Porto Conference 2019: In Pictures

Miguel Torres led the conference’s opening session alongside Cristina Mariani-May and Margareth Henriquez, looking at winery responses to climate change. Looking at the view from the vineyards in the second session were Kimberley Nicholas from the University of Lund (pictured below), António Graça from Sogrape and Gerard Casaubon from Concha y Toro.

Paul Willgoss from M&S and António Amorim then had a discussion on the consumer perception of climate change and how to communicate with them and the competitive advantage it can bring, which Taylor’s CEO Adrian Bridge found amusing.

Roger Boulton from UC Davis showed how the university’s Jess Jackson Winery provided solutions for wineries looking to become entirely carbon neutral and drastically reduce water wastage.

José Vouillamoz moderated a session including Bollinger’s chef de cave Gilles Descôtes on vineyard developments.

Katie Jackson speaking during a session on how the industry can calculate its carbon footprint and reduce CO2 emissions.

Gerard Bertrand and Olga Barbosa of the Programa Vino, Cambio Climático y Biodiversidad launched Day 2’s series of sessions with talks on sustainability and biodiversity.

Mike Veseth, Stephen Rannekliev and Robert Waak (l-r) ended the conference with a look at the economics of putting new plans into action.

The afternoon of Day 2 was given over to guest speakers from other industries and backgrounds to share their experiences of tackling climate change and pollution at various levels. To begin with, Afroz Shah, who was recently recognised by the UN for his extraordinary work in cleaning up beaches in Mumbai gave an impassioned talk on the power of and need for the individual to effect real change.

Shah was followed by Kaj Török, sustainability officer at Sweden’s leading burger chain, Max Burgers, spoke of how the company was cutting waste, going carbon neutral and lowering its reliance on beef.

The director of the WWF’s European Policy Office speaking of the need for renewable energy and then, Portugal’s own environmental minister, João Matos Fernandes, explained how the country was working towards becoming entirely carbon neutral.

And then the big cheese of climate change action himself, former vice-president Al Gore. Gore gave an  articulate and – at one or two moments – fiery speech on the changing climate and touching on some its effects on the wine industry.

But are you?