Solutions already here

This first panel discussion on Day 2 of the two-day COP30 event, Delivery on Human Needs in the 21st Century, highlights Brazilian innovation as a major global climate solution. Dennis Pamlin opens by reframing Brazil not as a climate problem but as a source of gigaton-scale innovation capable of improving over one billion lives. Jay Hennessy introduces a series of start-ups and technology initiatives addressing human needs—from communication, mobility, and waste reduction to water security, forest restoration, and next-generation textiles. Each presenter outlines concrete challenges and practical solutions, often combining digital technologies, AI, nature-based approaches, and affordable engineering. Throughout the discussion, speakers emphasise scalability, local context, socio-environmental impact, and the importance of supporting early-stage companies. The session closes by encouraging a shift away from a narrow emissions-reduction mindset toward one centred on flourishing lives, with start-ups positioned as key drivers of future systems for energy, mobility, health, consumption, and community resilience.

Speakers

·      Joyce Querubino, Founder, Lori Conecta (PIT start-up)

·      Nicola Isidoro Martorano Filho, Head of Technological Development, NM2 Tecnologia Ambiental Inovadora (PIT start-up)

·      Thiago Terada, Founder, Genera Bioeconomia (Impact Hub start-up)

·      Tatiana Yamamoto, CEO and Founder, Amazon Rhiira (Impact Hub start-up)

·      Jacson Hwang, CTO and Partner, Lemobs (UFRJ start-up)

·      Renato Novis, CEO and Founder, Repense (UFRJ start-up)

·      Lucas Nicoleti, CEO, Ecomiles (Unicamp start-up)

·      Dr. Doneivan Fernandes Ferreira, Co-Founder, Endlessgreen (Unicamp start-up)

·      William Pessoa, CEO and Founder, Lia Marinha (tecnoPARQ start-up)

·      Pia Malmström Lawson, Marketing Manager & Co-owner, Energy Opticon

·      Mikael Abbhagen, Head of Design & Co-founder, Altered

·      Sam Issa, CEO and Founder, Metaforfish

Chaired by Dennis Pamlin, Executive Director, FL4ALL & Senior Advisor, RISE.
Moderated by Jay Hennessy, Director, FL4ALL & Senior Project Leader, RISE.

Dennis Pamlin

• Reframes Brazil as a platform of climate solutions.
• Highlights a new report on gigaton-scale Brazilian innovations and their global potential.
• Emphasises focusing on human needs and flourishing lives rather than emissions alone.
• Calls for supporting start-ups as the real shapers of the next 30 years.

Jay Hennessy

• Emphasises the shift toward human-needs-based innovation for flourishing lives.
• Highlights opportunities in accessible, scalable solutions emerging from Brazil.
• Notes challenges with current systems data and the importance of human-needs-driven insights.
• Calls for reframing city innovation from problem-solving to supporting people’s lives.

Joyce – LoriConecta

• Presents Lori Comunica, an app enabling communication for people with motor or cognitive limitations.
• Uses cards, synthetic voice, and AI-driven facial-movement detection for accessibility.
• Shares awards from organisations including General Motors Institute and Bayer Foundation.
• Plans to expand beyond Portuguese to reach global users.

Thiago Augusto Terada – Genera Bioeconomia

• Positions Brazil’s biodiversity as a global climate-solution platform.
• Addresses restoration challenges around scale and cost.
• Describes productive agroforestry with over 100 native species, focusing on cacao and açaí.
• Highlights three outputs: high-integrity carbon credits, sustainable materials, and R&D pipelines.
• Argues for creating multiple “next açaís” to build durable forest-based economies.

Jacson Hwang – Le Mobs

• Presents digital tools for school food management aligned with national guidelines.
• Addresses food waste, nutrition quality, and local procurement.
• Shows reductions up to 80% in food waste and associated CO₂ impacts.
• Describes case studies including Belém with a 50% waste reduction in two weeks.
• Emphasises scalability across Brazil’s diverse municipalities.

Tatiana Yamamoto – Amazon Rhiira

• Addresses inefficiencies and emissions from internal combustion engines.
• Introduces Hira, a ceramic device placed in the fuel line that reorganises fuel molecules.
• Claims reductions of up to 96% black carbon and 5.7 t CO₂e per vehicle/year.
• Highlights fuel savings (up to 10%) and rapid payback—23 days for trucks.
• Shows testing and validation by universities, industry, and government bodies.

Renato Novis – Repense

• Presents a system creating metal compensation credits from recycled electronic waste.
• Aims to increase transparency and traceability of precious metals.
• Provides blockchain-verified certificates for companies to offset metal extraction impacts.
• Supports recyclers through tokenised logistics-reversal documentation.
• Running a pilot with a global jewellery brand using natural materials.

Lucas Nicoleti – Ecomiles

• Promotes behaviour change in urban mobility through rewards for green commuting.
• Tracks walking, cycling, transit use, and EV travel via geolocation.
• Reports 54,000 users and 23 million verified kilometres.
• Helps companies reduce commuting-related emissions via a B2B SaaS model.
• Emphasises data gaps in human mobility needs and the difficulty of corporate uptake.

Don Ferreira – Endless Grain

• Provides AI and satellite-based carbon and land-use mapping.
• Targets the data reliability bottleneck in environmental certification.
• Produces historical land-use records, hydrology, soil, and biomass metrics.
• Delivers low-cost, blockchain-secured data for carbon markets and compliance.
• Demonstrates applications in agricultural baselines and city-level forest monitoring.

William Pessoa – Via Marinha

• Focuses on water quality, risk prevention, and remediation using ecological solutions.
• Originated from the context of Brazil’s largest mining-related water disaster.
• Stresses local adaptation across 5,570 municipalities with diverse socio-environmental realities.
• Uses a digital collaborative platform connecting communities and organisations.
• Promotes shared responsibility for water and scalable models for security and treatment.

Pia Malmström – Energy Opticon

• Presents a platform enabling energy companies and building owners to coordinate flexibility.
• Optimises heat networks, buildings, batteries, heat pumps, and industrial by-products.
• Reduces emissions, operational costs, and grid pressure using AI-driven optimisation.
• Shows improved indoor climate and strong collaboration outcomes.
• Notes wide replication and emerging energy communities.

Mikael Abbhagen – Altered

• Demonstrates ultra-low-tech, retrofit nozzles for taps and showers saving up to 98% water.
• Highlights rapid installation (≈60 seconds) and fast ROI (4–6 weeks in Europe).
• Emphasises water–energy linkage: treating water requires high energy use.
• Shows large-scale impact in schools and public buildings with ~30% total water reduction.
• Focuses on leveraging existing global plumbing standards for scale.

Sam Issa – Metamorfish

• Introduces smart textiles that reshape in real time for perfect fit.
• Enabled by memory threads and conductive heating, reversible and repeatable.
• Targets overproduction, returns, and waste in the apparel and footwear sectors.
• Aims for circularity and improved health/comfort for ageing populations.
• Demonstrates prototypes in footwear and plans broader applications.

(Audio translations and summaries by ChatGPT 5.1)

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