UNIDO Global Call 2022

August 11, 2022

Initially launched in 2020 by the UNIDO Investment and Technology Promotion Office (ITPO) Italy in Rome, the UNIDO Global Call is a flagship event, which seeks to identify innovative technology solutions that address the adverse effects of climate change and that have the potential to be scaled up, and thus that ultimately contribute to inclusive and sustainable economic development.

Inspired by the previous 2020 and 2021 UNIDO Global Calls, the 2022 initiative aims at identifying “green and innovative technology solutions towards Net-Zero”. Its objective is therefore to identify readily applicable and scalable solutions for green technology promotion.

Led by the UNIDO Investment and Technology Promotion (ITP) Network, the 2022 UNIDO Global Call 2022 is steered by the UNIDO Investment and Technology Promotion Office in Shanghai (ITPO Shanghai) and supported by the other eight ITPOs.

In addition to being able to pool from the worldwide UNIDO expertise, the ITPOs will strengthen cooperation with other UN institutions towards sharing technical and expert resources, thereby making this Global Call a truly global initiative.

Furthermore, while pursuing ‘Net-Zero’ and ‘4IR’ alliances, enterprises should also strengthen their business and corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications, for example by:

• Establishing a close partnership network
• Driving emission reduction measures within their supply chains
• Enhancing research and innovation capacity, and upgrading industrial institutions
• Developing green technologies, increasing knowledge-sharing and engaging in multi-stakeholder collaborations
• Addressing challenges and opportunities related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Objectives

Within the overall framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and SDG17 in particular, the UNIDO Global Call 2022 aims at building and enhancing a global information and knowledge-sharing exchange network by integrating global resources; and assisting governments and enterprises in carrying out technical assistance and industrial cooperation to promote economic development and industrialization. In doing so, it aims to narrow the technological gap and solve related technical problems faced by small and medium-sized enterprises, thus accelerating the green industrialization process.

Technology and Solution Categories of Global Call 2022

To achieve its Zero-Net objective, the UNIDO Global Call 2022 focuses on identifying and promoting innovative green technologies in Medical & Health (MH), Green Growth (GG), Advanced Digital Production (ADP) and Agriculture & Food (AF), with a clear focus on international climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts as well as on green technology learning and development. Priority will be given to applications, including solutions for:

• Solutions for building resilient green manufacture cycle. The manufacturing process usually results in a lot of emissions, therefore every action at any stage to tackle carbon emissions – from manufacturing of products, supply of raw materials (selection, transportation, and storage), to processing and use of finished goods –is critical. Solutions to reach carbon neutrality are thus sought to achieve resilient manufacturing, including in product manufacturing such as the full use of renewable energy to replace fuel combustion, improving energy efficiency and waste recycling, reducing carbon emissions in the supply chain of raw materials (such as greener raw materials and smart logistics), and producing green products.
• Advanced digital solutions for net-zero infrastructures and facilities. The rapid development of the digital economy including through artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and blockchain can greatly reduce the overall energy emissions. However, digital economy-based net-zero energy systems entail trade-offs across economic, environmental, and social dimensions. As such, innovative solutions will be identified to establish affordable net-zero systems, including the relevant infrastructure and facilities such as big data centres, that can be implemented in developing countries.
• Solutions for greenhouse gas emissions reduction and efficiency increase in agriculture & food. Agriculture is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and especially of methane that stem from livestock farming and nitric oxide that result from fertilizers. Accordingly, the global climate’s deterioration brings great pressure to the global agricultural production; it is therefore of utmost importance to achieve low-carbon or even zero-carbon transformation in agriculture while maintaining or improving productivity; solutions are thus searched to reduce emissions including through synthetic fertilizers, crops cultivation, ruminant farming, efficient land utilization, increasing the output per unit area, innovative green food, etc.
• Solutions for sustainable management of medical and bio waste. During the pandemic, the worldwide prevention and control measures led to an exponential demand for medical waste treatment as medical and biological wastes are considered especially hazardous; they could directly or indirectly cause great environmental pollution. Traditionally, medical and biological waste is mainly incinerated at a high temperature; however, and since hydrocarbon organic compounds are the main components of medical and biological waste that emit massive amounts of CO₂ and Dioxin, new solutions must be identified to sustainably manage medical and biological waste, including through cutting-edge technological applications such as microwave, steam treatment, dry heat treatment, encapsulation, etc.

Application link here.

Application deadline: 20 September 2022

The Award Ceremony will take place in Shanghai, China, in November 2022

Contact email address: itpo.shanghai@unido.org