Over 500 delegates ​participated in a 3 day webinar on 29-31 March on opportunities presented by the Canada EU Trade Agreement (CETA) for business opportunities in developing clean technologies. Key CETA policy goals are the transition to the Green Economy and trade in Clean Technologies.

 The two key issues in focus were the circular economy and decarbonisation. Significant sectors examined were energy, electrification, low carbon fuels (e.g. hydrogen), decarbonizing steel and cement industries and nature based solutions.

Substantial funding is emerging from state and private sectors to support cleantech . Since 2019, Green Bonds are estimated to have increased by 130% to over $520Bn. Other examples  include Alberta Enterprise (CDN$ 350M).

The importance of achieving these goals by collaboration through clustering was emphasized, with case studies provided from Canada (NGen) , Finland(Kemi) and Spain (Avesean). Sean Finlay of the Geoscience Ireland (GI)  business cluster outlined GI’s leadership of the EU Geothermal Energy 2 project  and its commitment to the European Raw Materials Alliance in the pursuit of cleantech opportunities.

Catriona Power of Munster Technological University and leader of the Circular Economy Biocluster moderated two of the panel discussions.