Accelerate Estonia: green transition through public-private partnership

Accelerate Estonia (aE!), a program initiated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and Science Park Tehnopol, is a testbed for moonshot ideas with a mission to turn complex and urgent problems into Estonia’s new competitive advantages. One of the focus missions of the programme for 2021 is the Green Turn.

Why?

The environmental crisis is looming and step by step we are entering environmental circumstances we would rather not think about. In 2020, we had new record heights in temperature in Estonia and the world. The raw materials that should have been available for the whole year were depleted by August already. The waste produced by mass consumption are not managed effectively enough. Both in Estonia and elsewhere the data on these trends is widely available.

If the goal of sustainable development has been to get rid of poverty and a good quality of life for all, then we are not meeting these goals. How can we change our approach to find solutions that are environmentally and economically viable in the long term? Could a public-private collaboration model change the game? If anyone can pull it off, then surely Estonia as a lean and nimble country.

Imagine that Estonia is the first country in the world to switch to 100% renewable energy sources? Or what if the hundreds of thousands of tonnes of food waste we generate in households and industry help 300,000 people out of poverty? Or what if all of our administrative procedures were 100% paperless?

We have set as our strategic goal to have a life environment by 2035 that takes into account needs of the citizens, quality requirements and security. Estonia has joined the EU Green Deal, according to which climate change and environmental chanegs are an existential risk to all Europe and the world. To solve these issues, Estonia and Europe need a fresh strategy for economic development – modern, resource efficient and competitive.

The selected green transition missions for 2021

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Article & image source: accelerateestonia.eefacebook.com/aestonia

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