COP26: UN Climate Change and EIT Climate-KIC join forces to create a new Global Innovation Hub
In the news
01 Nov 2021
A new digital global innovation center was launched at COP 26 by UN Climate Change (UNFCCC) to dramatically increase the efficiency and scale of climate change and sustainability innovation as a driver more ambitious climate action. To achieve this, the hub will have new approaches to facilitate the development and deployment of transformative and innovative climate solutions.
The hub promotes a ‘Moonshot approach’ that will help practitioners base climate action promises and commitments on what science says is necessary, as opposed to what is seen as possible with current solutions and technologies. The initiative is launched by UN Climate Change and supported by grassroots partner organizations such as EIT Climate-KIC, the Swedish Research Institute (RISE), the European Commission, Mission Innovation and the Open Earth Foundation.
In its recent report of Working Group 1, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that limiting the increase in global average temperature to 1.5 ° C requires a reduction in CO2 emissions of 45% in 2030. However, current emission reduction commitments are far from sufficient. Unless urgent action is taken, the current level of ambition is likely to set the world on track for an average temperature rise of 2.7 ° C and increasingly frequent extreme weather events. .
Significantly greater ambition is therefore needed to keep the 1.5C target within reach. Current commitments are often insufficient because they are based on perceptions of what can be achieved in the context of current climate solutions and technologies.
The cluster aims to support the translation of commitments and promises into a demand for climate and sustainable solutions that will lead to the identification or development of innovative responses and their effective implementation. Innovative responses beyond current solutions mean that promises and commitments can become considerably more ambitious.
The hub is a digital platform that hosts (i) databases of demand for solutions as well as solutions, (ii) tools to determine the impact of climate action and (iii) a space to facilitate the financing of climate solutions.
The hub sets the agenda for an expanded space for climate innovation for all practitioners. It highlights people’s daily needs, such as mobility, access to goods and services and social ties. The hub then promotes the development of innovative climate-friendly responses beyond all status quo solutions such as cars or conventional energy and, above all, without focusing on a single isolated solution.
For example, instead of focusing solely on developing electric cars, the hub will promote climate innovations that challenge the need for a car in the first place. It will explore options for designing compact and comprehensive cities connected with low-carbon public transport that will reduce the need for mobility. It will even go even further and challenge mobility as a need for access to products and services. For example, it will develop solutions that replace trips to obtain a product or service in the same way that online shopping has replaced trips to stores.
These solutions will enable greater ambition for climate action, will be aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and will allow the reuse, as much as possible, of the knowledge, skills and physical assets of supply chains. disturbed value. The solutions offered by the platform are integrated with each other to form a group of solutions that can include technologies, policies and regulations, business models and financing instruments that reflect a holistic approach.
Since the development of a solution is demand driven and the solutions are integrated to form a cluster, the hub will not store underdeveloped inventions as is often the case with innovation platforms.
The Global Innovation Hub will have world-class standards in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement for assessing the impact of solutions to climate change. The hub will have a physical pavilion at the COP where events are organized to express the demand for climate solutions or to disseminate solutions. All interested practitioners are welcome to visit the hub.
More information is available here.
Discover the entire EIT Climate-KIC program at COP 26 here
This article was originally published by UN Climate Change News (only a small modification by the EIT Climate-KIC editorial team). Image: rafapress / shutterstock
