WeDRT went to COP27 and spoke about Demand Responsive Transport and Modal Shift.
COP27 Wrap up – We had a blast!
If you don’t already know from our amazing LinkedIn content, WeDRT went to COP27 and spoke about Demand Responsive Transport and Modal Shift. We had a blast. COP27 may possibly have been a transitional moment in the story of WeDRT and DRT in general.
Being in an environment (pardon the pun) surrounded by decision-making individuals and high level executives of multinational corporations was truly inspirational. Every conversation we struck up anywhere (even on the bus) was with the Director of Carbon Emissions for X or Managing Director of Y. The whole team at WeDRT returned back to the UK, focused on our goal – modal shift – and equipped with expanded horizons on how we will achieve them.
Here is a brief synopsis of experience at COP27:
Best Talk We Attended:
“From Global to Local: Climate Change will be won and lost in our cities” – This was a truly inspirational talk by a mixed panel including business leaders, city mayors and research institutions. Everyone agreed, as well as the audience, that to tackle climate change we need to shift the focus onto cities and how we adapt them in the next 10 – 20 years to fall in line with Net Zero goals. Cities are where most people live, being the biggest emitters, so cities and their leaders need to be at the forefront of decision making. Of particular interest for the WeDRT team, Bristol City Mayor Marvin Rees passionately discussed how he plans to use the City Leap project to lead Bristol to a pioneering role in cities taking the initiative to taking climate change locally.
Most Exciting Company in the Innovation Zone:
WeDRT found huge inspiration in what’s going on at NEOM. NEOM or “The Line”, is a brand new city being built in Saudi Arabia which will span over 170 km in a straight line, breaking all norms and conventions over building a city in the traditional format. For us, it is amazingly refreshing to listen and talk to the people behind this project and many of the constraints of DRT are legacy constraints brought over from city planning and transport habits. So we are super thankful we got to meet the great minds behind this project and can’t wait to see how NEOM emerges and grows.
Most Exciting Tech:
We attended a talk hosted by KPMG and United Cities, where they discussed their joint venture into their ground breaking technology – Digital Twins. Digital Twins fully model cities both in a spatial sense but also in an energy consumption aspect through an incredible array of data sources. This power technology can then be used to plug in additional renewable energy sources or buildings, or anything you want really, and show how this impacts the operation of the city. This is built on a huge amount of data, all with the aim to help cities make the correct investment decision to reach net zero objectives. Truly awe inspiring and power tech!
Best Thing about Sharm El Sheikh:
Sharm El Sheik is famous for beaches and watersports, although unfortunately we only got to be on the beach for about 2 hrs on our last day. We loved the atmosphere and the beach bars and restaurants all around the town. Definitely a great holiday destination for people looking for activities and something a bit different from Europe.
Best Food on Offer in Sharm:
If you love meat and pita bread then you are in heaven in Sharm El Sheikh. We tried the delicious local delicacies of Egyptian Cuisine and were impressed every time. The best food that we had was the classic Saj available almost every. Look it up, super tasty.
Most Memorable Moment of the Week:
The most memorable part has to be walking through an array of strange and wonderful settings in a VR facility in the Green Zone. All very dizzy but a great experience.
It was a great experience and we want to reiterate our thanks to Alexander Holt of the Civ Tech Alliance for making it possible. Below is a photo of this year’s cohort of inspiring start ups in the Climate Tech / GovTech space.
This article was originally published by WeDRT.
