On December 8, the Coalition for Climate Entrepreneurship (CCE) held its second pitch competition for women climate entrepreneurs during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28). The Department of State's Office of Global Partnerships Managing Director Thomas Debass hosted the event, which featured keynote speeches from USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Hub Bama Athreya and State Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Acting Assistant Secretary Jennifer R. Littlejohn. Judges from Google, Amazon, General Electric and LinkedIn evaluated pitches by four women entrepreneurs leading early-stage, climate solutions-focused start-ups, who competed for $100,000 to scale their ventures. All four competitors will receive technical training through Google's Startups Cloud Program and entrepreneurial support through the CCE program. The top prize was awarded to Dana Shukirbayeva, Founder and CEO of Forest Hero-a start-up based in Central Asia that provides a "smart" platform to combat deforestation and reduce the carbon footprint.
The participants included:
- Rana Hajirasouli, The Surpluss - Information Technology, U.S.A.
- Sabrine Chennaoui, MENSAPO - Consumer Goods, Tunisia
- Dana Shukirbayeva, Forest Hero - Climate Data and Analytics, Kazakhstan
- Devleena Bhattacharjee, ClimaCrew - Climate Data and Analytics, India
CCE is a partnership that aims to further economic empowerment in developing countries by nurturing entrepreneurial climate solutions. To learn more about the State Department's partnerships in climate, read the 2023 State of Global Partnerships report released this week at COP28 at https://www.state.gov/reports-office-of-global-partnerships/. Follow @GPatState on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and YouTube for more updates from COP28.
