During the UN Climate Summit COP27 in Egypt, Slovenia presented an innovative solution for organising events and offer upgraded presentation to companies and Institutions within an advanced technological metaverse platform MetaCOP27. MetaCOP27 was launched at the side event at COP27, organized by non-governmental organization IAAI Glocha, accredited by UFCCC, together with Austrian Climate Coalition, Technology park Ljubljana, Slovenian green, creative and smart companies, and in cooperation with the Office of Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, Ministry of Economic Development and Technology and SPIRIT, business development agency.

Slovenia was presented as climate conscious, technologically advanced, green and innovative country. For the first time in the history of COP Conferences, a superb Slovenian technological solution was launched: MetaCOP27, virtual pavilion – platform, which in the form of digital presentation enables efficient and augmented presentations of the companies and organizations, the interaction of individuals in the real time, creation of business communities in a distributed manner of operation, and therefore adding values within their value chains on the global level. MetaCOP27 is a solution, which is a result of Slovenian knowledge and was developed by the partnership between Technology park Ljubljana and companies Reeba and Distriverse.

Uros Brezan, Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning of the Republic of Slovenia, in his introductory speech congratulated companies who created MetaCOP innovative solution in digital and real world for better management of climate crisis and better solutions for climate change adaptation. He stated that the Government from Slovenia will show all the support to the companies on their path of smart mobility, material efficiency and advanced digital technologies.

As a green country with lots of natural resources and biodiversity, Slovenia is very much aware that climate changes represent one of the largest threats challenging mankind today, and therefore the protection of the planet is one of the key priorities of Slovenian government. Matevz Frangez, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology in Slovenia emphasized, that we are facing this moment, but also in the previous years and the years which will follow, interconnection with major changes in the field of climate: the fundamental belief that we cannot prolong our way of living, our way of cooperating, satisfying the needs of our economies and the humankind as a whole in the way as we did before. »I am enthusiastic about Slovenia being one of the pioneers once again by introducing the MetaCOP27, and encouraging other countries, businesses societies, NGOs in discussing the challenges in this way. With this government, we also have a new courage to realize all what we have known for years, if not decades, to make this enormous, ambitious transformational change of our economy and our communities to catch-up with our goals to bring carbon free and carbon neutral future at least by 2050. In this crisis, what we need is strong cooperation and support of businesses and communities to achieve this ambitious goals. I am very proud that Slovenia is showing itself at COP27 in Egypt with this digital application as leader and pioneer in this industry.  

Sasa Leban, the Secretary for Economic Development, International trade, Tourism and Sport in the Office of Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia, pointed out that It is time for a wakeup call, and the fight against the climate change should be a priority in all international development projects. With this innovation, MetaCOP we now have a functional option for having events in metaverse, which has a strong positive impact on the climate footprints.

Organization of the events in the Metaverse efficiently reduces carbon footprint, therefore we are very proud to announce that this side event was for the first time in the history of COP to be held in the Metaverse, Slovenian innovative project, which now enables organization to participate in events with basically no environmental footprint.

By strengthening the climate and economic diplomacy, Slovenia is, and will continue to be, an active partner internationally in finding solutions, disseminating awareness and initiatives, and sharing best practices. As a starting initiative, at the event »Digital Innovation for Green Transformation«, SLovenia partnered-up with organizations from neighbouring Austria, where we showcased Slovenian companies, who developed breakthrough projects in the field of technologies of the future, integrating green and digital transformation into their business processes and value chains in dealing more quickly with the risks of the consequences of climate crisis.

In order to connect advanced technological solutions, to raise visibility and recognition of Slovenia in the field of advanced digital technologies, MetaCOP platform will be tailored for the upcoming COP28 in November 2023 at the EXPO CITY in Dubai, where Slovenia will continue its Story of Success from Expo 2020 Dubai by upgrading the conceptual presence and activities in its strategically positioned at the entrance of Sustainability District and really beautiful pavilion, inspired by nature, depicting its main natural attributes, forest, wood and water, therefore called "Green Oasis in the Desert".

You can access to the event on the link: https://youtu.be/ZQAER8hFkIE