Innovate2030: Digital Ideas against Urban Climate Change

Launching the Innovate2030 Challenge at COP26, the Make IT-Alliance unites innovators from around the world for a global innovation program. The alliance includes the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and its partners from the United Nations Climate Convention (UNFCCC), the European Commission, Bosch, and Atos.

Ambitious schedule: Finalists are announced in February 2022. © BMZ 2021

By Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

GIZ is a globally active provider of international cooperation for sustainable development. It has more than 50 years of experience in a wide range of fields.

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In 2023, the world's population will cross the threshold of eight billion people. By mid-century, nine billion people will populate the earth. Already today, the majority of them live in cities, a trend that will only continue in the future. Cities and metropolitan areas are indeed economic powerhouses.Yet they are also responsible for about 70 percent of global carbon emissions and over 60 percent of resource consumption. Rapid urbanization is leading to congested infrastructure, air pollution and unplanned urban sprawl. Developing countries in particular are becoming a hotspot for these negative trends.

 

These changes also have significant implications for ongoing urbanization, which is a key driver of economic and social growth. Indeed, for a sustainable development, important interactions between urban and rural areas must be taken into account.

 

Nearly all food, water, raw materials, and similar primary necessities of urban life are imported from rural areas. Therefore, rural development needs to be at the forefront of national development planning in general and urban development in particular. Productive rural agriculture also helps minimize rural depopulation and rapid urbanization causing various social issues in urban areas.

 

With food shortages already severe and climate change on the rise, agriculture in African countries must increase its economic, environmental and social performance - and the time to act is now.

 

Thus, this year's Innovate2030 program, initiated with BMZ digilab and in collaboration with the Make-IT Alliance, the European Commission, and the UNFCCC, focuses on SDG11: 'Sustainable Cities and Communities'.

 

Click here to learn more about the Innovate2030 Challenge and how to participate!

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