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Think tank crowdsources ideas to battle climate change

By Sarah Townsend
Sheikha Shamma Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, set up the think tank UICCA Abu Dhabi Media Office
Sheikha Shamma Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family, set up UICCA
  • Climate Call web platform allows users to pitch ideas 
  • Topics are food security, water scarcity and energy
  • Most popular proposals could win up to $6,800

A UAE think tank has launched a crowdsourcing platform to find ideas to tackle climate change. 

Climate Call is an initiative of UAE Independent Climate Change Accelerators (UICCA), an organisation set up by Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi ruling family. 

The platform invites users from around the world to submit ideas for potential macro or micro solutions to three global climate challenges: food security, water scarcity and renewable energy.

After uploading an idea to the Climate Call website, users can watch its progress to see if it receives enough votes to unlock funding, publicity and connections. They can also collaborate with other users to solve problems and come up with new ideas. 

Each year, a selection of ideas will receive support from UICCA. This includes funding of up to AED25,000 ($6,800), connections to mentors and access to platforms such as UICCA’s storytelling website The Climate Tribe, where they can share their ideas more widely.  

“Much of our work is founded on the belief that the communities who will be the most urgently affected by climate change – particularly young people and citizens of the Global South – must be more empowered in global decision-making,” said Sheikha Shamma. 

“Climate Call will be an amplifier for these communities, offering an accessible platform to share promising concepts, collaborate on solutions, and ultimately receive tangible support to develop and implement ideas.”

UICCA’s Climate Call pilot involved 200 young people and generated 70 ideas across the three topics.

The platform has built-in OpenAI GPT 4.0, to help users generate content and improve accessibility for people across the world, the think tank said.

Separately, the UAE has announced a series of community awareness events across the country, branded PopCop, which will aim to highlight the importance of climate action among the general public in the run-up to Cop28 later this month.

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