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Award winning entrepreneurs honoured at annual #ClimateLaunchpad final

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An innovative clean fuel business from Kenya has won the sixth edition of the prestigious ClimateLaunchpad, the world’s largest green start-up competition.

The start-up, called Leafy Ke, which converts used diapers into fuel for homes, was selected as the top green business to deliver a positive climate impact. The winning project received a cash prize of €10,000.

The runner up was Maclec, from India, a hydrokinetic turbine technology company. This project will enable millions of farmers, villagers, industries and townships to generate round hydro power at an affordable cost and without compromising the environmental, ecological and social issues.

Enerdrape, from Switzerland, placed third with their idea which has developed the first ever geo-thermal panel that efficiently captures heat in existing indoor environments located underground and transfers it for renewable heating and cooling to buildings.

The 2019 Global Final this year was held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, on 14 and 15 November. The aim was to identify businesses with the best potential to combat the global climate crisis

Commenting on the winning award, Peter Gachanja, CEO of Leafy Ke, said: “This means so much to us. This means parents will be able to look after their families better. Children won’t have to sleep with smoke in their homes from dirty fuel. And carbon emissions can be significantly reduced.”

Gachanja was joined by other participants from the Kenyan project who were also present at the final last Friday: Dennis Muguta, Melvin Mwamba and Lisa Doh. All had been supported by the Irish embassy in Kenya.

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The winners all came through a highly competitive field at the sixth annual ClimateLaunchpad, a green business ideas competition with a primary focus on addressing the climate crisis.

This year, the competition attracted a record number of entrepreneurs, with 2,601 applying for national competitions across 53 countries. The start-ups had to be whittled down to 131. Each project had at least two representatives present in Amsterdam.

Training and coaching was organised in 70 locations across all continents, offered by community members from EIT Climate-KIC, the body behind ClimateLaunchpad. EIT Climate-KIC is Europe’s largest public-private partnership addressing climate change through innovation to build a net-zero carbon economy.

There were several other prizes awarded in different categories, including one for a project from Colombia named Servile which has developed a special refrigeration system with solar panels for shops to avoid food deterioration.

Another Latin American entry, from Brazil, has developed Green mining project which a group of Italian entrepreneurs now plan to replicate in various European countries, Italy included.

A spokesman for the organizers told this website: “It was a great atmosphere at the final on Friday, particularly since most of the participants were young people who came from all over the world and were full of enthusiasm.”

In the past six years, with a slogan of “saving the world one start-up at a time”, ClimateLaunchpad has generated more than 6,700 ideas that have resulted in the creation of over 8,000 jobs within 1,900 start-ups. For next year’s edition, ClimateLaunchpad has set its ambition to expanding to 70 countries worldwide, opening up opportunities for more people and ideas.

The three Global Final winners will receive financial awards, and the Top-16 finalists will now enter EIT Climate-KIC's Accelerator programme for cleantech entrepreneurs.

Dr. Kirsten Dunlop, CEO of EIT Climate-KIC, in her opening speech, underlined the role of the state in shaping and making the market and in joining private and public funding. She called the efforts "transformational capital" which had produced a combination of products with “amazing” results.

Providing a summary of this year’s competition, Dr Dunlop told the packed audience in the Dutch city, “EIT Climate-KIC is delighted to continue the ClimateLaunchpad as one of our signature initiatives.

"ClimateLaunchpad is now taking on the dimensions of a global movement, and we see that in the quality of what’s coming through and the extent to which people are building on the shoulders of what’s gone before, learning from each other, and picking up where the biggest needs are and what we need to address.

“All of the participants are winners in their own right and represent the next generation of green leaders in the world. ClimateLaunchpad is in many ways a development programme that connects these brilliant minds and their solutions on an international stage. The exposure for the businesses and the teachings they absorb throughout the process help equip them for leadership in their own countries and communities.”

In addition, through the help of Irish Aid, this year’s competition saw a much bigger expansion in participation from the African continent.

Maeve McLynn, Climate Change Policy Advisor at Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Ireland, commented: "The Government of Ireland is proud to have supported the ClimateLaunchpad this year. Ireland's support has contributed to the development of initiatives from all across Africa, that are actively contributing to climate action and people-centred sustainable development.”

“The global final was an inspiring demonstration of the creativity and innovation that people from all over the world can offer towards addressing climate change."

The Irish ambassador to The Netherlands, Kevin Kelly, was present and, in a speech, highlighted the “four main priorities” in such efforts: humanitarian, gender, strengthening of political links and action in innovation.

Kelly said: "Even small businesses can make a contribution especially in some areas where micro-businesses are leading. In Ireland they say: great strength in unity. This is my motto.”

Dr. Dunlop added: "This is a fantastic years’ worth of thoughtful commitment to climate action, and we are looking forward now to supporting those entrepreneurs and those individuals to take their ideas into the whole system of initiatives that we are supporting."

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