Climate Smart Cities Challenge now open
03 November 2021
The Climate Smart Cities Challenge aims to connect innovative organisations with four cities to accelerate the shift to climate neutral cities. The competition was launched today by UN-Habitat and Sweden at Dubai Expo 2020.
The Challenge is now open for applications from innovative organisations of various sizes, from a variety of sectors. The four participating cities; Bogota (Colombia), Bristol (United Kingdom), Curitiba (Brazil) and Makindye Ssabagabo (Uganda) are looking for innovative approaches, technologies and solutions to address their specific challenges to reduce carbon and improve the quality of life for their citizens.
These challenges range from green and affordable homes to net-zero-carbon neighbourhoods and urban freight management. Up to 20 finalists per city will be invited to form teams to demonstrate how to solve the cities’ climate challenges.
“Cities are at the heart of the climate change problem. But cities are also the key to the solution. Cities need to take climate change seriously and significantly reduce their carbon emissions, while improving their resilience and adaptability to climate-related disasters and negative effects. Now is the time for action,” says UN-Habitat Executive Director Maimunah Mohd Sharif.
A unique chance for startups and SME to make an impact
The Climate Smart Cities Challenge uses an open innovation competition process, where teams of innovators are selected to collaborate with cities and investors to demonstrate climate smart approaches that will inform future investments in the cities.
“A mission-oriented and people-centered innovation challenge process will provide a platform for a whole range of organizations across different sectors to participate, creating a movement to speed up the climate transition,” said Olga Kordas, Director of the Swedish strategic innovation programme Viable Cities.
The outcomes of the competition will have a significant impact on the four cities' responses to climate change by significantly strengthening their capacity to engage in diverse partnerships, enabling communities and innovators to play a key and often new role collaborating with government and stakeholders in designing people-driven solutions and reinvent the way that cities innovate.
“Through this competition, startups and SMEs will have the opportunity to help solve these cities' challenges. This is a great chance to make an impact, not only for the participating cities and the entire world, but also for the startups who will run real projects together with them. Take the opportunity to make a difference by applying already today,” says Magnus Bergendahl, Head of Climate Smart City for Ignite Sweden.
This challenge is organised by the UN as well as a number of Swedish Actors including Sweden Innovation Days organisers; Vinnova - Sweden’s Innovation Agency, the Swedish Energy Agency and Ignite Sweden.
A conversation about the Climate Smart Cities Challenge will also feature on the mainstage of Day 4 on January 20!
The four cities’ challenges
Bogotá (Colombia): Improve freight mobility and reduce congestion-based greenhouse gas emissions.
Bristol (United Kingdom): Contribute to a new model for delivering affordable, carbon-neutral homes.
Curitiba (Brazil): Advance new models for creating zero-carbon neighborhoods.
Makindye Ssabagabo (Uganda): Propose scalable ways to develop zero-carbon, energy-efficient, affordable homes.
Applications are open until 5 January, 2022 but early submissions close December 5, 2021.
Up to 80 finalists will be presented on 20 January 2022. This will be followed by a process to form winning teams that will plan for system demonstrations.
Find out more about the Climate Smart Cities Challenge including how to enter a submission at climatesmart.citieschallenge.org