How can societies rebuild trust in institutions while accelerating the transition to more sustainable economies? What role should international trade, finance, governance, and public policy play in addressing climate change, biodiversity loss, and growing geopolitical fragmentation? How can research better inform decision-making at a time of increasing uncertainty and systemic transformation?
These and other questions will be explored at the 2nd Annual Hoffmann Centre for Global Sustainability Flagship Conference, taking place on 3–4 September 2026 in Geneva.
Bringing together leading scholars, policymakers, business leaders, and practitioners from around the world, the conference will provide a platform for interdisciplinary dialogue on the major sustainability challenges shaping the decades ahead. Through keynote addresses, policy panels, and parallel research sessions, participants will examine issues ranging from carbon border adjustment mechanisms and sustainable finance to biodiversity, trade, peace and conflict, governance, and the historical evolution of international rules.
The conference programme is organised around the Hoffmann Centre's five research Tracks:
- Climate and Nature
- Trade and Sustainability
- Peace and Conflict
- Governance and Institutions
- History of Rules
Featured speakers include leading experts from the Hoffmann Centre for Global Sustainability, the Geneva Graduate Institute, Imperial College London, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, the University of Vienna, the University of Washington, the University of Tokyo, Harvard Business School, the Paris School of Economics, the World Economic Forum, the World Trade Organization, Intrinsic Exchange, Wyss Academy for Nature, and other international institutions.
The conference will also mark the launch of the Hoffmann Centre's new initiative, Rebuilding Trust in Global Governance, beginning a broader series of conversations that will examine trust as one of the defining challenges facing international cooperation today.
The full conference programme is available for download below.
Date: 3–4 September 2026
Location: Domaine Barton and Villa Barton, Geneva
