The Living Planet Symposium, organised by ESA and co-hosted by the German Space Agency at DLR, was opened on 23 May 2022 by (from the left): Walther Pelzer, Member of the DLR Executive Board and Head of the German Space Agency at DLR; Anna Christmann, Federal Government Coordinator of German Aerospace Policy; Alexander Gerst, German ESA astronaut; Simonetta Cheli, Head of ESA's centre for Earth observation (ESRIN) and Josef Aschbacher, ESA Director General.