Cleantech Days, held in association with the IVECF Solutions Week 2023 from 30 October to 3 November, is a dynamic global forum gathering cleantech startups and SMEs, industry experts, government officials, investors and other ecosystem actors – all committed to climate action.
This year’s Cleantech Days are attended by over 100 participants, which includes 35 start-up teams, over 40 government representatives, experts, and industry champions from 25 countries.
Cleantech Days is jointly organized by the two flagship programmes of UNIDO’s Climate Technologies Innovation Unit (CTI) – the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) and the Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN). Both programmes have worked hand in hand over the years to ensure continuous support to climate entrepreneurs from start-ups to scale-ups.
“It is clear that the world is facing unprecedented and increasingly interlocked challenges, including climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, poverty, hunger, inequality and conflict. Only a systems change approach that encompasses shifts on micro, meso and macro levels can effectively and systematically address these challenges. Accordingly, UNIDO interventions in the climate technology innovation space are focused on delivering climate solutions at scale and pace commensurate to the challenge. On one hand, we support the transformation of climate innovation into fast-growing, scalable and investible enterprises. On the other hand, we build, strengthen and connect climate technology innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems. These two pillars effectively accelerate climate innovation across technologies, policies, regulations, finance, human behavior, thereby contributing to systems change,” says Alois Mhlanga, Chief of the Climate Technologies Innovation Unit (CTI).
Cleantech Days stems from the GCIP Global Forum organized annually from 2014 to 2020. These fora convened high-potential entrepreneurs supported through GCIP national accelerators in nine countries. They provided a platform for showcasing high-impact solutions, honing entrepreneurship and pitching skills, forging networks and forming partnerships. As UNIDO expands its climate innovation portfolio in line with the priorities of the UNIDO Director General Gerd Müller, CTI has recognized the need to build on the GCIP Global Forum, connecting the broader community of UNIDO stakeholders.
“Cleantech Days is a unique opportunity that GCIP is pursuing to convene various UNIDO partners and project beneficiaries. GCIP supports more than 15 partner countries on a daily basis to create strong national ecosystems for innovation and entrepreneurship,” says Olga Rataj, GCIP Programme Manager. “We care about our country teams and beneficiaries and take active part in their everyday challenges, small and big, as well as their successes – both the tiny steps taken forward and the grand triumphs. We are convinced that these experiences are part of a meaningful and ambitious journey towards a sustainable future. Our objective is also to make our stakeholders feel as part of something bigger – a strong global community to fight climate change and global environmental issues. Cleantech Days provide an opportunity to reinforce each other’s motivation, learn from each other and raise the level of ambition for the years to come. GCIP highly values the opportunity to work together with Siemens and several other UNIDO projects and initiatives to amplify each other’s voices and to advance the common mission.”
With this in mind, Cleantech Days 2023 is being organized in partnership with ITPO Italy’s “FIPEE Call for High Impact Cleantech”, MOUSTADAMA Cleantech Palestine, BLOOM Barbados Cleantech Cluster, Facility for Low Carbon Technology Deployment (FLCTD), Pakistan Private Sector Energy Project (PPSE) and d•camp Global of the Republic of Korea. Apart from internal stakeholders, prominent external innovation and entrepreneurship champions, industry experts and though leaders to partner for capacity-building, training and networking sessions, including Siemens, Vienna Business Agency, International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges (IAAI), the Network for Global Innovation (NGIN) and Cleantech Group will also participate.
By bringing together a community of innovative start-ups and SMEs working on climate and energy solutions under the GCIP and other UNIDO projects focused on entrepreneurship support, Cleantech Days follows the ecosystem approach of GCIP towards climate and cleantech innovation and entrepreneurship. The event particularly aims to strengthen national and global ecosystems for cleantech, climate and sustainability innovations.
The Cleantech Days event highlights the potential of innovation and South-South cooperation in accelerating the transition towards low-carbon and resilient economies. Comprising of capacity building workshops, training and pitching competition sessions, investor connect and networking activities as well as panel discussions within IVECF, Cleantech Days emphasizes the pivotal role of collaborative efforts and the exchange of best practices and learnings in the cleantech sector. The event serves as a unique platform for cleantech entrepreneurs and innovators, investors, corporate partners and other stakeholders to engage in multi-stakeholder dialogue, exchange knowledge and expertise, forge partnerships, celebrate impactful solutions, and unleash financing and investment opportunities.
Follow the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) page on LinkedIn for event updates.