Forum for business, political and societal leaders

The most important mission

of the GreenTech Vilnius forum is to unite democratic leaders to focus on the most important goals, the realization of which can help fight climate change, strengthen democracies and create a secure future for humanity. To fulfill this mission, the Forum will seek to identify challenges and concrete solutions that will not allow the world to impose an insecure future that is disastrous for both democracy and humanity.

We lose the battle for the future of humanity.

This is evident when we compare how many tens of trillions in the last few years humanity has spent and will continue to spend to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from destroying the world economy. And even after the breakthrough at the end of 2021 to create a green future for the planet, we are likely to spend significantly less on the fight against climate change, even though the threat posed by climate change to both human lives and the future of the world (not just the economy) is much greater.

Do we give in to the influence of those who do not want change?

Some say that we are moving slower on the path to reducing pollution than we can because there are so many poor and technologically less advanced countries in the world that are finding it difficult to carry out rapid transformation. However, this is hardly true, because even in the fight against the pandemic, many countries did not have enough finances or knowledge, but it was the most powerful democracies, such as the United States and the European Union, that took the lead and provided the largest funding to the economy. It would therefore be fair to ask why, when it comes to climate change, the most powerful democracies seem to be constantly looking at what the whole world and dictatorships are doing? This can be explained by the deliberate avoidance of taking on the burden of leadership. This may be due to pressure from fossil fuel-oriented dictatorial states or fossil fuel groups and their partners. This is why democracies do not act as decisively as they do in the fight against a pandemic.

Even though we lose, we can still win.

Even with far less money than we must pay to combat climate change, we can still win. However, only if we do not settle for outrage at the lack of funding for the fight against climate change and redirect our efforts to use the funds provided in the way that maximizes the benefits – to lay a solid foundation on which humanity can move faster towards elimination. Democratic forces can only achieve this by working together, like some fossil fuel corporations, while actively promoting their greenery in the media, actually working together with dictatorships and the vast network of financial and other structures that influence these powers to slow the green transformation of the world economy.

We can therefore be sure that this dark power seeks not only to reduce funding for carbon offsets much less but also to distribute the money allocated as widely as possible and in no way concentrate on those areas where a breakthrough would have the greatest positive impact on both pollution and reduction the use of fossil fuels. We must resist these dangerous influences.

That is why one of the most important goals we are pursuing in this Forum is to unite democratic forces and identify very responsibly what systemic decisions we need to make and what technologies we need to invest in so that we focus our resources on those changes that have a positive impact for a green and secure future. Only by following this path – by investing where the benefits will be evident – we can create the ideal conditions for democratic leaders to finance the green transformation of the economy even more resolutely and focus not on dictatorships or 2050s but technological progress and the future of humanity.

Let us defend democracy and we will save humanity.

So much has been and is being said about Nord Stream 2, which will allow Gazprom gas to flow into Europe, but we still do not dare to name the biggest threats and the reasons for this project. After all, if Russia can supply gas to the European Union bypassing Ukraine, it is likely that Russia will also be able to fight in Ukraine without fear that gas supplies to Europe may be cut off. As well as billions in revenue to the accounts of Russian corporations.

As we all realize, this will certainly not increase security in Europe. Unfortunately, everyone is silent because we are dependent on the reality that the rapid growth in the number of electric cars will increase both the demand for electricity and gas. After all, with Germany’s abandonment of coal-fired power generation, gas is becoming one of the main sources of electricity generation. One can form an impression that it has been and is inevitable, unfortunately, it is not. After all, if the business in the European Union and the United States had competed as fiercely as China in the electric car market over the past decade in the development of solar technology, mass production of this equipment and the development of electricity generation based on this technology, Nord Stream 2 today as a gas pipeline to Europe would remain as relevant to the Russian regime, but would not be as important to the states of the European Union.

And this suggests that the policy of democracies, which is not determined enough and is likely to be driven by dictatorships, has become much more dangerous today. That is why we should not cherish the traditions of such a policy and be obliged to see the problems we have to deal with if we want to strengthen democracies, not dictatorships. For example, in many countries of the European Union, even in those importing electricity or producing it from gas, a significant proportion of funding for the green future is used to support the purchase of electric cars, although it would be much more important to support the development of renewable energy. As a result of such a policy, the electricity demand will increase, but it will produce less from renewable sources, and the shortage of electricity is likely to be offset by burning gas.

Another example is no less eloquent. Newly built solar power plants in some parts of the European Union are dominated by Chinese-made equipment, as some surviving EU manufacturers who produce better 30-year equipment lose out on contests, with slightly cheaper Chinese manufacturers offering only a 10-year operating guarantee. But we need to make sure that we can use the equipment for as long as possible to create a sustainable, decades-long energy system in Europe. Unfortunately, there is an impression that the system being developed is helping Chinese producers to win contests. Another, but certainly not the last, example: if someone in the European Union today provided an analysis of how many new homes are covered by solar panels, everyone should probably be shocked, as it would become clear that by the end of 2021, many homes were being built without electricity generation capacity.

Therefore, even today we can say that the development of real estate that consumes electricity, not produces it, is accelerating, which again increases the demand for energy produced from gas. And this cannot be considered a coincidence, because the organizers of the Vilnius GreenTech forum have been actively involved in the fight against the use of fossil fuels, especially gas, in the heat sector since 2002 and encouraged the transition to local biofuels, but are constantly confronted with similar, often the silent but powerful force that is doing everything in its power to direct the finances of democracies to areas that do not threaten Gazprom or accelerate the transition of the heating industry from fossil fuels – gas – to renewable – biofuels. This power is no less powerful today. That is what we are facing when we have to focus all our efforts on the rapid development of renewable energy, but we are unable to do so. We must therefore at least overcome our fears and addictions and acknowledge that the democratic world is still extremely deeply overshadowed by the interests of the fossil fuel empire. Only this can explain why we can count dozens of situations today, which suggest that climate change policies in democracies often strengthen dictatorships rather than democracies. We must resist this, so one of the most important goals of Vilnius GreenTech is not only to unite democratic forces to identify areas where a breakthrough would be most beneficial in halting climate change but also to identify and change democratic states as clearly as possible and encourage them fight a policy that strengthens dictatorships today and helps preserve the power of the fossil fuel empire, rather than strengthening democracies and helping to build a green and secure future for humanity.

Is the future of G. Thunberg or Chernobyl waiting?

This issue is particularly relevant, but only if we care about both climate change and the secure future of humanity and democracy. If we are concerned, we need to see not only how dependence on gas imports has turned into a threat symbolized by Nord Stream 2, but also how a too slow development of electricity production from renewable sources is turning into Rosatom nuclear reactors. In this way, the future of humanity based on renewable energy, advanced storage technologies, and green hydrogen is being replaced by a future symbolized by Gazprom pipelines and Rosatom nuclear reactors. Does the question arise as to whether this is the green future of humanity that Greta Thunberg is fighting for? We think that is certainly not what we would like for young people, for our children, for our democracies. All the more so when we know what negative phenomena the development of the influence of Russian energy concerns is related to European countries. This is probably best demonstrated by the fact that today it is in Hungary and Belarus that the political environment is most favorable for the development of Rosatom nuclear reactors. This suggests that although the reactors have not yet exploded and, unlike Chernobyl, are not yet killing people, their emergence alone has already killed democracy. Therefore, we should not be happy to see the development of these reactors and their impact on the European Union’s energy market. However, we can hardly expect the younger generation, such as its leaders, as G. Thunberg, to become a valuable force that not only encourages faster change and more determined investment but also encourages resistance from fossil fuel corporations, dictatorships, and the nuclear reactors they support. We would think that such an expectation would be cowardly and indecent, as it is the duty of democratic leaders, democratic and green foundations and organizations, solid media, independent opinion leaders, and public leaders to prevent the young generation and G. Thunberg’s future from being green and secure, to replace it with a future that the Chernobyl series might probably best recall.

You are the key to our success.

Hollywood is making more films today than ever about the catastrophes facing humanity and the world’s saviors, but it is Hollywood creators, actors, as well as creators in other states or fields, as well as scientists, businessmen, other leaders but not politicians, who have the greatest potential today to become the most important saviors of mankind.

Let us consider how dictatorships work. They are doing their best to silence, stifle democratic leadership and progress. They often use the most cynical means, from capturing the information space to terror, from threatening war to real military action. This is how the perception of ongoing processes is removed from the information space, for example, about what policies strengthen democracies and what about the world of fossil fuels and dictatorships. At the same time, often real, but even more so, artificial threats are trying to imprison the most advanced politicians in fear that our political leaders, even if independent of shadow influences, will be trapped in fear and not fight for a secure future for humanity, fear of future threats and avoidance. It is this, we think, rather an accurate perception of the reality around us that suggests that the burden of leadership today, defending a secure and green future, caring for the strengthening of democracy rather than dictatorship in this process, cannot rest on the shoulders of politicians alone.

That is why one of the main goals of our forum is not only to invite politicians and diplomats representing democracies to unite in identifying and implementing the most beneficial policies for humanity and democracy but also to inform the most advanced democratic leaders, scientists, businessmen, representatives of the world of space and the arts about what we must strive for, that it is not enough for politicians alone to demand more resources, that it is necessary to identify and demand changes that have the greatest positive potential in tackling climate change. At the same time, care must be taken as to how this will affect democracy and whether it will not strengthen dictatorships or create a favorable environment for them to equip democracies with nuclear reactors reminiscent of Chernobyl.

Can we succeed? Given our economic power as organizers, it is unlikely that we will be able to unite at least a slightly larger number of influential people. But the most important thing is not how many of them will be in our forum, but how many of these leaders will realize that by working together we can bring down all the barriers of shadowy influence, fears, and corruption that are holding back faster progress today. That is our most important goal.

We thank everyone in advance who will find the time and strength to unite with us and discuss on January 27 how we can more successfully build a secure, green, democratic future for the Baltic States, Europe, and the world. But we will be no less grateful to those who will take care of such a future for humanity in their daily activities because if there are many of you, the dictatorship and the fossil fuel empire cannot defeat – you will defeat.

We thank in advance everyone who will participate in the forum and their thoughts, ideas, support, or promotion will contribute to the realization of our mission, as well as all those who will find the time and strength to defend a secure, green, democratic future for the world.

Eduardas Eigirdas

Almantas Gliožeris

Founders and leaders of the Democracy Development Fund, which organizes the forum