Bristol’s innovators are being urged to come up with suggestions to help tackle the city’s climate challenges following its inclusion in a United Nations-backed global scheme.
The Climate Smart Cities Challenge aims to empower innovators and communities to collaborate in designing and demonstrating climate-smart approaches to vital areas of city life such as green and affordable homes, net-zero neighbourhoods and urban freight. 
Up to 20 teams of innovators from the four cities taking part will be selected to demonstrate their suggestions. The other cities in the scheme are Colombia’s capital Bogota, Curitiba in Brazil and Makindye Ssabagabo in Uganda
Organised by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the challenge’s aim is to find effective ways of reducing carbon emissions and positively impact on the city’s quality of life.
The UN said the outcomes of the competition are expected to have a significant impact on the four cities’ responses to climate change by strengthening their capacity to engage in diverse partnerships, enabling communities and innovators to work with government and stakeholders to come up with solutions to their climate issues.
Bristol has already taken a global lead in addressing climate issues. The city council and Mayor Marvin Rees declared a climate emergency in November 2018 and launched the shared One City Climate Strategy to address these challenges in February last year.
The Mayor and One City partners also declared an ecological emergency in response to the decline in wildlife in Bristol. 
Mayor Rees, pictured, said: “We are committed to addressing the twin challenges of the housing crisis and the climate emergency.
“We want to hear from people with their innovative solutions for building good quality homes for people to live in, while reaching net zero carbon as quickly as possible in the build process.
“Bristol is an ambitious city that is already demonstrating global leadership in how we address issues of common concern.
“We look forward to seeing the responses to the Climate Smart Cities Challenge as we work together so that future generations have a planet to inhabit with a good quality of life.”
The challenge aims to empower innovators and communities to collaborate in designing and demonstrating solutions and reinventing how cities innovate.
Teams of innovators will be selected to collaborate with cities and investors to demonstrate climate smart approaches that will inform future investments in the cities.
The outcomes of the competition are expected to have a significant impact on the four cities’ responses to climate change by strengthening their capacity to engage in diverse partnerships, enabling communities and innovators to work with government and stakeholders to come up with solutions to their climate issues. 
The deadline for submissions is 5 January 2022 and up to 80 finalists will be presented on 20 January 2022. This will be followed by a process to form winning teams that will plan for system demonstration.
According to the UN, more than half the world’s population no lives in cities. They are the global economic engines and leaders in technology and policy development. Cities are where innovation happens.
However, the current climate emergency exacerbates global problems such as rising inequalities, lack of affordable, energy-efficient housing, limited mobility options and food and energy insecurity among others.
The winning teams will share up to €400,000 to leverage further investment and build towards system demonstration in 2023. To find out more about Bristol’s challenge click here
