BBVA is sponsoring the Energy Tech Summit, Europe's largest conference on innovation and investment in climate technologies and cleantech. More than 1,000 attendees from 40 countries including startups, investors, companies and government representatives will participate on April 10 and 11 in this event to be held at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao. The forum aims to connect and amplify the impact of new cleantech technologies in the fight against climate change.
“The far-reaching and worldwide transformation required by decarbonization calls for a commitment to and investment in technology in order to be competitive. With the Energy Tech Summit we hope to help reduce the financing gap and facilitate encounters between high-growth startups and potential investors, climate funds and other stakeholders to help them scale their models," said Antonio Bravo, Global Head of Sustainability Strategy and CIB at BBVA.
“Decarbonization implies a huge disruptive challenge for all industries. It means developing new materials, designing innovative ways of manufacturing products, changing energy sources from fossil fuels to renewables, adopting new business models and changing consumer habits," he added.
"BBVA has stepped up its investment commitment in this area to position itself at the forefront of climate action and cleantech," he said.
On Thursday, Antonio Bravo will moderate a round table discussion to explore the opportunities for capital, public funding and combined funding that startups and entrepreneurs find in the field of cleantech.
The far-reaching and worldwide transformation required by decarbonization calls for a commitment to and investment in technology
Within the agenda of the Energy Tech Summit, BBVA is hosting--together with the Contrarian Ventures forum promoter--two parallel events related to startup growth. Growth Meets Capital and Growth Meets Industry will serve as a meeting place to connect growth-stage (Series A+) climate tech companies with investors, on one hand, and, on the other, with industrial corporations at the forefront of decarbonization in their respective industries.
"We aim to bring together startups that are already in more mature stages promoting climate technologies and in need of funding from investors and/or companies that may wish to incorporate this innovation into their production processes in order to achieve the energy transition and decarbonize," says Bravo.
At the last BBVA Sustainability Forum, BBVA Chair Carlos Torres Vila announced the creation of a global finance unit specializing in the cleantech innovation business, thus widening its sustainable business offering. The team, located in New York, London and Madrid, offers lending and advisory services.
BBVA has made a range of investments directly geared toward supporting technological solutions for decarbonization and now sponsors the Energy Tech Summit in Bilbao aimed at the innovative ecosystem around the world of sustainability with a focus on the energy sector.
According to the World Economic Forum's latest Net Zero Industry Tracker report, the cleantech investment needed for the industrial sectors that are most difficult to decarbonize amounts to $13.5 trillion by 2050. Energy-related emissions from these sectors account for more than 40 percent of total global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and currently attract just over 10 percent of innovation investment.