Thirty-six local social entrepreneurs from 34 nations have signed up for the Expo Live Innovation Program. These include innovative climate-related interventions that cover restoring biodiversity and the oceans, air quality, transportation, and carbon, addressing issues with food security, waste, energy, and water use, financing, and the safety of populations in need.
A UAE-based company that produces water to irrigate floating farms is one of the Global Innovators chosen from a group of 1,200+ candidates from 123 countries. Manhat was founded in 2019 with the goal of offering coastal communities sustainable water solutions for food security. With no carbon footprint or brine rejection, its cutting-edge technology imitates the natural water cycle to sustainably create water from open ocean surfaces that can be utilized to irrigate floating farms and offer a sustainable solution for coastal towns. Its initial development phase was successfully finished in cooperation with Abu Dhabi Ports.
Other global innovators include a project in Nepal to restore forests, a Finnish company developing a carbon capture technology that creates energy from waste, an Indian company making “Agrocrete,” a carbon-negative building material, a Burundi company turning banana waste into environmentally friendly packaging, and an Iraqi organization combining solar energy and cloud computing to create alternative energy sources.
The 36 chosen initiatives, known as Global Innovators, will receive cash, technical assistance, and the chance to present their concepts at the COP28 summit, which will be hosted at Expo City Dubai later this year as part of the program’s most recent cycle.
Reem Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and CEO of Expo City Dubai Authority, declared: “We must act quickly and now to ensure a sustainable future for our world. Grassroots and community organizations are on the frontlines of climate change and are ripe with innovative solutions that can make a meaningful, positive contribution, as we witnessed firsthand throughout Expo 2020 Dubai. In the ‘Year of Sustainability’ for the UAE, Expo City Dubai is pleased to continue assisting Expo Live Global Innovators by introducing them to key climate decision-makers, inspiring teamwork, and opening up possibilities for even greater impact.
