Climate-KIC innovation Summit Frankfurt 8/11
The event started off with a talk on the urgency of action to meet the threats of climate change with action by John Schellnhuber CBE, Founder/Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Most of the audience would be well aware if the issue and its urgency beforehand but nevertheless this was a very insightful and engaging presentations that touched most people in the audience. It served the purpose of laying the foundation of the day more than well.
The opening session also included insightful speeches by Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (video link from COP22, Marrakech) and Tom Delay, Chief Executive Officer, Carbon Trust as well as an introduction and welcome by Ian Short the appointed Interim CEO of Climate-KIC.
The day continued with parallel theme sessions on the different topics of the event. The different topics were the exact same as the main target area themes of Climate-KIC; Sustainable Production Systems, Urban Transition, Sustainable Land Use and Decision Metrics and Finance. Both innovative projects and systematic approaches in these areas were presented. In another separate session the European finals of the Pan-European venture competition with the 15 best companies from the Climate-KIC Accelerators was settled. The companies presented their cases in front of a jury of venture capital representatives and startup experts.
The summit was concluded again with a common gathering with a panel discussion on the topic of Developing Human Capital and keynotes from, among others Christian Thimann from AXA Group and Akira Kirton from BP Ventures. There was also record fast 1 minute pitches from the 15 contestants in the Pan-European venture competition before the winners were announced. The first price winner and recipient of the 80 000 € price was Carbon Delta from Switzerland and the runner up and receiver of the 50 000 € second price was SioX from Denmark.