I was delighted to assist in Mission Finance conference, dubbed as “Europe’s leading summit focused on tackling climate change through innovation” as panel moderator in November 2018. Hosted in the city of Dublin, which is seeking to become the centre of Sustainable Finance in Europe.
The ‘Climate Innovation Summit’ was been created in response to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that underlined the acute nature of climate change, calling for immediate action. Developed by EIT Climate-KIC, Europe’s innovation agency, in partnership with Sustainable Nation Ireland, the was to offer refreshingly positive solutions-driven antidote to the doom and gloom around climate change.
The Fifth Edition
This fifth edition of the Climate Innovation Summit focuses on ‘rewiring’ finance – the innovation needed in the financial systems to drive change. The event was attended by a diverse and pan-European group of next-generation thinkers, innovators and entrepreneurs sharing expertise and critical insights on everything from climate risk to climate opportunity, landscape and infrastructure financing.
Fresh perspectives on sustainable finance
Amongst the notable experts, the headline speaker (in my humble opinion) was leading international economist Mariana Mazzucato, who discussed value creation and the need for individual states to take a more active role in ‘missions’ to address societal issues. European Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič met a range of cleantech start-ups. Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe inaugurated the European hub of Financial Centres for Sustainability. Dennis Pamlin, RISE/Mission Innovation presented a new framework for investing in the future we want today. EIT Climate-KIC partners, alumni offered masterclasses, deep dives, pitching and workshops.
This participatory Climate Innovation Summit 2018 programme made space for truly fresh perspectives on sustainable finance. With the support of the Irish Government, the summit took place in the prestigious Dublin Castle in the heart of the city.
Panel Discussion: Corporate and Startup collaborations for Risk taking and experimentation
Panel Lead by Assim Ishaque, Cleantech Entrepreneur, Inventor & Speaker
Panel members:
- Anna Laylock, Executive Director https://financeinnovationlab.org
- John Atcheson, Co-founder/CEO http://www.stuffstr.com/
- Raphael Fellmar, Founder/CEO https://sirplus.de/
- Killian Kaminski, Co-founder, Director https://www.refurbed.de/
- Peter Kragh Halling, CEO Creative Dock Nordics, https://www.creativedock.com/
In this session that I explored the interactions between start-ups and corporates, and the efforts of those carving out a space for risk-taking and rapid experimentation with this fascinating group of practitioners. Portfolio and ecosystems approaches are increasingly seeing groups of focused start-ups reinvigorate corporate models and help break through the inertia.
Globally, we are seeing an increase in the number of start-ups and in the investments they successfully obtain. The start-up revolution shows no sign of ending. In this session, I lead discussions to explore what are start-ups doing right, why are they so attractive for industries and investors, and how can we leverage the impact of, and interest in start-ups for wider-scale systemic innovation transformation?
With an expert panel the session explored the increasing popularity of corporate entrepreneurship set-ups, whereby industries and entrepreneurs collaborate and co-develop, with new innovative models. We discussed the new level-playing field in which both start-up and corporates can succeed in collaborations leading to actual climate impact and large-scale innovation.
The audience were engaged and asked stretching questions around panel member insights and examples of real high-value experimentation delving into innovative corporate entrepreneurship models that unlock rapid experimentation and deliver on climate impact goals and positive change.
The event was a finance bootcamp for professionals in finance seeking to move into more climate responsible finding models as well as being a great opportunity to share ideas and re-connect with leaders in the field.
