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It has run on electricity since 1928. Proof that the best solutions are the ones built to last.
We are the United Nations team working on what comes next, with the young people already building it.
UNDP is the United Nations Development Programme, the UN’s development network, working in around 170 countries and territories to end poverty, reduce inequality and tackle the climate crisis.
The UNDP Rome Centre for Climate Action and Energy Transition is the global platform for the strategic partnership between UNDP and the Italian ecosystem. Inaugurated in 2019, it delivers on energy, climate, and development finance.
Behind it is young, international and growing team based in Rome and in Milan, working with governments, financiers, universities, companies and young innovators across continents.
A global initiative co-led by the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security and UNDP, with its Secretariat hosted at the Rome Centre. It helps young people aged 18 to 29 move climate ideas into projects that actually get built, and it has been recognised as a best practice by G7 leaders.
In June 2026 it was among the experiences featured in Ne parliamo con il Presidente, the Rai 1 documentary marking the 80th anniversary of the Italian Republic, told in conversation with President Sergio Mattarella.
Launched in Milan at the 2021 Pre-COP. In 2026 it comes back to where it started.
This month, 60 innovators from across the world are travelling through Italy, from Milan to Venice, Bologna, Naples and Rome, working on sustainable energy, food and agriculture, oceans, fashion and textiles, architecture for adaptation, and climate, peace and security.
Through the annual Call for Solutions, selected young innovators receive up to USD 30,000 in direct, flexible funding to implement their projects.
Bootcamps, webinars, peer exchange and one-to-one mentorship with practitioners, to strengthen project design and build the skills to deliver.
Global events, storytelling and an online community that connect young innovators with the institutions, experts and partners who can help their work grow.
Ideas only matter when they get built. Most of our work is about closing the distance between a climate plan on paper and a project that is financed and running.
Public ambition is key, but alone it does not build infrastructure. Partnerships are essential to unlocking capital. Every grant we spend on technical assistance has one underlying objective: to unlock public and private capital and stimulate investments. We treat private sector engagement not as a single activity, but as a methodology that runs through every stage of our work:
to identify the most qualified companies — those best suited to provide the technology and expertise a project needs.
trough partnership building, to ensure projects are sustainable from a business standpoint, creating real opportunities for private companies to invest and for beneficiaries to receive that investment.
because an infrastructure or finance project with a solid private sector component is more resilient — and therefore better able to attract capital.
To do that we rely very much on academic partners for research and innovation and advisory support.
To make this real, both in Rome and across our country offices around the world, we conduct a rigorous assessment of the private sector component and opportunities of every project, and we carry out consultation and engagement at different levels — including through partners — so that this approach is reflected throughout our implementation and delivery.
Whether you are a company, a foundation, a university or a young innovator, tell us what you are working on.
