Join EIT Climate-KIC for #Systemschangenow
UN Secretary António Guterres
Catalysing systems innovation to fight climate change
Work with us across the world to shape and place innovation to achieve regeneration and transformation, in time.
We need innovation more than ever, but not how we have been doing it so far.
Time is running out, and single-point innovation is not enough to reach our climate targets and design a future for the 8 billion people living together on this planet.
This is a
code red
for humanity.
UN Secretary António Guterres
The climate emergency is here. Demand is growing for climate action that matches the scale and urgency of the challenge.
Staying within a 1.5 degree rise in warming is essential to avoid an increase in catastrophic climate disasters. This will require bold changes to the way we use natural resources, materials and energy, to our built environment, our mobility, or the way we grow and consume food. We must redefine our way of life and consumption.
Radical systemic change is the only pathway to a sustainable future for humanity.
There is an ongoing gap between high level policy decisions and climate targets with personal awareness and real world action. To bridge this gap, we need innovative new approaches that drive social transformation, are systemic and can be achieved at the pace and scale required for change. We need to simultaneously tackle the interlinked grassroot causes of climate change across all levels: individual, communities, business, institutions and governments. We need systems innovation.
The world needs inspiration, and proof that inclusive, fast and large-scale change is possible.
Business-as-usual will not cut it anymore. What we are heading to is unprecedented and will required bold innovation.
In this context of urgency, complexity and uncertainty, we need a framework that can generate options and pathways for the transformation of whole systems: a methodology for shaping, testing and identifying combinations of interventions and ‘leverage points’ that harness the many interacting forces of systems to accelerate net zero in whole places and sectors.
What is systems innovation?
Systems innovation has the power to transform whole industries, cities, regions and countries at a pace and scale not achieved before.
Systemic change requires a different order of innovation.
EIT Climate-KIC is using systems innovation to transform whole places, industries and value chains by 2030, working with governments, communities and funding partners to develop and scale ambitious, mission-led programmes.
By systems innovation we mean deliberately designed and integrated economic, political and social interventions along whole value chains through a portfolio of connected innovation experiments (i.e. a portfolio approach).
Sensemaking is embedded into the innovation portfolio to ensure continuous feedback loops. These learnings help us understand what combinations of interventions work best together for deeper, faster climate action.
Such an approach generates essential data and intelligence for policy makers and decision makers to implement viable, actionable pathways to change.
The approach is fully participatory, ensuring climate actions are socially just and meet the needs of all stakeholders, including the very communities at the forefront of climate impacts.
Read our 2019-2022 strategy to find out more:
How do we do it?
Climate change is systemic and complex, causing radical uncertainty. To be effective, our ways of dealing with the challenge need to manage the uncertainty and address the whole as well as the parts.
Leveraging our ten year track record of innovating.
Changing the way we do innovation matters most in bridging the implementation gap between our policy commitments to act and real world action.
We have solutions. We have ideas. But our habits of thinking, acting, investing and decision making do not lend themselves to joining the dots and connecting all those solutions into deliberately designed new social structures and whole systems change.
EIT Climate-KIC orchestrates various actors to coordinate all of the parts to form a new whole.
To realise this vision, we have designed a unique methodology that uses innovation to drive systems change, whilst managing the adaptive and complex nature of tackling major social challenges like climate change.
We draw on a combination of distinctive capabilities and services that have been refined over the last 10 years in climate innovation. Connected through one of Europe's foremost climate innovation ecosystems, the Climate-KIC community can create the exponential effects required to achieve 2030 climate goals.
Our offer includes:
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Deep demonstrations: place based programmes to test and evidence the most powerful combinations of demand-led innovations and solutions in real world settings
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An orchestration capability that works within and across cities, regions and industries to connect stakeholders, bridge the policy gap, share learnings and scale climate solutions
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Transformational capital: a programme to collaborate, design and testing of new funding models for portfolios of climate innovations
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Systems transformation impact framework
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Capability building to equip stakeholders with the skills and capacity to support complex systems change
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Entrepreneurship and innovation programmes to stimulate fresh pipelines of new climate innovations
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Education programmes to build awareness and capability within schools, universities and workplaces
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Radical collaborations – social activation
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Europe's foremost ecosystem of climate experts and practitioners from academia, business, government and civil society
Our systems innovation methodology
For large-scale impact, we need to look for integrations and leverage points.
This requires a different approach: systems thinking, joint programming, joint funding and blended finance to catalyse whole systems transitions.
1. Agree intent with challenge owners
We work with the most ambitious challenge owners – city mayors, regional leaders, govt ministers, citizen leaders and CEOs of major companies – to understand their unique ‘problem space’, identify current commitments, and secure a clear intent for transformational change.
2. Define the intervention
strategy
We map the systems that need to change and identify where and how innovation can play a role in catalysing change dynamics. We start to design simultaneous innovation ‘positions’ that can contribute to system-wide change.
3. Orchestrate a portfolio
For each challenge, we build and manage a portfolio of 30 – 100 connected innovations, designed to address leverage points identified in earlier stages. These may combine behaviour, technology, citizen engagement, policy, education and other levers of change.
4. Sensemaking and feedback loops
We generate actionable intelligence to accelerate learning about how to achieve transformation at scale. Feedback loops inform policymaking and dynamic management of the innovation portfolio.
Delivering extraordinary change with extraordinary funders.
EIT Climate-KIC partners with bold, dynamic and visionary funders who recognise that “business as usual” has to stop.
Supporting “Orchestration” organisations like EIT Climate-KIC to unlock systemic change requires new approaches to funding.
Flexible funding, support for orchestration, portfolio investments and financing for new innovation approaches and platforms are critical enablers of major climate goals.
EIT Climate-KIC Global “Orchestration” capabilities - €20m / year
We are a vehicle for funders seeking to affect transformative climate impacts through collective action; inspiring real world, every day change whilst informing and shaping high level policy and decision making.
Working with EIT Climate-KIC, by 2027 funders will:
- Contribute to the avoidance of over 500 million tonnes of (CO2eq) emissions
- Strengthen the resilience of 10 million people to the impacts of climate change
- Leverage a further €100b to support climate innovation scale up
- Generate over 50,000 new green jobs
Funders can only enable the delivery of these goals by providing flexible investment that will:
- Deliver European wide / global radical systemic climate action
- Invest in the support structures, that are essential to delivering systemic climate innovation globally.
- Enable EIT Climate-KIC to be a “backbone” organisation that combines the forces of others; working within and across global systems to manage and connect the complex and different facets of climate change at play
- Fund highly skilled, climate and innovation experts to “connect the dots” and catalyse the collective the impact of the many
- Develop, test and scale vehicles for large scale portfolio investment
A whole system approach:
Healthy, Clean Cities- 5m / year over 4 years
EIT Climate-KIC is working with the most ambitious mayors and municipalities in Europe to co-design climate innovation portfolios that will unlock rapid, large scale action across the whole city system; from mobility to waste, energy to the built environment.
The Cities programme offers funders an opportunity to maximise impact through pooled funding; working across multiple yet connected interventions for faster, more effective climate solutions within and across cities. Funders will support EIT Climate-KIC to:
- Provide high level technical assistance to local government
- Design people centred climate strategies co-created with government and designed to turn city climate commitments into action
- Build the required capability and capacity within local municipalities to holistically take climate action
- Innovate across key city systems such as mobility, housing, energy,
- Disrupt social norms, essential to tackling inequality
- Identify and address intelligence and data gaps for decision making and policy change
- Cultivate mindset shifts and behaviour change in local communities
- Develop innovative new MEL practices to track and measure systemic impact
Entrepreneurship and education platform
Total funding requirement €9m / year
We work with and through local partners to deliver globally impactful programmes at a grassroots, community level. Together, we have continually innovated to strengthen the programmes, grow outreach and maximise impact.
EIT Climate-KIC entrepreneurship and education programmes have:
- Supported over 1800 climate positive business who have raised €1.5b in follow on investment
- Helped create over 10,000 new green jobs
- Built the world’s largest green start-up ideas competition, Climate LaunchPad, which is active in 56 countries, and led Climathon, a city level green hackathon event which is active in over 100 cities across 6 continents
- Strengthened the climate leadership of 44,000 participants from schools, universities and business
The next phase will see programmes designed and executed under one education and innovation platform. This format will grow our reach, maximise climate impacts globally, embed systems innovation principles, build and connect global ecosystems of inspired and skills climate innovators and enable whole communities to be climate change agents; driving meaningful climate action. This will be achieved through three core pillars:
- Activate: engaging and inspiring change agents across schools, cities and work places to better understand climate challenges and providing pathways for community action
- Accelerate: Supporting entrepreneurs to launch and grow new green start ups
- Educate: Capability building and education services on systems change and systems innovation connected to climate action.
Capital and Investments. €500k infrastructure development, €100m investment
Pipelines of new, scalable solutions are going to be crucial in addressing the innovation gap between global climate goals and practical action.
EIT Climate-KIC incubates and accelerates over 100 climate start-ups per year through programmes such as ClimAccelerator to meet that need. To date we have supported the launch of over 460 innovation products and services which have avoided an estimated 13 million tonnes of CO2e2.
Recognising that further support is needed for start ups to facilitate commercialisation, develop fundraising plans, devise impact strategies and be “systems ready” to participate in EIT Climate-KIC innovation portfolio programmes, a new investment vehicle is in design phase.
Partners are sought to support the design, test and roll out of a EIT Climate-KIC Investment Fund for the world’s most promising and exciting portfolio of new clean tech innovations.
What do we bring to the table?
We offer a suite of tools frameworks, programmes, expertise and ecosystems to design partnerships with places and industry that address local needs whilst tackling global climate challenges.
Our work on the ground
Become the next ambitious programme fighting climate change alongside many more.
NetZeroCities: the new project leading European cities’ transition to net-zero emissions by 2030
NetZeroCities is a new European initiative aiming to lead European cities’ transition to net-zero emissions by 2030. Coordinated by EIT Climate-KIC, the four-year project will support cities in drastically cutting down greenhouse gas emissions to achieve climate neutrality, one of the biggest challenges our societies face today. NetZeroCities is funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, supporting the European Green Deal in building a low-carbon, climate resilient future through research and innovation.
As cities represent centres of economic activity, knowledge generation and hubs for innovation, they are envisioned to lead in achieving zero-carbon emissions and ensure that decarbonisation efforts are equitable and contribute to the well-being of communities. Cities will need to develop strategies that are tailored to suit local contexts: the project will support them by developing and promoting tools, resources, and expertise collated into a platform accessible to all cities through an online portal. In addition, NetZeroCities will support up to 30 pilots to help drive rapid learning about how to achieve climate neutrality in cities. The project is part of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme and will directly support the targets of the European Union’s Green Deal and the EU’s Mission 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030.
Find out more at: www.netzerocities.eu
Building resilience with a systemic lens
EIT Climate-KIC has been selected to join the Race to Resilience, a UNFCCC High-Level Climate Champions campaign that aims to catalyse action by non-state actors by 2030, to build the resilience of 4 billion people from groups and communities who are vulnerable to climate risks. Some regions of Europe are particularly exposed to the impacts of climate change due to the make-up of their landscapes, economies and societies. EIT Climate-KIC’s programme, Resilient Regions Deep Demonstration, is devoted to bringing a systemic lens to climate change adaptation in Europe.
The programme uses a comprehensive approach to shift regions’ hazard-by-hazard risk reduction practices to a state where people, communities and systems can withstand and bounce back from shocks, to persist through slow-onset stresses and transform through crises. Early partners include regional governments in Andalusia, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the Dolomites and the Glasgow City Region.
Teaming up with Laudes Foundation
EIT Climate-KIC has teamed up with Laudes Foundation to lower embodied carbon in new buildings in two of Europe’s largest urban regeneration projects: Madrid Nuevo Norte and Milan’s L’Innesto.
The two-year programme will mobilise a community of experts that will work with city leaders and policymakers, developers and designers, financiers and insurers, as well as citizen groups in a supporting role, to take a transdisciplinary approach to increasing the use of bio-based materials and circularity in buildings. An additional focus of the initiative will be to collect key learnings from the two urban development projects to scale positive action across other European capitals. This will ultimately result in the transformation of sustainable building practices in urban planning and construction at the pace and scale required to achieve net-zero carbon goals.
