The manufacturing process usually results in a lot of emissions, therefore every action at any stage to tackle carbon emissions – from manufacturing of products, supply of raw materials (selection, transportation, and storage), to processing and use of finished goods –is critical. Solutions to reach carbon neutrality are thus sought to achieve resilient manufacturing, including in product manufacturing such as the full use of renewable energy to replace fuel combustion, improving energy efficiency and waste recycling, reducing carbon emissions in the supply chain of raw materials (such as greener raw materials and smart logistics), and producing green products.

The rapid development of the digital economy including through artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, and blockchain can greatly reduce the overall energy emissions. However, digital economy-based net-zero energy systems entail trade-offs across economic, environmental, and social dimensions. As such, innovative solutions will be identified to establish affordable net-zero systems, including the relevant infrastructure and facilities such as big data centres, that can be implemented in developing countries.

Agriculture is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and especially of methane that stem from livestock farming and nitric oxide that result from fertilizers. Accordingly, the global climate’s deterioration brings great pressure to the global agricultural production; it is therefore of utmost importance to achieve low-carbon or even zero-carbon transformation in agriculture while maintaining or improving productivity; solutions are thus searched to reduce emissions including through synthetic fertilizers, crops cultivation, ruminant farming, efficient land utilization, increasing the output per unit area, innovative green food, etc.

During the pandemic, the worldwide prevention and control measures led to an exponential demand for medical waste treatment as medical and biological wastes are considered especially hazardous; they could directly or indirectly cause great environmental pollution. Traditionally, medical and biological waste is mainly incinerated at a high temperature; however, and since hydrocarbon organic compounds are the main components of medical and biological waste that emit massive amounts of CO2 and Dioxin, new solutions must be identified to sustainably manage medical and biological waste, including through cutting-edge technological applications such as microwave, steam treatment, dry heat treatment, encapsulation, etc.

The Call is open to private sector entities (micro, small, medium, and large companies as well as startups) in the below categories:

1. Early-stage technological solutions that are at an advanced R&D and that are ready for implementation, with verified testing data

2. Growth-stage technological solutions, which have already been piloted with verified data at a replicable scale and which have a demonstrated Proof Of Concept (POC)

3. Mature technological solutions that are demonstrably established and that aim at expanding to new markets

The participation in the UNIDO Global Call 2022 is free of charge.

Each company can only submit two applications; all extra applications will be excluded (based on the chronological order in which they were received). Companies will be asked to provide personal and non-personal information, with personal data being used for internal audit purposes and communications related to the Global Call only. All data will not be made available to third parties without prior authorization of the applicant, except for the review of the application by jury members. Participants will be asked to accept the Global Call terms and conditions.

Since women are disproportionately affected by climate change, due regards is to be given to submissions of women-led/owned businesses or companies offering products and services benefiting women and youth.

Submissions must meet the following eligibility criteria:

1. In case of proposals related to early-stage technological solutions, the applicant should submit a clear timeline of activities up that are achievable within a given time frame.

2 Each individual submission should clearly state the focus area by selecting the most applicable category in the application form.

3. The description of the intervention should not be written in a promotional tone, but use neutral, factual language.

The eligible proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria:

1. Innovative content (30% of weighted vote)

2. Potential contribution to international climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts as well as to environmental sustainability (25% of weighted vote)

3. Proven applicability, scalability and possibility of expansion to different geographical and socioeconomic contexts (20% of weighted vote)

4. Economic and social long-term sustainability (15% of weighted vote)

5. Expected occupational return, i.e. job creation and income generation potential (10% of weighted vote)