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Ecopolis 2025: Fair(er) Futures Festival

28 November 2025 - 29 November 2025

Join us in Brussels on 28-29 November 2025 for Ecopolis 2025, where imagination meets action. Discover a day of inspiring talks, artistic performances and conversations about how to build fairer and more sustainable futures together.

About the Event

ECOPOLIS 2025 presents a vibrant programme of discussions, interviews, and interactive formats at the crossroads of ecology, culture, and social justice. Four central guests form the heart of the festival, surrounded by writers, artists, thinkers, and activists who challenge us to imagine and build fairer futures together. Take part in a writing workshop, contribute ideas for a constitution for the world, or discuss what fair artificial intelligence could look like. Themes such as climate justice, queer ecology, and the power of imagination run throughout the programme, connecting personal reflection with collective action.

Speakers

The 2025 edition, themed “Fair(er) Futures”, will feature four keynote speakers addressing the intersections of justice, imagination, and change:

  • Joyeeta Gupta, on building a global constitution for social justice, ecological sustainability, and solidarity
  • Jens Meijen, on the promises and perils of artificial intelligence.
  • Kes Otter Lieffe, on queer forms of resistance and belonging.
  • Jonas Staal, on the power of imagination in collective climate action.

Programme

28/11

  • 18:00 – 21:30 : (Climate) Propaganda Training (workshop), Jonas Staal
  • 19:00 : Writing from the Margins (workshop), Joyeeta Gupta

29/11

  • 10:30 – 12:30 : Ecological justice and active hope (panel discussion) Joyeeta Gupta, Jonas Staal, Kes Otter Lieffe, Jens Meijen

Parallel sessions

  • 13:30 – 15:00 : Global Constitution Project (workshop) Joyeeta Gupta
  • 13:30 – 15:00 : Towards comradeship between earth workers Jonas Staal, Laura Herman
  • 13:30 – 15:00 : Queer Resistance/Building a Home Together in Times of Crisis Kes Otter Lieffe
  • 13:30 – 15:00 : AI: time for a wake-up call (Fishbowl talk) Jens Meijen
  • 13:30 – 15:00 : Lobby Tour (walk
  • 13:30 – 15:00 : Sonoreille (walk) Forsiti’A

Parallel sessions

  • 15:30 – 17:00 : Climate justice and fair planetary boundaries (talk) Joyeeta Gupta, David Van Reybrouck
  • 15:30 – 17:00 : Beyond Attenborough: Who narrates our planet’s future? (talk+film) Jonas Staal
  • 15:30 – 17:00 : We are not a book club (reading group) Kes Otter Lieffe, Deno Vogelaers
  • 15:30 – 17:00 : Can literature save the world? The power of fiction in times of climate change (panel discussion, in Dutch) Jens Meijen, Gry Ulstein, Emma Zuiderveen, Fiep van Bodegom (moderator)
  • 15:30 – 17:00 : Lobby Tour (walk)
  • 15:30 – 17:00 : Sonoreille (walk) Forsiti’A

 

  • 17:30 – 18:30 : Closing moment (comedy) Cass J Hebron

Practicalities

Date: 28-29 November 2025
Location: Brussels (venues include De Markten, Muntpunt, Kaaistudios, and De Munt)
Languages: Dutch and English (with simultaneous translation – TBC)
Registration: you may purchase your ticket to this link 

This event is co-organised by the Green European Foundation with the support of Oikos and with the financial support of the European Parliament to the Green European Foundation. The European Parliament is not responsible for the content of this event.

Details