The launch ceremony was attended by Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat, Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Amr Talaat, Chargé d’Affairs of the US Ambassador to Cairo Nicole Shampaine, Executive Vice President of Afreximbank Kanayo Awani, Representative and Country Director of the World Food Program in Egypt Praveen Agrawal, Country Director of Google Egypt Hisham El-Nazer, Country Representative of the United Nations Population Fund Frederika Meijer and Resident Representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation Ahmed Rizk.

ClimaTech Run is a global multi-stage programme for tech entrepreneurs and digital artists that engages with partners from the private sector and the entrepreneurial community including Google and Microsoft.

Al-Mashat stressed that Egypt is open to engaging with all stakeholders for climate action, believing in the potential of the private sector and entrepreneurs to hammer out innovations that tackle food security, energy and sustainable transportation.

The programme includes a competition that has two complementing tracks; the first track is for global tech entrepreneurs (ICT for Climate Action Track), and the second track is for digital artists (DigitalArt4Climate).

ClimaTech Run will extend over a period of one month until 22 September to create a globally connected ecosystem that fuels inspiration and joy for climate action through worldwide live events and webinars.

After the competition closes, ten startups will be shortlisted to make their pitch during COP27 in November in Sharm El-Sheikh. A public vote will also occur in the second half of September to select the shortlisted digital art candidates for the best artistic expression of climate action.

The competition will award a special grand award worth $100,000 as well as a top African startup prize of $50,000.