|11 November 2016|
Marrakech
The team behind the world’s first round-the-world solar flight have today launched the World Alliance for Clean Technologies as a legacy to that historic journey.
The Solar Impulse Foundation announced the initiative at COP22. It is part of the inspiring vision – spelled out by the pilots who achieved the record-breaking solar flight – that ‘clean technologies can accomplish impossible goals’.
Pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg are passionate about advancing the cause of clean technologies, which the Alliance defines as any practical solution that allows to bridge the gap between ecology and economy.
“We need to embrace clean technologies, not because they are ‘eco-logical,’ but because they are ‘logical,’” said Bertrand Piccard, Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation. “Even if climate change didn’t exist, energy efficient technologies would make sense to create jobs, generate profit and boost economic development, while also reducing CO2 emissions and protecting natural resources.”
The new Alliance will ‘bring together start-ups, companies, institutions and organisations producing, implementing or supporting the use of clean technologies’.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “The Solar Impulse flight showed the world that it is possible to push the limits of technology in order to build the foundation for a sustainable future. By harnessing this and other innovative technologies, we can achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”
