LPRC attends The Turquois X Summit: Accelerating Blue-Green Innovation in the Canary Islands, Macaronesia and internationally

The Turquois X Summit was celebrated on the 27^th and 28^th March in the Marina Innova Hub installations of the island of Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands. The event gathered blue-green economy experts, innovators and change-makers from around the world to present and discuss solutions to accelerate blue-green innovation. The organiser, Florian Lennert, who was awarded as Klaus Töpfer Fellow from the German Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS), stressed the key location of Lanzarote, and the whole Canary and Macaronesian islands, as social-ecological corridors connecting three continents in terms of biodiversity production and human activities such as transportation of goods and energy.

The presentations and discussions delved around ocean research, innovative tourism, decarbonised maritime transport, marine renewables, sustainable offshore multiplatforms, smart and sustainable marine aquaculture and biotechnology, blue-green ventures and marine robotics and AI, all relevant areas for LPRC and its work. An underlying key question throughout the whole event was how to support and finance blue-green economies, especially those most disruptive and potentially impacting innovative ideas and startups.

LPRC participated in the session “vertical & autonomous mobility for ocean use” together with the president of the Aeronautical and Aerospace Cluster of the Canary Islands, José Luis García, the CEO of Speeder Systems, Erdem Kazakli, and the CEO of DroneMasters, Frank Wernecke. After describing the LPRC’s working areas, Laia d’Armengol presented two current projects in blue economy, TRIDENT – Technology based impact assessment tool foR sustaInable, transparent Deep sEa miNing exploraTion and exploitation, and AIRSHIP – Autonomous Flying Ships for Inter-Island and Inland Waters Transport.

Find more information on the event: https://www.turquois-x.net/summit and https://www.rifs-potsdam.de/en/events/turquois-x-summit-accelerating-blue-green-innovation.