This year’s edition of the summit focussed on concrete solutions for the wine industry to combat the impact of climate change, and ran between Tuesday and Thursday.


This was the second edition of the Porto Summit, which gives voice to key figures in the field of social activism, business, non-governmental associations and government entities.


“The Porto Summit intends to demonstrate that we can all contribute and do more in the fight against climate change because we will have five speakers in Porto that represent different levels of intervention in society and who are excellent examples to follow and inspire us on a personal or even on a professional level, to stop what is one of the biggest challenges that we face”, said Taylor’s CEO Adrian Bridge, the main organiser of the event.


Al Gore’s speech – ‘Porto Protocol - A Case for Optimism in Climate Change’ – was one of the event’s highlights, during which he shared, among others, his experience as a pioneer of The Climate Reality Project, a non-profit organisation focused on environmental education .


He was joined by Afroz Shah, an Indian lawyer who led the world’s largest beach clean-up, in Versova, Bombay, known as “the world’s rubbish”, who also spoke at the event.


Shah’s project saw new volunteers sign up on a daily basis, and involved local residents, schools, Bollywood stars and politicians. In 86 weeks five thousand tons of garbage had been removed from the beach, winning him a distinction with the UN Champions of the Earth.


Swede Kaj Török, director of sustainability at Max Burgers, a worldwide chain of restaurants, was also present at the Summit with the project ‘The world’s first climate-positive burgers’, in which each hamburger has reduced its ecological footprint by 100 percent.
Another intervention was courtesy of Ester Asin, European director of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and who shared her experience leading global projects in the areas of environmental preservation.


The event followed the Climate Change Leadership Summit 2018 held in Porto last July at which the keynote address was given by President Barack Obama.


According to the Summit’s website, “the key outcome of [last year’s] summit was the launch of the Porto Procotol, which commits its participants to adopt and promote concrete actions, however small, to help reduce the impact of a changing climate.


“While this important global initiative recognises that the wine industry is uniquely well placed to take a leadership role in climate change mitigation, the Protocol welcomes the participation of institutions, companies and individuals from all areas of activity”.