Scottish Government at COP26: What was achieved?

Case study: The CivTech Alliance

Context

The CivTech Alliance COP26 Global Scale-Up Programme was a ground-breaking global innovation collaboration programme, designed and delivered by the Scottish Government, in collaboration with nine other countries, ahead of COP26. The mission was to source, surface and scale climate tech companies with global public sector applications. From Team Scotland, it was a joint effort between the Digital Directorate and Directorate for International Trade and Investment along with extensive support from the Directorate for External Affairs and South of Scotland Enterprise.

From a nascent idea in December 2020, to within three short months, the Global Scale-Up Programme pulled together policy makers, procurers and innovation teams from Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Scotland, Spain and the United States to deliver on a high impact access programme for 18 global climate tech companies.

In the preceding 7 weeks to COP26, CivTech scheduled 69 engagement sessions with policy makers and procurers, investors and innovators across the regional ecosystems. Over 200 introductions were made from NASA to top researchers in the field of sustainability, from Ministers of environment and international trade to climate tech investors. This global access has been of huge value to companies on their scaling growth trajectory.

What happened?

CivTech Alliance COP26 events started in the Blue Zone on Day 1 with a panel session on scaling climate-tech solutions across borders with Ms Forbes, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy.

Showcase events at Atlantic Quay on Public Sector Innovation were aligned with the themes of decarbonisation, environmental resilience and food waste. These events were opened by Ivan McKee MSP (Minister for Business Enterprise Tourism and Trade), Lorna Slater MSP (Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity) and then Permanent Secretary Leslie Evans. Viewers from 46 countries logged on to watch company presentations and the keynotes and panel sessions from the diverse range of influential international guest speakers.

Some examples of the tangible positive benefits the cohort of companies are delivering, include: 98.4m meals saved across two continents (Too Good To Go); $13bn of forestry assets under management (BMV); 17 billion litres of water saved through lubricant oil plastic recycling (Eco Panplas); and carbon negative hydrogen production compacted into shipping containers (Mash Makes).

What was the impact?

The feedback from companies and programmes was immensely positive.

Thanks again for the amazing programme you held last week, it was a pleasure to participate and we got really good leads to move forward with projects in Scotland, and other countries.

Eco Wave Power

It was a pleasure to meet you both at the reception you hosted at Edinburgh Castle for the CivTech Alliance, a truly commendable initiative of the Scottish Government in which BMV Global was privileged to participate. Many excellent contacts were made and collaborations initiated.

BMV

The feedback from companies and programmes was immensely positive

As a result of exposure on the programme, companies have won contracts and accelerated their investment rounds. The CivTech Alliance team within the Scottish Government were delighted to win the prestigious Apolitical Global Public Service Team of the Year 2021: Climate Heroes (apolitical.co) for this work.

More widely, this activity contributed to building and strengthening partnerships and connections at a global level for Scotland, and enhancing Scotland’s profile as a global climate leader.

What are the next steps?

What COP26 demonstrated was the power of a mission-oriented approach to both policy and delivery in tackling the climate crisis. It showed how insights from other governments could help policy directorates understand how to better deliver domestic policy objectives.

The Global Scale-Up Programme showed how innovation is critical to solving global challenges. To use an “Airfix model” analogy - if the solving of the challenge is the ‘picture on the box’, the governments and companies are the different pieces and the climate tech solutions are the glue.

Collaboration on shared policy challenges is a way to deepen Scotland’s international relationships and increase awareness of innovation in Scotland. The concept of ‘innovation diplomacy’, is one which Scotland can develop and paves the way for a Scottish approach to increased intergovernmental collaboration on shared challenges which also opens up trade and investment opportunities globally. The success of the programme, including winning ‘Apolitical’s Global Public Service Team of the Year’ has led to an increased membership in the CivTech Alliance and preparations to launch the second iteration in the spring of 2022, leading up to COP27.