Qatar, on Monday reaffirmed its commitment to tackling climate change by signing a deal to create a global centre for climate technology innovation, on the sidelines of the Conference of Parties (COP26) of the United Nations Climate Change Conference being held in the Scottish city of Glasgow in the United Kingdom. An agreement signed by Qatar Foundation and Rolls-Royce will result in the development of two world-class campuses dedicated to launching, investing in and nurturing businesses that can accelerate the global energy transition.
The centre will help entrepreneurs create and grow new climate technology businesses, aided by academic leadership, funds for research and development and early-stage venture capital investment. The integrated centre, a global first in climate technology, will allow businesses to use infrastructure provided on the campus to test, prove and scale their technologies, enabling them to rapidly refine their technological innovations.
The campuses being developed are expected to generate up to 1,000 jobs in the centres and at least 10,000 within the related start-up companies and broader ecosystem by 2040. A substantial investment pool will be created for venture funding at the scale needed to create global climate tech businesses with real impact and in anticipation that third-party investors will con-invest, with a target to grow up to five unicorns (privately held start-ups, each valued at over $1bn) by 2030 and up to 20 by 2040, driving significant economic value for investment partners.
The whole world is waking up fast to the fact that the planet we live is warming up faster and every creature on earth already started paying the price for the unmindful exploitation of nature and damage caused by the irresponsible emissions of greenhouse gases for the past several decades. With the repeated occurrences of unprecedented and untimely, floods, droughts, wildfires etc, the world realised the importance of protecting the environment by taking measures to mitigate the impact of climate change.
World leaders meeting in Glasgow will not be aiming at any new plans, but are trying to make every country make their serious commitment to the Paris Agreement with concrete action on the ground. This is not an easy task and there are no short-cuts, but what is needed is real commitment, sacrifice and a lot of investment.
Inventions have always brought in revolutionary changes in human life and they still continue to do so. Hence, investment in the field of innovations will never go waste. There is no dearth of brilliant brains brimming with new ideas in the world, what they lack is a proper environment and infrastructure to test, refine their ideas and turn them into realities. The partnership between Qatar Foundation and Rolls-Royce is just aiming to help out this bright minds and help them accelerate the global energy transition.
