The latest summary report released on Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlights the abrupt and irreversible shifts that can be caused by climate change. The report is of course alarming, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that scientific and entrepreneurial efforts to avert these dangers are already well under way.
The solutions we need to tackle climate change will only come through creative partnerships between the private, public and academic sectors. Only by harnessing these networks will we find the solutions - large and small, local and global - that we need.
Hundreds of companies and projects
At the Climate-KIC, we are supporting hundreds of companies and projects across Europe that are focused on overcoming the challenges of climate change in a variety of ways.
As a major – if not the main – global issue of our lifetime, climate change is at risk of simply being viewed from a macro level. But with a growing realisation that its impacts are likely to be felt locally, pressure is increasing for strategic approaches to adapting to climate change that are devised and delivered at a local level.
To address the many problems that will arise, the most important role that national, regional and global bodies can play is in creating opportunities for innovators. There is no silver bullet for dealing with climate change - the solutions will come in many forms, from researchers and businesses all over the world.
Greening cities, one district at a time
As part of a new flagship Building Technologies Accelerator project, we are bringing together multidisciplinary ‘living lab’ teams across Europe to address the impact climate change through new building technologies. We are preparing a range of new prototype technologies for launch across Europe’s building sector.
Smart Sustainable Districts, another one of our flagship projects, will help turn some of Europe’s highest profile district-level developments in cities into model projects and test beds for replication of smart, sustainable city systems in other urban areas world-wide.
The world’s largest climate-specific accelerator
Through the Climate-KIC Accelerator – now the largest of its kind globally – we help climate entrepreneurs take ideas to market. This year, over one hundred European start-ups are set to pass through the start-up accelerator, which supports entrepreneurs with grants, mentoring, clean-tech business support and by leveraging our private equity network of business angels and venture capital firms.
For the first time, entrepreneurs based in Scandinavia will access the accelerator through our new Nordic centre in Denmark. Through the European Commission’s regional innovation scheme, start-ups from Slovenia to Ireland will also see their businesses accelerated through Climate-KIC.
Training and educating climate innovators
This year, Europe will see the first significant cohort of graduates from Climate-KIC’s Masters and PhD programmes stepping into the business world – equipped and ready to enable change on all levels throughout the EU and across the globe.
The PhD and Masters programmes provide major added-value to degree courses run by Climate-KIC partner universities across Europe, focussing on combining entrepreneurship with a range of climate-relevant disciplines, including science, engineering, social science and business.
We have launched a series of new education programmes this year, including summer schools for PhD candidates focused on key climate change challenges, workshops to help scientists bridge the gap between science and business, and new courses for professionals and executives.
Pan-European footprint
With a new Nordic centre in Denmark, we are set to bring expertise from across Scandinavia into the Climate-KIC, complementing existing centres in France, Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK.
We are strengthening our ties with regional partners through centres in Valencia, Central Hungary, Emilia Romagna, Lower Silesia, Hessen and the West Midlands and collaborations in Slovenia, Ireland, Finland, Portugal and Romania, through the Commission’s regional innovation scheme.
We are increasing our ties with global partners, connecting Europe with major developing markets in key carbon-producing nations such as China and Brazil. The Climate-KIC will represent Europe’s climate innovation community on the international stage throughout the year.
Beating climate change
Bleak as the IPCC report may seem, and stark as its warnings are, we must keep faith in our ability to overcome the challenges of our time through collaboration between science and business.
Collaboration between entrepreneurs and academics within European countries, regions and cities, across the Atlantic and throughout the world can beat climate change as we find and bring to market new solutions to adapt to and stop further climate change.
In the three years that Mary Ritter has been at the helm, Climate-KIC’s public-private partnership has grown from a membership of 27 organisations to a community of over 200 partners across Europe.
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