Welcome to The Business Booster 2022

Every year we are extremely proud to bring 150 sustainable energy innovations under one roof together with industry, investors, and policy makers. This edition marks a special milestone for EIT InnoEnergy: it is our tenth year hosting the largest sustainable energy innovation event. Over the past ten years, our ecosystem has gathered in different capital cities throughout Europe for two days of networking and to discover the breakthrough technologies of the future, today. In doing so we have been continuously delivering on our mission of accelerating the energy transition. But our work is far from over.

The race to reach net-zero by 2050 is in danger of being lost unless we rapidly activate and scale today’s technologies, while simultaneously unleashing a new age of discovery to find the unseen solutions of tomorrow. In short, we must focus all our efforts on a twin strategy of exploration and exploitation. That is why at this edition of The Business Booster we are focusing on ‘The race to net-zero: Balancing exploitation and exploration’. Beating climate change demands rapid innovation from every corner of society. But because it will take decades to replace today’s fossil fuel-dependent industries with the cleaner operations of the future, the immediate imperative is to accelerate the deployment of key existing technologies that can buy humanity more time to meet the goals of the 2016 Paris Accords. While accelerating today’s technologies will buy us time, according to the IEA, half the technologies we need to achieve netzero haven’t even been invented yet. That means the critical second element of our mission must be exploration. We must empower and unleash today’s explorers to discover and develop innovations that will ultimately save the planet. The net-zero agenda has shown us that the work of our trusted ecosystem is more important now than ever. And The Business Booster is a unique opportunity to experience this innovation ecosystem at work in person. Together, we will scale those big-impact technologies and discover the way forward for those of the future. Innovation will not only be an enabler of climate goals, but it will also be a driver of growth, creating jobs, economic prosperity and in the process ensure the transition to a secure, affordable and sustainable energy future. After all, we are not just in the race to net-zero. We plan to win it.

Diego Pavía, CEO, EIT InnoEnergy Elena Bou. Innovation Director, EIT InnoEnergy