Written by Abigail Perriman
The EU Encourages Cambodian Youth to take part in Climate Change Action
The Delegation of the European Union to the Kingdom of Cambodia (the EU Delegation) and Impact Hub Phnom Penh challenge youth in Cambodia to solve climate issues in Phnom Penh and Cambodia during this one-day Hackathon as part of the European Climate Diplomacy!
Phnom Penh, 17/10/2019. On Global Climathon Day over 100 cities will organise a solutions-hackathon aimed to tackle local climate challenges. The hackathon is part of Climathon, a global year-round programme initiated by EIT Climate-KIC, to mobilise cities and citizens to take climate action, together.
Within 5 years, Climathon’s grassroots-led movement has grown from 19 cities in 16 countries to events in over 100 cities travelling well beyond Europe to Sri Lanka, Sudan, Cambodia, Honduras and Pakistan.
In Phnom Penh, 50 innovators, professionals, students and entrepreneurs will be joining us on Saturday 19th October and will focus on solving challenges in clean energy, single-use plastic, air pollution and sustainable consumption. This local climate action event is organised by Impact Hub Phnom Penh and supported by the EU Delegation in Cambodia as part of the European Climate Diplomacy initiative.
Phnom Penh City’s Climate Challenges
- How can we reduce and even cut out single-use plastics in Phnom Penh?
- How can we support a rapidly growing electricity demand using clean energy?
- How can smartphone technology be used in Cambodia to empower sustainable consumption?
- How can we improve air quality through behaviour change initiatives?
Climate Challenges have been identified in collaboration with event partners EU Delegation in Cambodia, Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), EnergyLab and GoGreen Cambodia. During the solutions-hackathon, Climathon brings together entrepreneurs, students, innovators, developers and professionals to bring concrete answers to the identified challenges.
For more details on Phnom Penh’s local challenges, visit the Climathon Phnom Penh website.
After 10 intense hours of collaboration, excitement and solution-finding, a jury consisting of Jennifer Louie (Executive Director, Nexus for Development), Simone Pieri (Chargé d’ Affaires a.i. of the EU Delegation), Karolien Casaer (Country Representative, GGGI) Olivia Hough (Managing Director, Impact Hub Phnom Penh) will select the most promising and impactful idea to win $500 and 6-months of support through membership for Impact Hub’s Hub Entrepreneurs Club.
Journalists and TV crew are welcomed to the award ceremony at 7:00 pm – 7:30 pm at Impact Hub Phnom Penh (17 Street 306, Phnom Penh)
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For more information, graphics and interviews, please contact:
Abigail Perriman, Program & Impact Manager, Impact Hub Phnom Penh at [email protected]
NOTES
Impact Hub Phnom Penh
Impact Hub Phnom Penh is an innovation space, a business incubator, a social enterprise builder and above all, a community of like-minded people who believe they can make the world a better place. Members benefit from an international platform and locally rooted network.
Impact Hub Phnom Penh’s community is a flourishing group of entrepreneurs, creatives, techies and impact-makers, committed to working together to contribute to a more just and sustainable Cambodia. They do this primarily through delivering in-house curated programs to young aspiring entrepreneurs, to support and inspire them to develop their ideas and create an impact in Cambodia.
EU Delegation
The EU Delegation has a similar role to any other accredited foreign diplomatic mission. The Delegation represents the European Union in its relations with the Cambodian government for all matters within EU jurisdiction. The EU Delegation does not duplicate the activities of the EU Member States’ Embassies; instead, it aims to coordinate the actions of the EU and EU countries.
Climathon
Climathon is a year-round programme with a powerful solutions-hackathon at its core, generating projects, supporting climate-positive businesses and start-ups and addressing local policy changes.
Climathon empowers citizens, cities and local economies to come together to develop local solutions to cities’ climate challenges. Powered by dynamic and dedicated Local Organisers, Climathon has grown to over 100 cities and with a global reach in the millions. Climathon is supported by EIT Climate-KIC, a body of the European Union. www.climathon-climate-kic.org
Climathon Global Community
New this year are the inaugural Climathon Global Awards, a celebration of transformative solutions developed during Climathons between 2015-2019. The awards serve as a platform to celebrate the community built so far. It is also a far-reaching global call for city leaders and citizens to collaborate with scientists, NGOs, entrepreneurs and other innovators to develop innovative local solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change.
In particular, there will be a strong focus on ‘transformative solutions’ through its Citizen Award and ‘systemic innovation’ through its City Award. Climathon Global Awards winners receive financial and non-financial support to take their ideas to the next level.
About EIT Climate-KIC
EIT Climate-KIC is Europe’s largest public-private partnership addressing climate change through innovation to build a net zero carbon economy. With over 380 formal partners from across 26 countries, its mission is to catalyse systemic change for climate action through innovation in areas of human activity that have a critical impact on greenhouse gas emissions – cities, lands, materials and finance – and to create climate-resilient communities. Education underpins these themes to accelerate learning and to inspire and empower the next generation of climate leaders.
At the heart of EIT Climate-KIC’s approach is ‘systems innovation as a service’ whereby it creates a space for a portfolio of strategic innovation options and experiments, oriented around structural levers of change, designed with and for problem owners like city and regional governments, industry owners and directors, community organisations and policy makers. The organisation acts as a multi-sided platform, working across boundaries and across sectors, fostering innovation as a catalyst for transformation. It facilitates the creation of innovation consortia and community driven change. It challenges and enriches business model design. It offers tailored support for experimentation, implementation and scaling. www.climate-kic.org
