Skip to main content

Innovation Zero 2024 Forums

Congress photo

For the 2024 edition of Innovation Zero, several themes will run across all of the Forum stages.

  • Scaling clean technology
    Debating and challenging the barriers to rapid growth and commercialisation of low carbon solutions. Innovation Zero will present original thinking regarding approaches to funding, to risk and to accessing international markets to grow our blessing of Unicorns!
     
  • Financing the transformation
    Connecting co-investors and counterparties throughout the capital stack. Innovation Zero will feature funders of early-stage ventures through to the long-term investors required for capital intensive new industries.
     
  • Low carbon leadership
    Giving a voice to the bold and creative leaders of the low carbon transformation. Innovation Zero will give a platform to those forging a path, taking “first mover” risks and leading us towards the clean future economy.
     
  • Investing in green infrastructure
    Delivery of net zero commitments rely on high quality, resilient low carbon infrastructure. Innovation Zero will present and debate actions being taken to attract the volume of patient capital required. We will present solutions being found to overcome the deep planning challenges. We will also present updates and business and investment opportunities in live infrastructure projects in energy, transport, water, digital and the built environment.
     
  • Innovative enabling policy
    If we are to navigate our course to a cleaner, healthier future economy, policymakers must be agile and innovative as much as business and finance. Innovation Zero will give a platform to those who are threading a course through or around the current minefield of planning and permitting regulations.
     
  • Circularity
    Connected with this are discussions on the circular economy and the need for recycling and waste solutions across hardware, agriculture, and hard-to-abate industries. Innovations in circularity are booming, but they require funding to be adopted into the wider economy and exposure to the public market. Topics including carbon capture, end-of-life circularity, right to repair and effective producer responsibility will be among conversations featured in all forums in the Innovation Zero agenda.
     
  • Supply chain
    As businesses and policymakers turn their attentions towards scope 3 emissions, the decarbonisation of supply chain is now dominating all sectors. GHG levels have bounced back since the end of Covid-19 lockdowns, demonstrating the enormous carbon footprint of our international supply chains. Meanwhile, the impact of climate change on consumerism and food security tells us that the way we operate our supply chains needs a radical overhaul. But there is hope, and with the right policy and financial levers in place, innovation can be a main driver of change. Farm-to-fork and ship-to-shore, there are major decarbonisation opportunities across supply chain operation and logistics.
     

Apply to speak     Request draft programme     Request Event Brochure


Some Forums will run across both days and others will have a dedicated programme on day one or day two of the event.

Hover over the images below to find out more about each Forum.

Days One and Two

Innovation Main Stage

Innovation Main Stage

Featuring globally-recognised thought leaders, Innovation Zero will highlight not only the key challenges our planet faces, but holistic, collaborative ways in which we can rise to the occasion and overcome the climate crisis.

Sustainability stars will demonstrate world-changing financial, scientific, legislative and social solutions.

Innovation Showcase

Innovation Showcase

Startups developing exciting and game-changing technologies will present their products and services to customers and investors, demonstrating the ways in which their business can accelerate the UK’s pathway to net zero.

We believe is innovation is what will unlock net zero goals: our showcases are where you find the key.

Energy

Energy Forum

The energy transition is a fundamental component of the Green Industrial Revolution; not only as a critical decarbonisation strategy but as vital guarantor of modern day energy security.

Our forum will discuss how we unlock policy bottlenecks and the capital required to provide critical grid infrastructure, while innovators present their latest technologies across nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal, and more.

Financial District

Finance Forum

Our forum will walk attendees through each stage of investment, demonstrating best practices in scaling businesses at speed, and tackling the fundamental issue of how we bridge the funding gap for innovators.

Green and Transition Finance will also feature as we investigate the ways in which the finance & investment community is responding to the climate crisis.

Day One Only

Advanced Tech

Advanced Tech Forum

Robotics, advanced materials, Artificial Intelligence and space tech can revolutionise climate mitigation and adaptation, and truly change the world. But such technologies often start as unproven models which require high levels of risk-heavy capital investment.

Discover the latest frontiers of tech and how we advance them into commercial reality.

Industrial

Industrial Forum

Hard-to-abate sectors like steel, cement, and petrochemicals can decarbonise through energy efficiency measures, the use of renewables, reducing process and operational emissions and the employment of a circular economy.

Innovations in CCUS and supply chain decarbonisation will feature amidst discussions on how we reduce the carbon
inputs and outputs of the industrial sector.

Built Environment

Built Environment Forum

The UK has the oldest building stock in Europe, and radical changes are required to reduce the levels of embodied and operational carbon which permeate the industry.

Conversations around energy efficiency and retrofitting will feature as we engage with leading housebuilders, mortgage lenders, local authorities and associations.

Oceans & Water

Oceans & Water Forum

The world ocean encompasses over 70% of the surface area of the planet and 99% of its living space. It is the largest carbon sink on earth and could deliver a fifth of the emissions cuts needed to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C. But our oceans are boiling.

Discover the ways in which we can protect and restore our seas, while harnessing the huge investment opportunities available in the Blue Economy.

Materials

Minerals & Materials Forum

Decarbonisation in upstream supply chain is an essential component when considering the overall reduction of GHG emissions and organisations’ adherence to Scope 3 reduction commitments.

Discussions surrounding the mining of metals and minerals, and how we decarbonise these operations, will be one of several thought-provoking discussions.

Day Two Only

Mobility

Transport & Mobility Forum

Transport accounts for over 20% of global emissions, and a complex mobility ecosystem presents the industry with difficult decarbonisation challenges.

Innovations in fleet decarbonisation, car electrification and end-of-life circularity, traffic management and modelling, and alternative fuels will be discussed by leaders across transport, including OEMs, transport operators, and the local authorities who are reshaping the way we navigate urban environments.

Food & Agri

Food & Agriculture Forum

As nature capital blooms an area of interest nationally and internationally, learn how the agriculture industry is transforming in turn through regenerative practices and nature based solutions.

Discover also how the food industry is revolutionising its supply chain and improving circularity, as well as new technologies in biomimicry and alternative proteins.

Environmental Markets

Environmental Markets Forum

Carbon offsetting is essential to tackle climate change, with the VCM expected to grow from $2bn in 2020 to around $250bn by 2050.

Meet investors looking to fund new technologies, carbon project developers and facilitators seeking scale, corporates and multinationals seeking new credit markets, as well as traders, brokers, and more, as we provide comprehensive insights into carbon and natural capital markets.

Communications

Communication Forum

Pioneering influencers and marketeers will teach startups how to communicate their business to investors, and corporates how better to reach their consumer base.

Panels and case studies on storytelling and behavioural insights will dive into how to listen to and shift public attitudes on climate change and move towards a solutions-focused mindset. Our communications forum will also feature an exclusive opportunity for startups to rapidly meet with invited investors in a high-impact facilitated networking session.

Aviation & Shipping

Aviation & Shipping Forum

As the UK propels towards ‘jet zero’, how do we industrialise towards a commercial reality? Is SAF or hydrogen-electric the answer, or both? Leaders of aerospace institutions and airlines will be among the captains of industry tackling these challenges and more.

Hear also about the crossovers between the aviation and shipping industries; what the two can learn from each other, from the perspectives of investors, regulators, shipowners and those exploring alternative fuel and material innovations at sea.

Get involved with Innovation Zero 2024

Dowden speaks at IZ23

Apply to Speak

Share a requirement, announcement, launch or story.
Exhibit at IZ23

Sponsor or Exhibit

Show our audience how you're innovating in this space.
Become a Partner

Become a Partner

Join us in building and shaping this new, important community, and help spread the word.
Main Stage Crowd

Visit

Meet and connect with the people & companies who are driving the transition.
10-featuredimage

Sign up to Zero In for original opinion & analysis on the transformation to net zero