19 noviembre 2015
James Wilson, researcher at Orkestra, has helped draft the Barcelona Declaration against Climate Change together with other international innovation leaders. The declaration was put together on the 19th November during the International Innovation Leaders Forum, held at the University of ESADE and organised by the Science Business Network and the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP).
The declaration, wrote two weeks before The United Nations Conference on Climate Change (#COP21) highlights the need to invest in research and innovation oriented towards the fight against climate change, stating “the need to rely on smart energy infrastructures, to move forward in biotechnologies and digital applications, to reduce emissions and modernise infrastructures, to save and recover energy, to reorganise the industry and society, and to preserve the planet”.
It also points out the responsibility and capacity that researchers and innovators have in improving the planet’s climatic conditions through sustainable development. The document also looks to create a shared action plan and calls for private firms to take initiative in the development and innovation of clean technologies.
At a time when most European governments and institutions have reduced their funding for research oriented at energy and low carbon technology innovations, the declarants ask for budgets to be doubled for this objective and for work to be done on policies that facilitate the development of projects linked to the fight against climate change.
James Wilson, who was recently elected as a member of the Board of the TCI Network, pointed out that “as well as promoting research through funding, it is also necessary to strengthen relationships between the academic/research field, firms and society, to ensure that new technologies and emerging solutions are rapidly adopted. In this way, regions and cities become ideal laboratories for the implementation of remedies against climate change, as they allow the promotion of social dynamics based on the pride of being a green community”.
