Mobilising transformative climate action through innovation

This article reflects on the role of innovation in enabling climate action and some of the qualities that can enhance its contribution to the COP30 ‘Action Agenda’ – A call for collective action to translate commitments into meaningful action on the ground.

What is innovation and why does it matter?

The COP30 Action Agenda aims to accelerate the adoption and scaling of climate solutions.

Innovation - the process of adoption and use of new knowledge and ideas - facilitates this agenda by providing mechanisms and incentives to develop and deploy solutions in the transition to a low-carbon economy. In doing so, innovation can build resilience of individuals, organisations, cities, and nations to climate change and increase capacity for climate action in different areas of society as part of a just transition.

Innovation encompasses many different activities, stakeholders, and pathways to impact. At Edinburgh Innovations - the University’s commercialisation service – we transform academic knowledge and ideas into new technologies, products, and services for societal impact. Working across priority themes and sectors, such as biodiversity, circular economy, and clean energy, we support our academics and industry partners to drive innovation in a variety of ways – including licensing, company formation, business acceleration, and investments.

University spinout, SeaWarm, is a great illustration of the positive commercial outcomes and societal benefits that can flow from such activities. With investment secured to roll out its renewable heating system across Scotland’s communities, SeaWarm’s modular, low-cost, heat exchanger technology harnesses natural warmth from water to deliver affordable, sustainable heating and cooling. By replacing oil and gas systems, the company could cut CO₂ emissions by up to 90 per cent, while also reducing energy bills for households and businesses. While Scotland’s coastal communities are an immediate focus for SeaWarm, it aims to expand into national and international markets as it seeks to play its part in the global clean energy transition.

Ingredients for transformative action

If innovation is a key enabler of climate action, what aspects increase the potential pace and scale of change that is demanded by the environmental polycrisis? We consider three interrelated elements of cross-boundary collaboration, synergistic working, and systems thinking.

Firstly, there is a need to recognise and promote the collaborative nature of innovation processes. They require many actors with different skills and experiences, who work together across functional boundaries, to create the right conditions for new solutions to be validated and grow.

With so many stakeholders represented at COP30, the event itself is an opportunity to spark new connections leading to action that is founded upon cross-boundary collaboration. There is a risk, however, that competing views and negative perceptions between actors undermine efforts to build productive collaborations.

Universities and others can help avoid vital ground being lost by championing successful models of cross-boundary collaboration - like the University’s Edinburgh Futures Institute – as a means of bringing different perspectives together to challenge convention and drive innovation for a better future.

Building on this, synergistic working can accelerate innovation by leveraging the skills, experiences, and perspectives of partners and collaborators.

Founded on a mutual desire to deliver positive impact through research, education, and business innovation, the University’s partnership with NatWest Group is a good example of synergy within an academic-industry partnership. The longstanding partnership with NatWest includes, among other initiatives, an award-winning Climate Education Programme that has equipped thousands of bank employees with the knowledge and skills needed to manage climate risk and support clients to engage with the net zero transition.

Lastly, as this year’s COP President highlights in relation to COP30, systems thinking is key to realising transformative change through innovation. It is necessary because of the complex, interconnected nature of ecosystems in which new solutions are implemented and scaled. Systems thinking provides insights that help to overcome blockages, unlock co-benefits, and avoid blinkered approaches that fail to capture the full value innovation creates in complex systems.

The University’s new Centre for Net Zero High-Density Buildings is a case in point. An initiative that aims to significantly reduce carbon emissions from densely packed buildings in UK cities and towns, the Centre draws industry, education, public sector, and the community together in a dynamic partnership that will improve the energy efficiency of ‘hard to treat’ buildings, while delivering co-benefits for households on lower incomes and opportunities bring new sustainable construction products to market.

What else?

If COP30 is about giving rise to additional support and opportunities for the adoption and scaling of climate solutions – what more can be done to achieve a step-change? In 2023/24, Edinburgh Innovations supported £19.4m of industrial and translational research awards, £32.4m of investment into associated companies, and the creation of 18 startups and spinouts, that focused on addressing climate change and other environmental challenges.

These metrics indicate the scale of impact we have, and we intend to go further and faster by doubling innovation outputs by 2030 and continuing to find new ways to unlock the power of academic research through commercialisation.

This includes the new Regen Innovation Catalyst Proof of Concept Fund we are piloting as a means of further supporting innovators and entrepreneurs to progress the commercial readiness of promising climate technologies and other solutions.

We are also continuing to develop the knowledge, skills, and behaviours of academic staff engaged in innovation, through an Innovation Competency Framework, to enhance positive outcomes from innovation.

Finally, the University is encouraging its researchers to think holistically about climate action, by supporting them to address priorities in the UK Concordat for Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice, which include harnessing the power of collaboration and partnerships to extend the scale and reach of climate action from research and innovation.

We are committed to accelerating climate action through the commercialisation of innovative knowledge and ideas, alongside policy engagement and other pathways to impact. In tandem, we must always be open to innovation ourselves so we can make more of those ideas work better for a sustainable future.