Minister Kim Sung-hwan, Vice Chairman Ha Jung-woo and more than 150 government and academic experts participated in the event
Discuss major issues of climate technology and cooperation measures
Launch of Korea Climate Week in 11 private, government and academia
Target for the first time in September 2027
The Kakao Impact Foundation announced on the 14th that it held the “2026 Climate Tech Startup Summit (CTSS)” in Jeju from the 10th to the 12th. This year’s event was attended by 150 experts from various fields, including climate tech startups, investment and finance, government and public institutions, companies, research and academia.
The summit was co-hosted by the Kakao Impact Foundation and Picnic Ventures, with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment, the Asan Sharing Foundation, and Gridwiz as official partners, and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, the Korea Start-up Promotion Agency, and Kakao as cooperative partners.
The event was held at Kakao Jeju Office Space Dot One and Amber Pure Hill Hotel and Resort. Key figures from all walks of life attended, including Kim Sung-hwan, Minister of Climate, Energy and Environment, Jungwoo Ha, Vice Chairman of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province Governor Wi Sung-gon, National Assemblyman Park Ji-hye, National Assemblyman Lee Hak-young, and KAIST President Bae Choong-sik.
This year’s summit was held under the theme of ‘AI that moves the climate, AI that moves the AI (Climate Runs on AI, AI Runs on Power’. As AI is changing the way climate technology works in general, the purpose is to look at AI that solves climate problems and power and energy problems that drive them together.
On the first day, Jeon Hae-won, an associate professor at KAIST’s Graduate School of Green Growth Sustainability, and Jungwoo Ha’s full-time vice chairman of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy Committee presented the themes of “Climate Runs on AI” and “AI Runs on Power,” respectively. Professor Jeon introduced how AI is changing policy analysis and decision-making methods for climate response, and Vice Chairman Ha pointed to power problems in the AI era, such as increasing power demand for data centers and competition to secure computational resources. A special keynote meeting was then conducted by Han Sang-yeop, CEO of Picnic Ventures.
On the occasion of the 5th anniversary of the summit, 11 private, government, and academic institutions jointly declared the launch of “Korea Climate Week.” The Korea Climate Week is a joint venue to find solutions to climate problems together and connect Korea’s climate technology with the world, and aims to hold its first event in September next year.
Kakao Impact Foundation and Picnic Ventures, Asan Sharing Foundation, D-Camp, Climate Solution, Climate Tech-related associations, universities and research institutes participated in the declaration. They decided to expand practical cooperation between capital, companies, policies, and research, focusing on climate tech startups and technology, and connect Korea’s climate tech with the global ecosystem.
Ryu Seok-young, chairman of the Kakao Impact Foundation, said, “I hope that the meeting and cooperation that entrepreneurs, researchers, investors and policy makers have created in Jeju for five years will be a new milestone for the global climate tech ecosystem beyond Korea.”
