South Africa to host Virtual Cleantech Conference

AfriLabs and The Office of Global Partnerships State Department in collaboration with HYBR Group, is bringing a Cleantech Innovation-focused, virtual conference to South Africa on the 28th of September.

The aim of this cleantech conference is to identify potential opportunities in Cleantech to be explored in South Africa and its immediate environs.

The event would also bring together industry experts, academia, innovators and government agencies to participate in conversations aimed at driving innovation, educating stakeholders and promoting scalable technology solutions that address specific problems of climate change in the region.

According to the Global Cleantech Innovation Index, South Africa scores below the global average in both inputs to and outputs of cleantech innovation, ranking 31st in the overall Index.

South Africa’s relative strength, yet still below global-average, lies in cleantech-specific drivers with a good amount of cleantech-friendly government policy.

Despite this, the country lacks evidence of emerging cleantech, especially shown in the low number of filed cleantech-related patents and low showing of successful cleantech start-ups, despite some early-stage venture capital deployed in the sector.

Based on this context, an event such as the Cleantech conference becomes doubly important as it seeks to provide the atmosphere for deeper conversations on important issues and how these impact livelihoods, environment and sustainable growth.

Leveraging a number of thematic areas, the conference will feature Keynote addresses, panel sessions and workshops which will address issues pertaining to; clean coal, cleantech opportunities in South Africa, cleantech investments and cleantech inclusion.

Speakers at the event will include Bankole Oloruntoba of the Nigeria Climate Innovation Center, Dominic Asante Opoku Manu of the SDGs Advisory Unit, Mo Khan, Managing Director of Nexus Ventures LP, Certified Financial Planner, Chris Loker, Antoinette Tesha of the Textiles and Apparel Industry Program, Dario Giuliani of Briter Bridges, Chukwuemeka Agbata of Pacer.vc amongst other stakeholders in the African Cleantech Industry.

Stakeholders and interested members of the general public are invited to attend the sessions by registering here.