Report 2021

Climate 360 was a high-profile, two-day virtual conference (18-19 Nov 2021) hosted by the EU delegation to South Africa taking a Team Europe approach, to drive awareness of the climate change emergency; celebrate sustainable, climate-smart organisations and initiatives; and inspire urgent action. The virtual event was held in partnership with the Embassies of Denmark, Finland, Flanders, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Sweden. It highlighted and rewarded diverse, sustainable African solutions to the profound challenge of climate change.

Delegates heard inspirational speeches from powerful speakers and got to vote for the climate solutions that most impressed them, with their votes counting towards each contestant’s final score. South Africa speakers included Dr Crispian Olver, Executive Director of the Presidential Climate Commission (South Africa); Businessman and global speaker Vusi Thembekwayo; climate activist Akhona Xotyeni; Businesswoman Emiley Vollmer; Businesswoman and athlete Khanyi Mlambo-Chaba

While not ignoring the dire situation South Africa and the world finds itself in, the conference trained its energies on showcasing solutions and friendly innovations, celebrating progress and future-focused thinking, providing a platform for thought leadership and emerging climate change voices. In a first, it also ran a competition to identify, highlight and reward South African champions in the climate change space.

Opening the online-only event, EU Ambassador to South Africa Raul de Luzenberger said there was no better moment to host Climate 360 than just after the United Nations COP26 climate conference in Glasgow earlier this month. “During this Climate 360 conference, we want to discuss and understand how to develop solutions at a local level by picking the 2 brains of all the South Africans who have ideas on innovative projects that can address biodiversity, sustainable energy and climate adaptation.”

The winners were chosen from 15 deserving finalists (whittled down from 100 entries), who were invited to showcase their innovations during the conference, competing in five categories: just transition; biodiversity; sustainable energy; pathways to a circular economy; and climate change adaptation. The winners will be travelling to the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, to learn more about climate change projects in Europe, and to Paris to visit the International Energy Agency.

Over 1000 persons registered, 7500 unique visitors visited the website, over 90% satisfaction from attendees who replied to the post-event survey, 4 million people reached using #Climate360SA, Stakeholders from Government and international partners enquired about the winners’ solutions after the event.

Read about each day of Climate 360 below and find out more about each session and our competition winners by clicking on the competition category circles below.