On November 8^th 2023 the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) supported by the Brazilian embassy in Vienna in cooperation with BRAZGLOBAL, ABRASA CASA DO BRASIL Austria, UNCAV, the Coalition of FBOs and the Women’s Federation for World Peace organized a conference on the theme “Interdependence, Mutual Prosperity, Shared Values - Europe-Brazil dialogue” in the Vienna International Center (UN-Vienna). It was set up in connection with a two-day event held by an International Business Network on Industry 4.0, Renewable Energy and Green and Blue Hydrogen Energy between Brazil and European Stakeholders; it was promoted by the Brazilian Global Business Network, which is powered by Larkalis Organization, based in Vienna. In total, 150 guests attended.

 

The Morning Session titled “How can technology help with Women’s Economic Empowerment on both sides of the Atlantic? (Video)” discussed training and mentoring programs for women and the development of technological solutions that promote inclusion and diversity.

 

In his welcoming remarks, Mr. Peter Haider, President, Universal Peace Federation Austria referred to a UPF event in July 2013 organized in cooperation with ABRASA in the UN in Vienna under the title “Culture and Creative Economy as basic elements for Sustainability“; this was not just a conference but a celebration of cultural aspects like music, dance and paintings showing traditional Brazilian ways of life. He also recalled impressions of his stay in “Brazil, a Land of the Future” - the title of a book by the famous Austrian writer Stefan Zweig. It was recommended to him upon his arrival in Sao Paulo in the 1990s by a Japanese friend as the best book on Brazil.

 

H.E. Nelson Antonio Tabajara de Oliveira, the Brazilian Ambassador to Austria, welcomed the conference as a great opportunity to exchange ideas on our shared future, in which women empowerment, technological innovation and sustainable development move forward hand in hand while addressing fundamental issues like the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda, the advancement of renewable energy and green hydrogen technologies, forging new partnerships and reinforcing a shared vision for a future that honors interdependence and shared values.

 

Ms. Queila Rosa, President, ABRASA Casa do Brasil Austria has worked for 20 years to strengthen relationships between Brazil and Austria, especially through culture. She invited Mr. Anderson Silva, a dancer and choreographer, to introduce the audience to an aspect of Brazilian culture by playing the Berimbau. “Culture is important for sustainable tourism and social and economic development. We need to provide health assistance for countries with inequality through telemedicine or robotic medicine. We should not only care about economic needs, but also respect the social needs of people. Society 5.0 is capitalism in a humanized way, where people have life quality. Education is the fundamental base to include all people and give them opportunities. When women are involved, there is a tendency to create management in a more inclusive and affective way.”

 

 

 

Honerable Benedita da Silva, member of the Brazilian Parliament and former governor of Rio de Janeiro, stressed the leadership role of women as educators, entrepreneurs, artists, producers, business women and family carers; all these roles are important for the future of the youth. She expressed her concern to protect the rights of women so that they violence and femicide are prevented; she referred to other policies supporting children who were victims of violence. She also spoke of her government’s concern for the needs and challenges of Brazilians living abroad, such as immigrants in Austria, where ABRASA plays an important supportive role. She expressed her gratitude for being part of the conference, as a representative of women, particularly black women.

 

Ms. Elaine Antunes de Jesus, trained in Brazil as a teacher of Classical Greek, literature and writing as well as event manager; she now works at the Rioca Hotel Vienna as a project designer and creator. In her understanding, the prospect of leading projects or setting up companies must have the primary condition of improving the quality of life of those involved. She discovered care and affection in Rioca, a hotel aiming to offer the Brazilian (especially Rio) experience to international guests. The German founder of the hotel group realized that affection and hospitality are Brazilian characteristics as well spontaneity - uncommon in Europe. He wants staff and guests alike, to feel integrated in an inclusive environment, because we are a family. “In Rioca you live like in Rio. The future lies in diversity, hugs, smiles, sympathy, and afternoon cake with hot coffee. The future lies in technology used for exchanging impressions, affection, empathy, a mother’s love and making women’s actions visible.”

 

Ms. Maria Tereza Umbelino, CEO & Founder of Brasil Mata Viva Global ecosystem and the daughter of a family with 12 children from the Amazon countryside, introduced her project involving a group of 300 farming families and scientists who were obliged to learn new methods of dealing with biodiversity and sustainable farming. They are dedicated to preserving the environment, while simultaneously producing food for people.  Their manifesto states: “We live off the land, natural resources. We live from ‘Mother Nature’, from biodiversity: bio is life, diversity is variety. Biodiversity is variety of life. We take care of biodiversity, allowing life to be resilient and valuing it. And valuing the work of those who protect biodiversity means ensuring better conditions for everyone. Our business is about biodiversity. Be part of this new era, where sustainability and remuneration go hand in hand.”

 

Ms. Luciana Maria Santos de Souza, Director of the Instituto Rio Itariri (IRI), presented the activities of her institute, founded in 2013 with the aim of providing education and awareness to society. IRI is considered a keeper of wild animals and is a reference in the treatment of abandoned or abused animals. The animals, which come through CETAS (Wildlife Screening Center), have often suffered abuse or can no longer live freely, having been raised in captivity. At IRI, they are well cared for and loved by all who collaborate and visit. A team of highly qualified professionals attend to the animals’ needs and provide the necessary infrastructure, welcoming all those interested in their work. Over 30 species, including reptiles, mammals and birds are under their protection.

 

 

 

The first session in the afternoon with the theme “The 2030 Agenda and Brazil's insertion in industrial development in the context of the SDGs (Video)” focused on different approaches introduced by the panelists regarding these topics.

 

The first speaker, Mr. Luis Malheiros Larkalis, CEO of Larkalis Organization in Vienna, gave the keynote address. He stated “The world is changing, and so we must change as well. Climate change is not a distant threat; it is a present reality, affecting nations, ecosystems, and every step of daily human life; the scorching summers of 2022 and even worse 2023 in Europe, the prolonged drought affecting the Latin America region and specifically Brazil (including Amazon Region) are a clear message of this new era we have entered. In this context, de-carbonization becomes not just a necessity but a question of sustainability, and maintenance of our way of life. Climate change knows no borders, and solutions must be as interconnected as the challenges we face. Brazil's insertion into the global industrial scene is an opportunity for collaboration, know-how exchange, and shared responsibility”.

 

Prof. Dr. Elmar Kuhn, President of the Coalition of FBOs in Central Europe, declared in his address: “I will address our humanity, because it has a lot to do with development, our technical environment, our crisis and the future. The cultural and religious facts are so important to our future of what we call the narrative of our world. We see narratives of intolerance in the world,of war and destruction, which neglect the right of the other to speak or to discuss one's own beliefs. We need to dare and name as prerequisites for success religious and cultural diversity, the participation of all political parties of our society and comprehensive educational opportunities for everybody, so that nobody is excluded. Let me define three main principles for our common development process in finance, economics, and politics. They are common components for Brazil and Europe too, a common way we can join. They are the principles of justice, solidarity, and subsidiarity”.

 

Mr. Paulo Guimarães, special advisor to the Governor of Bahia in Brazil, sent a video message, stating the following: “We have spoken about solutions to climate change as if we had found a silver bullet to solve all our problems. I believe that de-carbonisation and pure hydrogen will not solve our problems. What we need to do, is to get rid of the CO2 emissions and move to renewable sources of energy.”

 

The session was concluded by Mr. Jacques Marion, Co-Chair of UPF in Europe. His speech focused mainly on introducing the audience to the vision of UPF on UN: “There are many problems burdening the UN, but a most fundamental is the predominance of national self-interest over the purpose of the whole of the institution. To remedy this problem, our founders Dr. and Mrs. Moon proposed, in a speech at the UN building in New York, in 2000, that an Inter-religious Council should complement the work of the Security Council as a body that would discuss and evaluate the religious, spiritual, and moral dimensions of world problems”. Furthermore, he alluded to his experience in many countries around the world and the response to UPF activities. He concluded by saying:”But most of all, I think and hope that what Europe can learn, or re-learn, from interaction with countries such as Brazil, is that the heart of love and spiritual values are key to successful economic, political and human development.”

 

 

 

The second Session in the afternoon was titled “Climate Change, Decarbonization and strengthening its action towards Renewable Energy and Green Hydrogen Technology (Video)”.

 

Mr. Fernando Fritz, Chief Operating Officer at Invest Sao Paulo Europe located in Munich, Germany sees many opportunities in the cooperation between Brazil and the DACH region in the “green transition”. He highlighted the long-standing partnerships with 200 Austrian, 800 Swiss and 1600 companies operating in Brazil, 40-50% of which are based in the state of Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo state, with a population of 47 million, has the size of Spain and represents 1/3 of the Brazilian economy. Serving as the Business Hub for Latin America in general, it is the world leader in the production of sugar, ethanol, and orange juice. Embraer, currently an aerospace corporation, and airplane manufacturer for over 50 years, is also based there. His presentation included an impressive film about the Sao Paulo metropolis (the world’s 4th largest city), the state, and the investor friendly business opportunities.

 

Mr. Rogerio Luis Hauschild, Managing Director of Larkalis Organization in Vienna, underlined the Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and Europe, drawing parallels to distances in other terms. This is his perception, having lived 30 years in Europe, but stemming from a German family in Brazil. Larkalis has been working with renewable energy projects and finding ways of financing them. Brazil has a wonderful energy matrix. Over 50% comes from hydropower, while solar and wind energy are becoming increasingly popular. Gas stations in Brazil offer both fossil and ethanol fuel to their customers. Brazilian cities are clean today. However, organic and human waste management presents a problem, and financing Brazilian projects with Brazilian funds is difficult. European technology producers should adapt their technology for the Brazilian market as requirements differ. A more inexpensive and efficient waste management technology would greatly assist Brazil. Closer contact between Europe and Brazil could help solve this problem, which has not been dealt with until now.

 

Mr. Arnold Prentl, Austrian business consultant, industrial engineer, and a multidisciplinary manager, has more than 20 years of international experience in project management and business operations. He has worked in cross border projects, in development aid as well as in industrial projects. He focused on the challenges faced by industrial economies of the “Global North”. He introduced the Bridge Building Business model, an attempt to unite the thematic areas of sustainable management and value-oriented business activity by means of appropriate business models. This will be enabled primarily through joint efforts and "responsible innovations". The core of his activities is based on the principle of "One World. One humanity." This implies that humanity must cope with existing resources; common interests can only be secured through collaborative and peaceful interactions between nations.

 

Dr. Michael Balcomb, Senior Advisor of the Universal Federation in Europe, now based in London, lived many years in the US. On his flight from London he read an article about how an ambitious New York wind energy project has been scaled down from an output of 30 Gigawatts to only two Gigawatts due to lack of funds. The first reason for the headwinds facing renewable energy is the profit motive; the second is political: China dominates the solar cell industry. Hence, he emphasized the need to look beyond scientific and technological developments and consider the inner human dimension. Quoting the second UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld from 60 years ago, he stated that there is no hope for the UN unless there is a spiritual revolution or reformation; alluding to Martin Luther King’s statement on our technical capacity having outgrown our spiritual capability he quoted: “We have guided missiles and we have misguided men”. Referring to a small meeting with business and industrial leaders during a speaking tour in Sao Paulo five years ago with UPF co-founder Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, he mentioned her emphasis on the importance of spiritual, internal and human values for our young generation above all else: Fairness, equality, dignity, compassion, and love are values that make life worth living. Dr Moon’s advice to Brazil on its path to becoming a great nation was to not think of itself first, but to live for its neighbors in South America and invest in other nations. Then fortune will come to Brazil and any nation that lives that way. Dr Balcomb concluded: ‘This sounds idealistic but is there another way to avoid the bad news of wars and have hope?’

 

 

Further information: Peter Haider +43 650 2588846

 

 

 

UPF is an NGO in General Consultative Status with the ECOSOC of the United Nations

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