CATAL1.5°T Initiative present at Impact Days in Mexico City
Four inspiring female voices on economic development, social development and climate entrepreneurship
On Thursday, June 20, 2024, the final day of the Impact Days event took place in Mexico City. The event was organized by Impact Hub, a global platform dedicated to promoting the development of socially impactful enterprises through various mechanisms.
The goal of Impact Days was to provide entrepreneurs with access to talks and conferences with key ecosystem players committed to strengthening the social entrepreneurship ecosystem and generating a positive environmental impact.
In this context, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH presented a panel titled "Are economic and social development at Odds?" The panel featured Itzel Alcérreca from the Mexican-German Climate Change Alliance, Bianca Corna from Recuperación Verde, Sofía Elizalde from NAMA PyME, and Erika Sanchez from the CATAL1.5°T initiative. They shared their experiences from their respective projects, discussing the various aspects involved in implementing sustainability in enterprises, the advantages of climate entrepreneurship, and how economic development is not exclusive of social development.
The panel also addressed the challenges identified in these areas, such as the gender gap in various sectors, which is also present in the field of climate entrepreneurship. This challenge highlights the need to equally support both women and men with innovative solutions.
Within this dialogue on opportunities and challenges in the climate entrepreneurship ecosystem, GIZ presented several calls of interest to the entrepreneurs attending Impact Days. In particular, the CATAL1.5°T initiative, funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany and the Green Climate Fund, and implemented by GIZ, Climate KIC, and the Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores Monterrey, announced its future calls for its programs, which help climate entrepreneurs to overcome these challenges and they also consider a gender approach, to guarantee inclusive opportunities in the sector.
CATAL1.5°T offers Acceleration and Pre-Acceleration programmes aimed at start-ups focused on the development of climate technology. Depending on their stage of growth, these startups can access funding of 100,000 euros and 15,000 euros respectively, in addition to training, courses, and mentorship in various aspects to enhance their development.
In this way, CATAL1.5°T seeks to provide support to entrepreneurs through a financial resource to navigate the well-known "valley of death", while strengthening their knowledge and skills, and thus survive this stage where a young venture is prone to dying due to lack of capital.
Additionally, CATAL1.5°T organizes "climathons" in different countries in Latin America. These events are similar to "hackathons," where students, young people, adults, and individuals from various backgrounds come together in intensive work sessions to conceive innovative solutions to climate-related issues.
All CATAL1.5°T programmes have a strong focus on gender equality, seeking to ensure balanced participation of men and women in these programmes in order to guarantee and ensure visible inclusion in the field of climate entrepreneurship.
Therefore, if you are part of a startup focused on developing innovative climate technology, passionate about thinking of solutions to address challenges arising from climate change, or simply interested in following CATAL1.5°T's activities, we invite you to follow our social media channels and stay updated on our website for future calls. They will be published in this section: News (catalist-initiative.eco). Join the change!
Foto: From left to right: Sofía Elizalde, Technical Advisor for NAMA PyME; Erika Sánchez, Technical Advisor for the CATAL1.5°T Initiative; Bianca Corona, Technical Advisor for Recuperación Verde; and Itzel Alcérreca, Technical Advisor for the Mexican-German Climate Change Alliance. © GIZ/Josué García
