Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC)
About the Project
The Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) was launched by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Michael Otto Foundation, and the City of Hamburg. It provides a platform for exchanging ideas and solutions to global challenges such as climate change, international conflicts, and the impacts of emerging technologies, all of which require international cooperation to address effectively.
The HSC aims to rethink sustainability and develop strategies that strengthen resilience to global crises. It also promotes dialogue among industrialized, emerging, and developing economies, encourages private-sector engagement in sustainable development, and helps mobilize both public and private investment in sustainability.
At a time when multilateral cooperation faces significant challenges, the HSC serves as a platform for advancing the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) beyond the 2030 Agenda.
To achieve these goals, the HSC focuses on five core objectives:
- Foster new alliances and encourage stronger private-sector engagement in advancing the SDGs.
- Build networks of leading experts from government, business, academia, and civil society to accelerate SDG implementation.
- Strengthen trust and dialogue between emerging and developing economies and advanced economies on issues of global governance, equity, and legitimacy.
- Combine expertise, advance innovative solutions, and promote their scaling within planetary boundaries.
- Enable open discussions about challenges, trade-offs, and contradictions in the SDG process in order to identify shared paths forward.
Why Do We Support the HSC?
Our world is undergoing a period of profound transformation whose outcome remains uncertain. Climate change, armed conflicts, economic uncertainty, technological disruption, authoritarianism, and shifting global power dynamics are placing increasing pressure on the foundations of international cooperation. Existing institutions are often perceived as dysfunctional or are being challenged by individual actors. At the same time, they have long been shaped by unequal power structures that may themselves have contributed to some of today’s crises.
As a result, international cooperation will need to evolve fundamentally in terms of its composition, priorities, and modes of operation. At the same time, new forums and alliances are emerging, and their long-term significance and normative direction remain unclear.
This is where the Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) comes in. It creates trusted and inclusive spaces for dialogue and collaboration, fostering new perspectives, supporting concrete initiatives, and strengthening international cooperation in the fields of action that are central to the Robert Bosch Stiftung’s mission.
What Is the Goal?
The HSC is establishing itself as a platform for future-oriented international cooperation. It brings together industrialized, emerging, and developing countries, promotes the joint development of sustainable solutions, and initiates inclusive, cross-sector dialogues on global challenges.
How Does IT Work?
We support the HSC in establishing itself as an international brand for dialogue and sustainable development while deepening its engagement with international processes and initiatives. A particular focus is on strengthening the participation of people, organizations, and stakeholders from emerging and developing countries in discussions and collaborative projects.
To this end, the HSC works with partners from these countries throughout the year to organize roundtables and accessible dialogue formats on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and questions related to a post-2030 agenda. These activities are designed to strengthen international cooperation and advance shared solutions to global challenges.
Learn More
For more information, please visit the Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) website.
Your contacts
Christiana Oragbade
Senior Project Manager