EU Climate Innovation Chief Executive: Private, Public and Academic Sectors Need to Come Together

London, United Kingdom, April 15, 2014 --(PR.com)-- Mary Ritter, CEO of the EU's main climate innovation initiative Climate-KIC, has responded the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on climate change mitigation by calling for greater collaboration between the private, public and academic sectors to develop new solutions to stop further climate change.

“The latest IPCC report sets out the options available to stop further climate change. Now it’s up to the private, public and academic sectors to come together and collaborate on new solutions. Only by harnessing these networks will we reach these solutions – large and small, local and global – that we need,” said Ritter.

“The good news is that major scientific and entrepreneurial efforts to stop further change are already well under way. At Climate-KIC we are supporting hundreds of companies and projects across Europe that are focused on overcoming the challenges of climate change in a variety of ways,” she said.

Ritter concluded: “Solutions to deal with climate change must address both adaptation and mitigation. We have to deal with the impact of climate change that has already taken place, but must also to prevent further damage.”

Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership

Climate-KIC is the EU’s main climate innovation initiative. It is Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on mitigating and adapting to climate change. Climate-KIC consists of companies, academic institutions and the public sector.

The public-private partnership is partially funded by the European Commission through its European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) – which has confirmed an initial €63 million grant for 2014 – and receives financial and in-kind support from over 200 businesses, universities and public bodies across Europe.