The Ministry of Industry and Tourism, through the Spanish National Innovation Company (Enisa), Startup Valencia and VDS, is launching Startups for Climate, a nationwide initiative aimed at identifying, supporting and connecting startups capable of developing innovative solutions to the main challenges posed by climate change. The project seeks to accelerate technologies applicable to the prevention, adaptation and recovery from wildfires, droughts, extreme temperatures, torrential rainfall and other extreme climate events.
The initiative is based on a clear conviction: Spain has the talent, scientific knowledge and innovative companies capable of responding to these challenges. This requires connecting these capabilities with the real needs of affected areas, facilitating their validation and accelerating their path to market through funding, public-private collaboration and access to their target users.
To this end, the three organisations are promoting the project in collaboration with other stakeholders from the entrepreneurial ecosystem. “We want to present startups with specific challenges, identify solutions with the potential to make an impact and support their scaling.This work, carried out alongside Startup Valencia and VDS, is backed by Innovación x Clima, a new €300 million funding facility that will provide participating loans to SMEs developing innovative solutions to anticipate risks, strengthen climate resilience and accelerate the recovery of areas affected by disasters and emergencies” says Carolina Rodríguez, CEO of Enisa.
Nacho Mas, CEO of Startup Valencia and VDS, adds: “Spain has startups capable of developing responses to wildfires, droughts, extreme temperatures and events such as the DANA. Our role is to bring these challenges to the innovation ecosystem, identify projects capable of responding to them and connect them with those who can help validate, finance and bring their solutions to market.”
Five challenges to accelerate deployable solutions
One of the initiative’s main areas of activity will be a nationwide call to identify innovative solutions across five priority fields: Environmental health and urban liveability; Wildfires; Energy and storage; Climate-adapted agriculture; and Drought and water cycle management.
The five selected projects will present their solutions at the international Startups x Climate forum, which will take place in Valencia in October as part of VDS 2026. The event will bring together investors, corporations, public authorities and ecosystem stakeholders with the aim of accelerating the validation and deployment of these innovations. It will also coincide with the second anniversary of the DANA that affected the province of Valencia.
€300 million to support climate innovation
In parallel, Enisa will manage the Innovación x Clima programme, backed by €300 million approved by Spain’s Council of Ministers, to finance business projects related to climate resilience through participating loans ranging from €25,000 to €1.5 million.
A national directory to connect capabilities
The initiative will also incorporate Spain’s first national directory of the climate innovation ecosystem, a map designed to identify startups, corporations, investment networks, accelerators, associations and institutions working in this field, facilitating new opportunities for collaboration, investment and business development.
Valencia has been selected as the initiative’s main location due to its consolidation as one of Europe’s leading hubs for technological innovation and entrepreneurship, as well as its ability to turn the lessons learned from extreme events such as the DANA into opportunities for innovation and resilience.
A climate challenge to mobilise talent
The project will also include a talent dimension through NextTalent Challenge, the VDS hackathon, which this year will feature a specific challenge related to climate resilience to incorporate innovation and new technological and multidisciplinary capabilities into the development of solutions.
Through Startups for Climate, Enisa aims to consolidate a national climate innovation platform connecting entrepreneurial talent, funding, companies, public authorities and knowledge institutions to accelerate solutions capable of strengthening the resilience of Spain’s economy and society.
