Green Modernisation of the Czech Republic 2024

14th of May 2024 8:00-21:00, Ball Games Hall of Prague Castle

The event is moderated by Jana Peroutková from Czech Television.

You can get to the conference this way:

Event Stream

You can also watch the event stream here: https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/16333552384

Programme

Speakers

Kurt Vandenberghe

Kurt joined the European Commission in 1996 and was appointed Director General of DG CLIMA in January 2023. Beforehand, he was the Green Deal and Health Advisor to President Ursula von der Leyen.

Kurt read French and Italian literature at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) and has a degree in Public and International Affairs from the University Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL). He also has a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Bologna, Italy and Washington DC, US.

Petr Hladík

The Minister of the Environment has been working on environmental issues for over ten years and is also close to agriculture. He was also responsible for environmental issues as First Deputy Mayor of Brno. In Brno, he managed to introduce a subsidy for the creation of green roofs or rainwater harvesting. During his tenure, he also managed to adopt and implement an action plan for a carbon-neutral Brno. As a result, the city started taking steps towards energy independence even before the energy crisis. Specifically, this means the installation of hundreds of roofs with photovoltaic panels, the construction of a state-of-the-art automated re-grading line, the construction of a third boiler for the energy recovery of waste and the introduction of systematic collection of bio-waste and a plan to build a biogas plant. Thanks to these and other projects promoting green spaces in the city, Brno has been awarded the E.ON Energy Globe or the Smart City title.

Since 2019, he has been Vice-Chairman of the KDU-ČSL and Chairman of the KDU-ČSL Expert Commission for the Environment. Together with former Environment Minister Anna Hubáčková, he prepared the programme of the SPOLU coalition for the environment and the government's programme statement in this area. 

Frederik Moch

Frederik Moch is the Head of the Structural, Industry and Service Policy Department at the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) in Berlin. Until 2019, he was a lecturer at the Berlin School of Economics and Law. Before joining the DGB, he also worked in the policy area at the German Solar Association. In addition to Industry and Service Policy, Frederik covers energy, environmental, climate, mobility, and crafts policy. DGS is focused on the just design of structural changes in the economy. 

Anna Kárníková

Anna has been the director of the prominent environmental organisation Hnutí DUHA - Friends of the Earth Czech Republic since 2019. She has been working in the non-profit sector since 2018 (2018-2019 she headed the Centre for Transport and Energy). In 2014-2017, she headed the Department for Sustainable Development at the Office of the Government, which provided cross-ministerial coordination on the sustainable development agenda. With her team, she prepared the development strategy Czech Republic 2030. She focuses on linking environmental and social issues. She studied at Charles University in Prague (European Studies) and London School of Economics and Political Science (Environmental Policy).

Ladislav Miko

Ladislav Miko is a Czech soil biologist, ecologist and environmentalist specializing in soil ecology and soil mite biology. He is the author of 70 scientific papers, several books and documentary films. He teaches ecology, environmental science and restoration ecology at Charles University in Prague and the University of Antwerp in Belgium.

He has served as Deputy Minister (2003 to 2005) and Minister of the Environment (2009) of the Government of the Czech Republic.

He joined the European Commission as Director for Biodiversity at DG ENV in 2005 and was then appointed Deputy Director General and Acting Director General of DG SANTE (2011-2017). From 2018 to 2021, he was appointed Head of the EC Representation for Slovakia. Since March 2022, he has served as Adviser to the Minister of the Environment and Special Representative of the Government of the Czech Republic for the international negotiations on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Michael Seidelin Haustorp 

For the last 15 years Michael has worked with climate change projects, strategic planning and public participation in the municipality of Lemvig (DK). With a background in urban planning and community development, Michael works to ensure appropriate and constructive processes for both developers and locals when establishing new production of renewable energy. Lemvig Municipality won the KL’s (Local Government Denmark (KL) is the association and interest organization of the 98 Danish municipalities) climate award in 2023 for setting up solar and wind farms with local support. 

Eliška Beranová

Eliška Beranová is a lawyer on the Responsible Energy team at the Frank Bold Society. She has long been involved in community energy and the transformation of the Czech energy sector towards clean, low-carbon energy sources. Since 2022, she has led the legislative group of the Community Energy Union.

Lucie Smolková

Lucie Smolková works at the Partnership Environmental Foundation. She works on training programmes to support community leaders. She deals with non-formal education and has implemented projects to promote climate education and entrepreneurship among young people. In 2019, she participated in the UN climate summit.

Václav Binar

Václav has invested in and built successful companies in the energy, investment banking, food and healthcare sectors and has implemented international engineering projects in Europe and the Middle East. He joined the HE3DA project in 2015 and his task was to transform Magna Energy Storage from a start-up producing battery cells based on a new Czech technology to a global player with a comprehensive product portfolio of battery storage and related technologies for the energy, road and maritime sectors. 

Tomáš Vrbický 

In 2016, he and his father Karel founded the development company NOHO. He believes that construction and development can be done with a human touch and that bricks and concrete can have a spiritual overlay. The modern neighborhood Neighborhood Kukleny, which he is building in a neglected brownfield of a former tannery in Hradec Králové, has the ambition to become the first carbon-neutral neighborhood in the Czech Republic. This is also thanks to green energy from the planned construction of its own wind power plants.

Milan Medek 

Milan Medek is a graduate of the Prague University of Economics and Business. Over the past 20 years, he has worked in managerial positions in the field of marketing; until 2016, he was the Director of Marketing and Product Development at Kooperativa. He has worked as a marketing consultant for corporate clients and taught marketing and Customer Service Relations at universities. Currently, he works as a sustainability manager at the insurance company Kooperativa and executive director of the Kooperativa Foundation.

Jenda Perla

Jenda co-manages the business association Change for the Better. He has experience in commercially focused management positions in B2B technology companies. His goal at Change for the Better is to grow the membership base and meet the goals set by member organizations in the area of Public Affairs.

Lukáš Rolf

He co-manages the business platform Change for the Better, which connects companies with each other and with sustainability experts, educates on ESG or business transformation and promotes systemic solutions at national and European level. Its role is to implement the impact strategy drawn up together with the members of Change for the Better and to build long-term partnerships. He draws on the diversity of previous experience at Adidas, Nano Energies or the DUHA Movement, and is guided by the motto: We are part of nature.

Petra Syrová

Petra Syrová is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Charles University and the chairwoman of the organization Walking through the City. She has long focused on the topic of safe and sustainable transport and the development of active urban mobility. She has been involved in a number of projects that have helped improve the pedestrian infrastructure around dozens of schools and promote walking as the best mode of transport for short distances. She is currently involved in organizational management, fundraising, and systems change for equitable transportation transformation in cities.

Tomáš Zeman

For the last thirteen years, Tomáš has worked in senior positions at IKEA's Swedish headquarters, where he was involved in strategic product range development and global supply chain management. His responsibilities included the transition from fossil fuels to sustainable alternatives and the development of ceramic recycling. At IKEA, he was also part of the group overseeing the development and compliance with the Supplier Code of Conduct (IWAY), which is based on international standards, conventions for human rights, environmental protection and employee safety.

In 2024, he moved to the position of Sustainability Manager for the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia region. His priorities include reducing the climate footprint, waste minimisation and reuse, and supporting the communities IKEA works with.

Ondřej Flanderka

At Skanska Residential, Ondřej is responsible for methodically leading the development teams in meeting the company's sustainability goals, reducing the energy consumption of buildings and finding new sustainable solutions for current and future residential projects.

He strengthened his expertise in the energy sector during his work placement in Germany, where he worked on innovative technologies in the energy sector, and before that in his role as an academic in the development and research of heat pumps and their use in sustainable construction. Andrew's ambition is to meet Skanska's global goal of reducing the carbon footprint of operations and product, and to be carbon neutral by 2045.

Jan Kaliba

Jan Kaliba is a climate correspondent for Czech Radio. Before that, he worked for six years as a permanent foreign correspondent in the USA. His reports from North America have twice won the international category Reportage at the Prix Bohemia Radio Festival. He is the recipient of the Journalistic Quail award for young journalists under 33. He co-founded Football Club, a quarterly magazine for football culture.

Václav Kurel 

Václav Kurel, Director of Carboneg and owner and founder of Benefit Plus. His desire to contribute to the fight against climate change led him to found Carboneg in 2021, a project that seeks to store carbon in the soil and restore life in the soil by supporting regenerative agriculture. Carboneg provides methodological and financial support to farmers and works closely with commercial companies in other sectors that are striving to achieve carbon neutrality.

Jakub Nekvasil

Jakub is an ambassador of the Climate Pact and founder of Telperion, a group that focuses on climate education and motivating students to action. With one of their projects "Climate Days" he was nominated for the Josef Vavroušek Environmental Award, which is awarded annually by the Partnership Foundation. He is the local coordinator of the Living Landscapes project, where he tries to retain water in the landscape around my home. He is trying to change the world around him for the better and do his best for a better climate future.

Michal Kalina

Graduate of the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University in Prague, journalist and manager, who has long been involved in transport, urban development and environmental issues. Member of the Environmental Commission of the Prague 8 Municipality, since March 2023 head of the Laboratory of Sustainable Urbanism of the AutoMat Association. He writes commentaries for Deník Referendum on current transport issues and participates in public debates.

Martin Sedlák

Martin Sedlák is currently the Programme Director of the Modern Energy Association, which is an umbrella platform for associations in the field of renewable energy, energy storage, smart grids, energy services and cogeneration. The Union of Modern Energy is actively involved in the shaping of the Czech energy sector: it offers recommendations for ideal forms of support for new solutions to manage the energy transition while strengthening the competitiveness of our economy. For its efforts to modernise the Czech energy sector, it has been awarded a prize in the Private Sector Personality category of the Smart Cities 2021 competition, which is regularly awarded by the Smart City Innovations Institute. In 2022-2023, he served as Deputy Prime Minister Marian Jurecka's Commissioner for Energy Poverty Solutions. Since 2023, he has served as Energy Advisor to the Minister of the Environment Petr Hladik.

Fredrik Jörgensen

Studied law and has been in the Swedish diplomatic service since the late 1980s. He has represented Sweden in Bonn, Pretoria and Rome, most recently as Swedish Ambassador to Copenhagen, Denmark. His career has brought him to Prague in 2020, where he focuses primarily on opening up societal issues in the areas of security, equality, democracy and sustainability, looking for ways in which Czechs and Swedes can inspire each other.

Laurence Tubiana

Laurence Tubiana is CEO of the European Climate Foundation (ECF) and a Professor at Sciences Po, Paris. She previously chaired the Board of Governors at the French Development Agency (AFD), as well as the Board at Expertise France (The French public agency for international technical assistance). Before joining the ECF, Laurence was France’s Climate Change Ambassador and Special Representative for COP21, and as such a key architect of the landmark Paris Agreement. Following COP21 and through COP22, she was appointed UN High-Level Champion for climate action. Laurence brings decades of expertise. From 1997—2002, she served as Senior Adviser on the Environment to the French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin. From 2009—2010, she created and led the newly established Directorate for Global Public Goods at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She founded in 2002 and directed until 2014 the Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). She has held academic positions including Sciences Po and as Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University. She has been a member of numerous boards and scientific committees, including the Chinese Committee on the Environment and International Development (CCICED).

Apolena Rychlíková

A Czech journalist, film screenwriter and director, and radio documentarian. In her film and journalistic work, she addresses issues of gender, social injustices, housing, and inequalities. She is the recipient of the Journalist Award for Best Commentary and the Journalist Quail Award for the best journalists under 33. She is a co-author of several successful books (PIKO, Eternal Nineties) and was the first Czech woman to be nominated for the prestigious European Press Prize.

Otakar Jiránek

The founder and co-owner of the company Country Life, a company that sells organic foods and was established in 1991. Country Life has stores and restaurants across the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and even has an ecological center in Nenačovice near Beroun. The eco-center was created by converting a cowshed and includes the so-called Ark, known as the first passive house in the Czech Republic.

Ondráš Přibyla

A theoretical physicist who has spent years studying communication and navigation in complex systems. Founder and director of the Fakta o klimatu project. He lectures on the topic of climate change at universities and companies. He focuses primarily on the physical nature of the problem and the strategy of transformation in the context of the Czech Republic and Europe.

Antonín Tym

Antonín Tym has been working on energy topics for the last 15 years, focusing on the research and utilization of shallow and deep geothermal energy and its integration into existing energy systems. Since 2019, he has been the manager of the RINGEN research infrastructure in Litoměřice, managed by the Faculty of Science at Charles University. Currently, he is involved in the preparation and implementation of the SYNERGYS project, which is one of the strategic projects of the Fair Transformation program in the Ústí Region.

Jan Korytář

Jan Korytář, an ecologist and former politician, is the founder of three environmental organizations focused on practical landscape restoration and biodiversity conservation. He has worked in the field for over 30 years. His focus is on revitalization projects in the so-called common landscape and engaging the public and businesses in these activities. He is the initiator of projects such as New Forest, Jablonné Wetlands, and Coalition for the Landscape. He is known for his criticism of the setup of agricultural and environmental subsidy systems, which he believes hinder necessary changes in our landscape.

Zuzana Vlasatá

Zuzana Vlasatá is an investigative journalist. She works as the deputy editor-in-chief of Deník Referendum, where she also leads the reporting team. She studied media studies and environmental studies at Masaryk University. She focuses on issues of ecology and oligarchy. She is the co-author of the bestseller "The Yellow Baron" (2017), which explores the business and politics of Andrej Babiš. In 2021, she and her colleague Brit Jensen won the Journalist Award in the investigative journalism category for their true-crime podcast "Operation Oil." She is also a board member of the Czech office of the International Press Institute (IPI).

Jana Drápalová

Jana Drápalová is a Czech politician and environmentalist. She graduated from the University of Agriculture in Brno. She worked as a zootechnician and then joined the Czech Union for Nature Conservation, where she focused on education in waste management. She was first elected to the Brno City Council in 1994 and has since been active in Brno's municipal politics, primarily focusing on the areas of the environment and urban development. Since 2002, she has been the mayor of the Brno-Nový Lískovec district, where she concentrates on improving quality of life and developing public spaces. She is active in projects modernizing apartments and schools.

Miroslav Trnka

A leading Czech scientist and expert in climatology, known particularly for his work in the field of climate change and its impact on agriculture and natural ecosystems. He serves as a senior researcher in the Department of Climate Change Impacts on Agrosystems at the Institute of Global Change Research of the Czech Academy of Sciences, where he conducts research on climate change and its effects on various aspects of life and the environment. He is the author of numerous scientific publications and lectures.

Radka Vladyková

From 2014 to 2018, she worked as the mayor of the town of Jesenice near Prague, which has a population of ten thousand, and gained extensive experience across all areas that local government deals with. Since February 2019, she has been working as the executive director of the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic. The main motto of her work for the Union is and will be to maintain and strengthen the Union's unique position in the field of public administration as an apolitical non-governmental organization that represents the majority of towns and municipalities in the Czech Republic. In 2020, she received the SMART CITY 2020 Personality award, primarily for promoting the Smart Cities and Towns ecosystem within the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic.

Peter Bednár

An architect and urban planner at the office of Jakub Cigler Architekti. He focuses on planning and public space in designing office complexes, mixed-use developments, housing, the development of brownfields, urban transportation, green spaces, and blue-green infrastructure. Previously, he spent twelve years working in the USA, the Netherlands, China, and Italy, conducting research and designing improvements for suburban regions, developing areas around transportation hubs, social housing, and practical interventions for better economic, ecological, and spatial valuation of the human environment.

Petr Holub

He studied physics at the Faculty of Science and environmental studies at the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University. He founded the consulting company Budovy21 and was a director of Chance for Buildings, a professional association for energy-efficient construction. He previously worked at the Ministry of the Environment as an advisor to ministers and director of the Sustainable Energy and Transport Department. He also spent a number of years leading sustainable energy programmes in the Rainbow Movement and helping cities to join the Compact of Mayors in SEVEn. As an advisor to the European Commission, he proposed setting up a framework for energy savings in Ukraine. He enjoys travelling and hiking. 

Erich Vodňanský

Erich Vodňanský studied law and economics in Vienna. A few years ago, he took over the family farm, Vodňanský Farm, in the village of Blíževedly in the Česká Lípa district. He continues to restore the farm, which his family had to leave several times in the past. The Vodňanský Farm focuses on the production of hops, grains, and oilseeds, as well as breeding Limousin cattle and horses. The farm emphasizes maximum biodiversity and sustainability. Erich received the Young Farmer of the Year 2021 award and holds the gold medal of the Diverse Landscape program from the Czech Association of Private Farmers. In addition, in 2020, he was nominated for the Josef Vavroušek Award for long-term contribution, and the Vodňanský Farm became a finalist in the Adapterra Awards competition in the Free Landscape category.

Jan Krajhanzl

Jan Krajhanzl is a social and environmental psychologist specializing in communication strategies in the environmental field. He is the director and co-founder of the Institute 2050 and is also affiliated with the Department of Environmental Studies at Masaryk University. He and his team conduct representative and qualitative research on Czech public opinion on environmental issues and design strategies for communicating nature conservation, environmental protection, and climate change. He is the author or co-author of several publications, such as "The Psychology of Relationship to Nature and the Environment" (2014) and "The Czech Public's Relationship to Nature and the Environment" (2018). In collaboration with a wide range of public institutions, non-governmental organizations, and companies, he is involved in education and awareness efforts, communication consulting, and research, and he also works with the media.

Martin Vohánka

One of the largest philanthropists in the Czech Republic, an initiator and signatory of the challenge "The Second Transformation of the Czech Economy." He began his entrepreneurial journey in high school, and shortly after graduating, he founded W.A.G. in 1995, known by its brand name Eurowag. Today, it is a technology leader employing 2,000 professionals in 18 European countries. Eurowag is building an integrated platform for international transport companies, digitizing their operations and thus transforming the entire industry with the aim of making it cleaner, more efficient, and fairer. Since 2021, Eurowag's shares have been traded on the London Stock Exchange, making it the only Czech company listed there. Martin Vohánka co-founded the Endowment Fund for Independent Journalism and the BLÍŽKSOBĚ Foundation. He lectures at the University of Economics, Prague, and is an enthusiastic beekeeper. 

Barbora Urbanová

Barbora is the Director of the Centre for Transport and Energy, where she focuses on European climate and energy policy. She is a board member of Climate Action Network Europe and has also served on the CEE Bankwatch Network, Glopolis and the Climate Coalition Board of Directors over the past ten years. During her professional career she has worked on projects dealing with the EU ETS, energy transition, setting up EU funds or climate change communication.

Jana Pospíšilová Maussen

Jana is involved in monitoring EU funds at the Centre for Transport and Energy, including whether and how the partnership principle is applied in their use. Within the CEE Bankwatch Network, she is working to decarbonise and increase transparency of export credit agencies, and is also coordinating a project that uses a social experiment to explore people's perceptions of clean energy at the municipal level. She is a Harvard graduate and an experienced economist.

Igor Mora

Igor Mora joined ING in 2016 and is currently primarily responsible for clients in the energy sector, focusing on sustainability and transformation of the energy sector. Prior to joining ING, Igor spent 9 years at Deloitte where he was part of the Infrastructure & Capital Projects (I&CP) and Corporate Finance teams. During his time at Deloitte, he specialized in M&A transaction services, PPP projects, financial and investment analysis, financial modeling, valuation and general project management.

Karel Kalný

Karel Kalný was inspired on his journey to regenerative agriculture by the American farmer Joel Salatin. He applies his farming principles on his family farm Mitrov in Vysočina near Velký Meziříčí. They have been primarily engaged in pastoral farming there since 2007. On 550 hectares of organic pastures they breed not only Aberdeen Angus cattle, but also pigs, chickens and geese. They have their own butchery, restaurant, e-shop and brick-and-mortar shop in Brno.

Michal Nekvasil

Michal Nekvasil contributes to designing climate change adaptation policy at the Directorate General for Climate Action of the European Commission. During the Czech EU Presidency in 2022, he drafted the EU Common Position for COP27, and organized a major conference on Climate Resilient Landscapes in Prague. Prior to that, he was designing and implementing climate-related projects in numerous countries, working for various organizations: People in Need, UNDP, World Bank, Czech Development Agency, and others. Formerly, he worked at the Directorate General for the Environment, as Deputy Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Georgia, and as Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to Nicaragua and Central America. He has a PhD. in ´Environmental Studies´ from the Charles University in Czechia.