Toronto joins international climate-change movement

Brodie Houlette —

Thousands of people in major cities across the world, including Toronto, will be pulling an all-nighter on October 28 for a 24-hour hackathon to accelerate our ability to respond to climate change on a global scale.

The 2016 Climathon – organized by Climate-KIC, the EU’s public-private climate innovation initiative – brings together specific urban challenges with the people who have the passion and ability to solve them. More than 59 cities across 36 countries on 6 continents have set up a local climate change challenge for teams to respond to. Students, entrepreneurs, big thinkers, technical experts and app developers around the world will take action by coming up with innovative solutions to these challenges in the 24-hour marathon session.

Glen Murray, Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Ontario, says: “Climate change is a global problem and to fight it, we need collaboration on a global scale and from all levels of government. We need everyone doing their part to find solutions. Innovators in clean technology are going to find new and expanding opportunities here in Ontario. I’m pleased to be part of Toronto’s first Climathon and I’m encouraged to see the enthusiasm and creativity of students and entrepreneurs who can’t wait to get started in the low-carbon economy.”

In Toronto, almost 150 participants have registered to take part in the Climathon organized by MaxQ Accelerator and Lighthouse Labs at a co-working space for developers at 46 Spadina Avenue, from 2.30pm on Friday the 28th until 7.00pm on Saturday the 29th.

Transportation alone was responsible for 34 percent of Ontario’s carbon emissions in 2012. During the Climathon event climate-change-fiin Toronto, participants will use big data in an effort to reduce the carbon emissions from the Toronto transportation grid – public transport, private, commercial and other vehicles – by 5 percent, while keeping the solutions revenue-neutral.

MaxQ, Canada’s first space-data startup accelerator, and Lighthouse Labs, which was founded to educate and transform budding talent into artisan crafters of technology, are providing participants with data sets from sources such as NASA and the City of Toronto’s Open Data Team.

To help take the winning idea to the next level, a jury will be rewarding Toronto’s first place team with three months of desk space at DevHub for up to three people at a value of $4000 and an offer to pitch to tech talent and VCs at the next HackerNest TechSocial event.

Other cities registered to participate in the global Climathon include London, Sydney, Bogota, Trondheim and Shanghai. Participants at the Toronto event will also be collaborating digitally with cities including Washington D.C. in the United States and Zurich in Switzerland.

Ebrahim Mohamed, Director of Education, Climate-KIC, says: “The science of climate change is indisputable, but the problem often seems so removed from everyday reality that organizations have for many yea
rs struggled to engage citizens. The Climathon changes this, providing the critical impetus for city citizens, innovators, business experts and policy makers to come together in a global climate movement to solve one of the most pressing issues of our time.”

City-level action to address climate change is needed at speed and scale. Cities already contribute over 70% of global carbon emissions and are rapidly growing, with 70% of the world’s population expected to live in cities by 2050.

This year’s event builds on the success of the inaugural Climathon, which saw teams in 20 cities across six continents come together to identify – and work on solutions for – local urban climate change problems.

Ideas that emerged from the 2015 hack ranged from encouraging cycling in Copenhagen, conscientious and cost-effective means of river or stream reclamation in Addis Ababa, to public-private partnerships to reduce food waste in Washington DC.

Ebrahim Mohamed, Director of Education, added: Last year’s teams were inspired and motivated by their counterparts in cities around the world, and many have gone on to form successful businesses and public-private partnerships that are helping to ensure the impacts of climate change are mitigated.”

Climathon locations include major universities, research centres, government facilities and corporate offices around the world.

Climate-KIC is the EU’s largest public-private partnership addressing climate change through innovation to build a zero carbon economy