Reboot the Earth 2024: Innovations in Technology for Climate Resilience

The Reboot the Earth 2024 challenges have reached its conclusion, as young participants from diverse cities such as New York, Hyderabad, Addis Ababa, and Rabat, along with a special online edition, united in a collective effort to tackle the pressing global issue of climate change through a dynamic social coding event.

Co-organized by Salesforce, FAO, UN Youth Envoy, UN OICT, and the Digital Public Goods Alliance, this event fostered collaboration among diverse individuals to develop technology solutions prioritizing sustainability and innovation, utilizing digital public goods tools to address climate-related challenges in their respective regions.

In Addis Ababa, Team AgriGate unveiled an AI-powered solution for drought forecasting and logistics, enhancing early prediction and efficient aid delivery in drought-prone areas, alongside a distributed data collection system to address critical climate issues. Team Elephant in Hyderabad empowered vulnerable communities, especially women, through tailored climate solutions, knowledge sharing, and connections to funders, safeguarding traditional professions from climate risks.

In New York, Team Inodai introduced an advanced AI platform focusing on disaster resilience with predictive alerts, disaster preparedness information, and mitigation strategies, benefiting individuals, governments, and non-profits in disaster-prone regions. Team H2Observe in Rabat developed a weather and agricultural data tool to optimize water management decisions, promising enhanced efficiency and sustainability in agricultural practices.

The online team launched "Wat-er You Using," a web app addressing  water conservation challenge through AI, enabling consumers to track their water consumption via everyday products to promote sustainable water usage across industries.

Winning teams received not only ten thousand dollars as seed funding for their startups but also a specialized incubation period with professionals from the organizing partners and the opportunity to showcase their work at the Open Source Programme Offices (OSPOs) Symposium in New York and at the Science and Innovation Forum in Rome.

One of the core principles of Reboot the Earth aligns with FAO's Four Betters initiative, focusing on promoting better production, nutrition, environment, and life through sustainable practices, food security enhancements, climate resilience, community empowerment, and innovation.

FAO's essential role as an organizing and technical partner for Reboot the Earth leveraged its expertise in agriculture and climate change to design challenges tailored to address countries' specific needs, particularly focusing on food security and environmental sustainability.

Reboot the Earth has proved the importance of nurturing multistakeholder partnerships to amplify the voices of youth, particularly in light of their vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, especially concerning food security.