COP29 Global Innovation Hub – Start-ups moving beyond product substitution for gigatons of impact: Delivering on human needs for exponential growth of tomorrows solutions
For this COP29 session we gathered a climate solution “dream team” with support from Smita Rakesh from Social Alpha.
If you want to see the opportunities have and the passion that exists when it comes to solving the climate challenge, look no further than the start-up community. Here you will find amazing people with fantastic solutions. For COP29, NCI/RISE gathered six start-up companies that are part a dream team that can lead the way towards a sustainable future that is not just low-carbon but also much better for humans and nature.
However, in addition to being largely ignored by policymakers, media and environmental NGOs, leading start-ups with significant potential are also often misunderstood by investors and those that could provide a market for them.
It is time to put the start-ups at the centre of the climate discussion, but also to build capacity so we can support them in the best possible way. Instead of simply looking at them from a product substitution perspective, we need to support them as system providers and ensure that they can join clusters of stakeholders with a focus delivering on human needs.
In this session Jay Hennessy and Dennis Pamlin provided an introduction and explained the four step approach for full climate impact support, and how much more we can deliver if we move beyond a product substitution perspective.
Dr. G Ganesh Das from TATA Power explained how they work with start-ups in different ways. This active support for start-ups is something that should be acknowledged more.
Six start-ups also presented their ideas:
Pia Malmström Lawson from Energy Opticon
Erik Rönnqvist from Creative Optimization
Johan Kensby from Utilifeed
Louise Berg from Sibship
Sam Issa from Nano Textile Solutions
Vishal Singhal from Temperate Technologies
RISE Research Institutes of Sweden/NCI will use this dream-team together with other start-ups as a litmus test for society’s capacity to actually deliver what is needed. If we cannot support these start-ups so they, and similar companies, can grow exponentially we are doing something very wrong…. Let’s do things right…