At the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh,
the United Nations Global Innovation Center (UGIH) will increase the scale and effectiveness of innovation in tackling climate change.
And helping to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This will happen for the first time through a digital platform designed,
to facilitate collaboration between major innovators and investors.
Who have a demand for Climate and Sustainability Solutions (CSSs).
Innovation in climate action is critical, to support the behavioral and systemic changes needed to change direction.
When it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and building resilience to climate change.
Innovation can apply, for example, to ways to generate clean energy,
and ways to make the construction sector more sustainable.
So are ways to make the food supply chain resilient to climate shocks.
The center also addresses current challenges in the innovation process,
and provides a space to rethink ways of meeting basic human needs in the context of sustainable development.
With the window of opportunity to tackle climate change quickly closing, additional steps are not enough.
Therefore, the Global Innovation Hub intends to take a pioneering approach,
setting a goal and encouraging innovation to achieve it.
Rather than what is seen as possible with current solutions and technologies,
leading to a profound shift in how climate goals are achieved.
The default hub for enabling “Smart Matchmaking”
During COP27, hub organizers will release version 1.0 of the virtual hub site,
a tool for collecting government agency requests for climate and sustainability solutions.
Version 1.0 of the platform was jointly designed by Amazon Web Services and the Open Earth Foundation.
It enables the pooling of global ambitions, a critical first step toward intelligent matchmaking and automated alliance building.
The UGIH pavilion at COP27 will feature up to 80 consecutive sessions,
each highlighting a specific topic of climate innovation.
Like cities, digital finance, partners for tomorrow (incubators and accelerators),
innovation for climate, youth; Gender, basic needs/solutions.
Concrete examples of areas of innovation that will be highlighted in the center include:
Bamboo’s potential as a material for sustainable construction and circular economic development
Reports have shown that bamboo has great potential as a renewable, lightweight and strong building material.
Bamboo is beginning to play an increasingly important role in future construction projects,
due to its faster growth.
And increased carbon sequestration of bamboo plants compared to trees in the tropics.
Green hydrogen potential
With governments agreeing at COP26 to phase out coal, green hydrogen takes the stage at COP27.
Driving innovation in a collective commitment to green energy.
While the hydrogen production market is expected to grow up to 9.2% annually through 2030,
more than 95% of hydrogen production today is derived from fossil fuels.
UGIH explores opportunities to develop green hydrogen compatible with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement.
Potential of beans in improving food security
With climate change continuing to negatively impact global food security,
UGIH presents the launch of “Bean Kef”, an initiative by the SDG2 Advocacy Hub.
It aims to highlight the potential of kidney beans, as an affordable and accessible solution to the world’s growing health and climate challenges.
All practitioners interested in COP are invited to visit the center in the physical pavilion.
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