Toronto Climate Week launches in effort to grow Canadian clean tech hub

A new climate conference is kicking off in Toronto that’s aiming to highlighting Canada’s clean tech and climate innovation sectors.

Toronto Climate Week comes on the heels of Climate Week NYC, which bills itself as the largest climate gathering outside of the United Nations climate conference.

Becky Park-Romanovsky, founder and executive director of Toronto Climate Week, says the new event is meant to help Canada distinguish itself in the space, especially as the U.S. government actively works against climate action.

She says she’s been running smaller climate events in the city for years, but has never seen this much engagement, including from climate-related companies operating in the U.S. and seeking a more welcoming environment.

The first Toronto Climate Week was initially going to be a single day to soft-launch the effort, but has expanded to three days with over 100 events including collaborations with the City of Toronto, the University of Toronto and MaRS Discovery District, while next June will be a full week of programming.

Park-Romanovsky says that along with dialogue and relation building, she hopes the event will lead to some startup deals and public-private pilots being secured.

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“It is vital that as we are rethinking our economy, and becoming more self-reliant, we integrate climate right there from the beginning,” she said.

Park-Romanovsky said that when she travels abroad she hears that Canada is regarded as a global leader, but humbleness at home isn’t serving the country well.

“Bringing Toronto Climate Week to life now is an opportunity for us to first of all acknowledge all the work that we have been doing, and are doing, in terms of innovation and specifically in climate and clean tech,” said Park-Romanovsky.

“But also to answer the question, or start talking about, how do we recognize ourselves, and become globally recognized, as a climate hub.”

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