomatic advisor to the Executive Vice President of the European Green Deal Mr. Frans Timmermans at the European Commission in Brussels. He studied Public Administration/Political Science at the University of Twente (1995).

Triin Hertmann is the co-founder and COO of Grünfin. She has more than 20 years of experience in technology and fintech. Her early career in private equity and corporate finance led her to join Skype’s finance team in 2005 to help build the company's finance and planning processes. As the second employee at (Transfer)Wise in 2011, she helped set up the startup's payment operations and finance processes, and later was in charge of the company's global offices and people operations. She's an active angel investor, with a keen focus on impact start-ups and female founders.

Kertu Birgit Anton is an activist in Fridays For Future Estonia. She works on many topics there, including writing content for social media and pushing politicians to take meaningful climate action. Kertu is also a second-year law student in the University of Tartu. 

Helen Sooväli-Sepping is a human geographer and Vice-Rector for Green Transition at Tallinn University of Technology. She defended her doctoral dissertation in 2004 in human geography at the University of Tartu. Her academic interests include questions around sustainability aspects of city planning and spatial planning, as well as climate related challenges in the society. Helen has participated in multiple European and Nordic projects and in project evaluation committees as an external expert. She has also participated in the development of the policies of the Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Finance and in the conduct of studies. Helen is also editor-in-chief of the Estonian Human Development Report 2019/2020.

Marten Kuningas is an Estonian singer and songwriter and leading member of „Miljardid“. In the past he has hosted also TV shows and recently launched his first poetry book titled „Sabata koma“.  Regarding the climate catastrophe, Marten says he wants to be part of the solution rather than a passive consumer, and believes there is a way to restore the planet in a manner which is beneficiary to all living beings. 

Dominika Lasota is a 20-year-old climate justice activist from Poland and a member of the global youth movement - Fridays For Future. Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, she has been fighting alongside Ukrainian activists for a full european embargo on Russian fossil fuels. The LIVES OVER FOSSILS campaign she is coordinating with activists from across Eastern Europe has been featured in international media, inc. New York Times, CNN, The Guardian, Politico and more.

Maarit Jõemägi is a teacher at Tallinn Secondary School No. 32 where she teaches social studies, history, and health studies. She is the school's project leader for the UNESCO Associated School Network and the main organizer of the global education days. Last year she participated with students in Fridays For Future strike, organized World Clean Up days in her school and changed knowledges in Zoom meeting with her and japanese students about enviroment.

Alesja Jagolnik is a youth activist at Shokkin Group and Alesja also works as a youth worker. Her passion is art and everything connected with it. She loves graphic design, drawing, singing, writing poetry and creating new things. Her other passion is youth work, projects, volunteering and non-formal education. In the Shokkin Group she is taking care of the content, local projects and graphic part of social media. 

In recent years, Kaisa Jõgeva has been engaged in conceptualizing societal changes by completing the master's program "Change Management in Society". Kaisa has a background in psychology and has worked as a strategy consultant. She is currently taking her first steps in the world of social scientists and has started her doctoral studies, the overarching theme of which is how to bring about a major transition to a more sustainable society. More specifically, the doctoral thesis focuses on how to envision climate safe futures with young people and how to mediate meaning between experts and young people.