Climate: Climathon, a global 24-hour hackathon, takes place in Rome for the first time

The fourth edition of Climathon will also stop in Rome, thanks to a collaboration between the Municipality and ENEA. For 24 hours, between 25 and 26 October, students, technicians, entrepreneurs, experts, policy makers and citizens will be able to submit innovative proposals to combat climate change and make our cities more sustainable.

The participants to this marathon of ideas, organized in interdisciplinary teams, can work side by side with experts from companies and institutions who will act as "coaches". In addition to ENEA, CNR, B-open, E-Geos, Roma-startup and LazioInnova will also participate in the Rome event.

The key themes of Climathon-Rome will be: limit the effects of heat islands; increase resilience to extreme events, from heavy rainfall to heat peaks; increase sustainability in the transport sector by reducing pollution; how can the circular economy be a mitigation measure. At the end of the event, the ideas developed by the teams will be evaluated by the Climathon-Rome jury. In addition, the winning group will participate to the event organized by Climate-KIC Italy on 8 November in Rimini during Ecomondo, the leading trade fair for the Euro-Mediterranean area in the green and circular economy sectors.

"The IPCC Report on climate change, recently discussed in South Korea, shows that we can’t afford a global increase in temperature exceeding + 1.5 ° C  without running the risk of triggering long-term or even irreversible changes for our planet ", Gianmaria Sannino, Head of the ENEA Climate Modeling and Impacts Laboratory explained. "Large cities play a fundamental role in the race to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the actions related cannot but involve the management of our cities. To this end, initiatives such as Climathon can help make political decision makers and the public opinion more aware of the issues related to mitigation and adaptation to climate change in order to promote proactive behavior in citizens", Sannino concluded.

The 2018 edition is of particular importance for our country, as it will host for the first time the main venue of the event in Turin. Promoted by Climate-KIC, a community created to develop innovation in the climate change challenge and encourage the development and creation of a zerocarbon society, Climathon 2018 will involve 120 cities in 40 countries on all continents. In Italy, 15 municipalities[1] have joined in.

"The IPCC Report on climate change, recently discussed in South Korea, shows that we can’t afford a global increase in temperature exceeding + 1.5 ° C  without running the risk of triggering long-term or even irreversible changes for our planet ", Gianmaria Sannino, Head of the ENEA Climate Modeling and Impacts Laboratory explained. "Large cities play a fundamental role in the race to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the actions related cannot but involve the management of our cities. To this end, initiatives such as Climathon can help make political decision makers and the public opinion more aware of the issues related to mitigation and adaptation to climate change in order to promote proactive behavior in citizens", Sannino concluded.

The 2018 edition is of particular importance for our country, as it will host for the first time the main venue of the event in Turin. Promoted by Climate-KIC, a community created to develop innovation in the climate change challenge and encourage the development and creation of a zerocarbon society, Climathon 2018 will involve 120 cities in 40 countries on all continents. In Italy, 15 municipalities have joined.

For more information on Climathon-Rome: climathon.climate-kic.org/it/rome

To participate in Climathon in other italian cities or abroad: climathon.climate-kic.org/it/participate

Contact the Climathon team at: climathon@climate-kic.org

[1] Ancona, Bologna, Cagliari, Carpi, Ferrara, Lecce, Monastier di Treviso, Pesaro, Ravenna, Rome, Rovereto, Salerno, Sassari, Turin and Venice