Accelerating climate innovation: highlights from the first A2D Facility Annual Event

Nairobi, 23 May 2025 - The Accelerate-to-Demonstrate (A2D) Facility successfully hosted its first Annual Event, which was held from 19–22 May 2025. The event selected 100 stakeholders from more than 30 countries following from 800 applicants, following an open global application process to participate.

The A2D Facility is a flagship UNIDO initiative supporting climate innovation through catalytic demonstration projects in developing countries. With initial funding of £65 million from the United Kingdom Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the A2D Facility targets four key thematic areas: critical minerals, clean hydrogen, smart energy and industrial decarbonization.

The Annual Event served as a global platform for stakeholders, including project developers, financiers, industry associations, innovators, government representatives and international organizations, to exchange experiences, ideas, knowledge, forge new partnerships and reflect on the enabling conditions for scaling-up innovative climate solutions. The annual event featured rich and diverse content, including innovative session formats, interactive sessions, peer learning and site visits to see real-world examples of demonstration projects.

In a keynote video address, UNIDO Director General Gerd Müller highlighted the A2D Facility’s growing momentum and re-affirmed UNIDO’s commitment to supporting climate innovation through demonstration-stage investments and public-private partnerships. He announced the publication of the A2D Facility’s second call-for-proposals, inviting new applications to expand the pipeline of innovative projects, and he announced the publication of the A2D Facility year two annual report.

Sessions included deep diving into innovative financing mechanisms for demonstration projects, how to monitor and measure transformational change in innovation projects, gender equality and social inclusion, environmental and social safeguards, critical minerals, clean hydrogen, smart energy, and industrial decarbonization. A strong emphasis was placed on cross-regional learning with insights shared from across Africa, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and other regions. Site visits to the Kiru Tea Factory to see decarbonization solutions for the tea industry (the A2D Facility is currently supporting a demonstration project on decarbonizing the tea industry in Kenya), and to the Olkaria V Geothermal Power Station (showcasing smart energy management systems), were valuable parts of the annual event.

For further information, please contact the A2D Facility here: A2DFacility@unido.org

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A2D Facility First Annual Event press release: https://www.unido.org/news/accelerate-demonstrate-a2d-facility-launches-second-call-proposals-its-first-annual-event

A2D Facility website: https://a2dfacility.unido.org/web/ 

Full article on UNIDO website