With COP28 just two weeks away, Vertical Future has entered into a strategic multi-year partnership with the Dubai-based World Green Economy Organisation (WGEO) to raise awareness of vertical farming’s potential.
The UN’s annual climate change conference provides the opportunity to showcase the vital benefits that advanced vertical farming systems and data can bring to the global fight against climate change and further, to highlight the need to improve food security, particularly in regions worst affected by climate change.
Vertical Future will be a mainstay of the WGEO Pavilion in the conference’s Blue Zone, across from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Offices. The Blue Zone is only open to UNFCCC-accredited participants such as Parties, world leaders, and media, and attracts a higher calibre of decision-makers.
WGEO will present Vertical Future as a model technological innovator capable of helping the organisation achieve its stated aims of bringing holistic solutions to climate change to key stakeholders by highlighting the development opportunities it brings. This will include WGEO providing Vertical Future with a platform to deliver remarks to delegates on two of COP28’s thematic days: Nature, Land Use and Oceans Day, 9th December, and Food, Agriculture and Water Day, 10th December.
WGEO, headquartered in Dubai, is a long-term partner to a number of international organisations, including the UN, UNFCCC, UNOSCC, and UNDP, as well as the UAE Government. WGEO seeks to promote the widespread acceptance and increased importance of green economy in the context of Sustainable Development and poverty eradication. Its mandate is to enable and implement bankable and sustainable green projects – like those developed by Vertical Future – by linking technology, capacity building and finance. It intends to support emerging global actions towards the green, low-carbon, climate-resilient development pathway.
Another key reason behind WGEO’s choice of Vertical Future as a strategic partner is that the global vertical farming technology and data company has already successfully worked with numerous stakeholders across multiple regions, including the UK, Middle East, India, Australia, and Singapore, gathering information from a wide array of climate conditions, and collaborating with research and commercial partners.
Alongside its commercial activities, in recent months, Vertical Future has won several more grants from Innovate UK, the UK’s national innovation agency, for research into strawberry cultivation and vertical farming in space, made possible by Vertical Future’s integrated hardware and software solutions. Vertical Future continues to conduct extensive R&D and commercial activities with a growing number of industry and academic partners across the world, focused on improving vertical farming economics, and increasing the quality and availability of crops for end-consumers.
Jamie Burrows, Founder and CEO of Vertical Future, said: “We are thrilled to partner with the World Green Economy Organisation. It is important to work with organisations who share in our goals and further, attending COP28 together ensures that Vertical Future’s message is heard on a global stage. Adopting vertical farming is key to safeguarding global food security by producing food with minimal water, energy, fertiliser, and land use. This year’s venue for COP in the UAE is particularly significant for Vertical Future, as the MENA region has an acute need for long-term sustainable vertical farming solutions.”
Abdulrahim Sultan, Director General of World Green Economy Organization (WGEO), said: “We are delighted to welcome Vertical Future as a new strategic member of WGEO. Indeed, it is clear that we share a common vision of sustainable and inclusive future cities, which has brought us together in this strategic alliance. With Vertical Future joining as a strategic member, we aim to leverage cutting-edge technologies to address pressing challenges in urban agriculture and food security.
“The wealth of our combined expertise, resources, and networks will help us drive innovation and foster sustainable solutions, transforming our cities into resilient and thriving ecosystems.”
Mark Pickering, Head of Deal Structuring at Vertical Future, said: “This partnership, built on shared values, is vital to delivering our core messages at COP28, bringing together some of the most important businesses and individuals in the battle against climate change, inefficient global supply chains, and population growth and distribution. Our position in the key Blue Zone only compounds this. As our climate changes, it is important that food production evolves, and farming in a controlled environment can help to feed customers in any climate, at a fair price-point, whilst also limiting environmental impact.”
