The Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) strives to advance an aspirational vision of sustainability that ensures human and planetary wellbeing, firmly grounded in cooperation, multilateralism, and investment in global public goods. It has established itself as a platform for trusted dialogue, productive exchange, and the formation of alliances and initiatives contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals. Central to the HSC’s approach is demonstrating the private sector’s capacity to accelerate global transformation by scaling innovative solutions and mobilizing capital at speed and scale.
Building on this foundation, HSC 2026 will focus across all sessions on how international and cross-sector cooperation can be made more effective, particularly in times of disruption. As in its first two editions, the third conference will seek to forge new alliances, develop new forms of collaboration, and translate multilateral commitments into meaningful action—advancing declarations and coalitions and generating scalable initiatives designed to mobilize resources and deliver concrete solutions in support of the SDGs.
Resilient economies in 2026 are built through systemic transformation across finance, infrastructure, technology, and environmental stewardship. This transformation must engage both private and public actors. Around the world, countries are navigating the “triple squeeze” of tightening fiscal space, shrinking industrial pathways, and intensifying trade and supply-chain pressures. At the same time, climate change and biodiversity loss have become defining economic forces, reshaping agriculture, water security, urban development, and long-term competitiveness.
This thematic pillar brings together sessions that explore how sustainable prosperity can be rebuilt under these conditions—by aligning economic models with planetary boundaries and accelerating transitions in energy, industry, cities, and nature protection. These transitions hold significant potential to drive sustainable job creation and foster innovation across sectors, contributing to inclusive growth and long-term competitiveness. At the same time, economic transformation must strengthen social cohesion, reduce poverty and inequality, and expand people’s capabilities to participate in and benefit from sustainable development. Resilient economies are sustainable only if they ensure that no one is left behind.
Technology is central to this agenda, with the capacity to drive inclusive and sustainable progress. To harness this potential, it must be guided by principles of responsibility and inclusion and embedded in sound legal and policy frameworks. Sessions will examine how digital innovation can strengthen decision-making, enhance transparency, and support sustainable investment pipelines, while avoiding new forms of exclusion. Nature-based resilience and the economics of ecosystems are also core components of these discussions.
Across these sessions, discussions aim to contribute to practical progress in areas including expanded alliances, common standards for climate- and nature-aligned investment, and investment platforms capable of mobilizing capital at scale in the years ahead.
The world is currently defined by overlapping shocks: geopolitical instability, protracted crises, climate stress, debt burdens, and technological disruption unfolding simultaneously. These converging transitions expose the fragility of global systems and threaten to reverse development gains. Risk is no longer an exception to manage—it is the baseline condition shaping policy, finance, and cooperation.
This thematic pillar groups sessions that confront fragility head-on: from internal displacement and conflict cascades to the economic foundations of resilience in high-risk settings.
A central challenge concerns how resilience can be financed in a context where uncertainty constrains investment. Risk is increasingly ecological and systemic. Biodiversity loss, water insecurity, and climate-related instability are no longer treated as isolated environmental concerns, but as structural economic and security risks shaping long-term stability and competitiveness.
This pillar frames resilience as a collective capability: anticipating shocks, preventing downward spirals, and building institutions and partnerships that can withstand disruption while unlocking sustainable opportunity.
In an era of fragmentation and renewed geopolitical polarization, multilateralism remains indispensable — yet increasingly contested. Declining trust, strained institutions, and domestic political pressures are weakening collective problem-solving at a time when shared risks are increasing.
In an increasingly multipolar world, Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs) are exercising greater agency and shaping the terms of international cooperation more actively. Cooperation is expected to be grounded in sovereign equality, mutual benefit, and shared responsibility, while upholding a rules-based international order capable of delivering tangible outcomes. Multilateralism must therefore demonstrate its capacity to translate common commitments into effective action in a way that respects diverse national priorities and development pathways.
This pillar convenes sessions that focus on renewing the foundations of international collaboration: reforming global governance, strengthening alliances beyond blocs, and protecting the institutional conditions for sustainable development. Governance is also being reshaped through new partnership models that foster trust and enable renewed and strengthened cooperation.