ETHICORE supports establishment of South Africa’s 1st Climate Innovation Centre
As the South Africa’s push towards a ‘green economy’ trajectory advances and gains momentum under the auspices of government’s ‘New Growth Path’ economic strategy and in the build-up to to the 17th session of the United Nations Conference of the Parties climate negotiations (i.e. COP-17) in Durban (28 November – 9 December 2011); ETHICORE Consulting and Advisory Solutions continues to forge new ground as an African thought-leader in sustainability services. This includes strategic innovative strategy, consulting, advisory and project-based service (e.g. research, business intelligence, policy and regulatory affairs, communications, stakeholder management, training and capacity building) in the areas of sustainability, green-economy, climate innovation, sustainable consumption and production, resource management and efficiency.
Supporting pioneering South Africa’s first climate innovation centre
Since July 2011, ETHICORE Managing Director Abdul Waheed Patel has been appointed as lead consultant by the World Bank for the establishment of the South Africa’s first climate innovation centre. Know as the ‘Gauteng Climate Innovation Centre’ the centre is being developed and will be hosted at The Innovation Hub Management Company (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of the Blue IQ Investment Holding company of the Gauteng Provincial Government’s Department of Economic Development.
About the Gauteng Climate Innovation Centre
The Innovation Hub is pursuing the Gauteng Climate Innovation Centre in collaboration with infoDev – a public-private partnership in the World Bank Group. infoDev has a dedicated Climate Technology Program.
The Climate Innovation Centre aims to provide financing and other business development services to help South Africa pro-actively and profitably develop, transfer and deploy climate smart technologies. In particularl the Climate Innovation Centre aimed to provided targeted and dedicated support to small and medium enterprises operating in the clean-tech and climate smart technology sector.
In so doing, the Climate Innovation Centre will help achieve the Gaunteng province’s and the country’s ‘New Growth Path’ objectives of job creation, industrial development and improved environmental performance and a shift to a ‘Green Econom’, in line with South Africa and Gauteng’s emerging green economy strategies.
The Gauteng Climate Innovation Centre will become part of a global network of 30 similar centres being supported by the World Bank’s infoDev unit, and will become a national anchor South Africa’s climate innovation activities. Through this network the Gauteng Climate Innovation Centre and the companies that it supports to participate fully in the globalised clean and climate technology. The first centre is to be launched in Nairobi, Kenya in 2011, with other current being developed in India, Ethiopia, Morocco and Vietnam, in addition to South Africa.
Stakeholder Consultation Workshop on the Design of the Climate Innovation Centre
The Innovation Hub and the World Bank will hold a national stakeholder consultative conference to engage relevant stakeholders on the design of the centre, to develop a deeper understanding of particular circumstances in South Africa in the climate technology and innovation sectors and to seek input from relevant actors on their understanding of the climate tech/innovation ecosystem and needs in South Africa. The details of the workshop are as follows:
Date: Thursday, 6 October 2011
Time: 08h30 – 17h000
Venue: The Innovation Hub, 1 Mark Shuttleworth street, Pretoria
Should you wish to like to register for the conference, kindly please send your interests and request, together with your personal and organisational particulars to: [email protected] and CC: [email protected]
Kindly find a full release, project overview, conference invitation and draft conference agenda below for download:
ETHICORE Supports Gauteng CIC_2Oct201
Gauten CIC Conference RSVP Invite(19Sept2011)
Draft agenda for Gauteng CIC Conference (04 Oct 11)
Gauteng CIC Working Groups Overview_FINAL
The Innovation Hub_Map & Directions
For more information and enquiries, contact Abdul Waheed Patel on:
Tel: +27 (0) 21 422 2985
Mobile: +27 (0) 79 888 0452
Email: [email protected]