Ashraf AboArafe
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and UpLink, the World Economic Forum’s open innovation platform, strengthened their partnership to innovate solutions to current climate challenges by signing two agreements on the sidelines of the 2024 World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting held in Davos, Switzerland, where the Kingdom was represented at the signing by His Excellency the Minister of Economy and Planning, Mr. Faisal bin Fadel Al-Ibrahim, While the World Economic Forum was represented by Forum President Borg Brende.
The two agreements focus on “stimulating innovation for economies that protect the oceans” and “stimulating innovation for circular carbon economy opportunities.” The extension of the Kingdom’s cooperation with UpLink builds on the partnership signed with the Ministry of Economy and Planning in 2022, which issued a global challenge to innovators and pioneers to address global challenges in Diets.
Through this partnership, which is led by the Ministry of Economy and Planning in partnership with the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, the Saudi Green Initiative and the Wave Initiative, the Kingdom aims to promote impactful investments and technical innovations to meet the challenges of sustainable development and support early-impact entrepreneurs.
The Minister of Economy and Planning said: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is determined to confront this moment of heightened climate and sustainable development challenges by enhancing commitment to environmental regulations and environmentally responsible practices, and driving transformative investments in advanced, innovative and scalable technology solutions.”
He added: “We will work with UpLink to activate innovation in the circular carbon economy and the new blue economy, in order to activate positive climate solutions and build the foundations of green international economic resilience.”
For his part, UpLink President John Dutton said: “The world is facing a climate crisis that requires urgent and joint action. Innovative technology solutions created by entrepreneurs will contribute to achieving sustainable development goals, if they receive the necessary support to support their projects.”
He pointed out that UpLink is working in cooperation with its partners to build an innovation system, and we are also investing in powerful systems technology by supporting entrepreneurs who work hard to face global challenges. This cooperation with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a testimony to the power of innovation and cooperation and its main role in advancing Transformative change for everyone.
The second agreement aims to encourage and support innovations that accelerate the growth of the circular economy and contribute to reducing waste and carbon dioxide emissions to preserve the health of the planet.
The UpLink platform provides an ideal platform for many collaboration projects between the public and private sectors, innovators and investors to find global solutions to environmental challenges that can be applied on broader scales.
The two agreements signed today build on the close partnership between the Ministry of Economy and Planning and UpLink in 2023, which saw the launch of two food ecosystem challenges – the “Innovation Challenge designed to enhance food security in arid regions” in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture. and the “Innovation Challenge to Strengthen Agriculture Climate Smart” launched in January and June 2023, respectively.
The two challenges witnessed more than 430 entries, of which 22 winners were selected based on the importance of innovative solutions and their role in encouraging positive change with the aim of improving the lives of individuals, the planet and the earth, responding to the effects of climate change and improving food systems.
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