Michael Pedersen spoke and facilitated discussions at a Finnish sport community event about sport, society and sustainable development. The event, kindly hosted by the Finnish Olympic Committee and the Finnish Sports Confederation, took place in Helsinki, Finland on 10 June 2015.

At the event, which brought together approx. 30 Finnish leaders from across sport, government and civil society, Michael Pedersen shared his perspectives on a project to utilize the unique power of sport to boost the fight against catastrophic climate change. His perspectives included insights from a COP20 side event in the context of the project, which was kindly hosted by the Peruvian Olympic Committee in Lima, Peru in December 2014. Michael Pedersen also offered his perspectives on the opportunity for Finland to develop a model case of project implementation. Finally, he facilitated discussions, which included co-development of specific ideas for effective sport event messaging of professional athletes to fans, focused on motivating behavioral change in support of the fight against catastrophic climate change.

Other speakers at the event were:

• Susanna Rahkamo, Vice President, Finnish Olympic Committee; Chair, Olympic Culture and Legacy Commission, The European Olympic Committees; former Professional Ice Dancer
• Mika Aaltonen, Ph.D., CEO, Helsinki Sustainability Center; former Professional Football Player
• Tapio Kanninen, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board at Global Crisis Information Network Inc; Senior Fellow and Co-Director of Global Sustainability Project, Graduate School, City University of New York; former Chief of Policy Planning Unit, United Nations; Author of “Crisis of Global Sustainability”; Co-Author of the project proposal to utilize the unique power of sport to boost the fight against catastrophic climate change