On October 25, the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan hosted Swisstech in Japan 2021 for the third time in a row. This year’s event focused on excellent solutions towards decarbonization and was organized in two parts – one for a wider audience, and one for a smaller number of relevant Japanese industries’ representatives – with Japanese translation.

The first session moderated by Kyoko Marumo Suzuki, Head of Science & Technology Office Tokyo, was opened by the Ambassador of Switzerland to Japan, Dr. Andreas Baum, and followed by a presentation of Prof. Andreas Züttel, Director of the Laboratory of Materials for Renewable Energy (LMER) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). In his speech on the technical and economic impact of a carbon neutral energy economy, Prof. Züttel highlighted the uniqueness of Switzerland’s carbon-neutral energy production and challenges to be overcome in order to close the energy cycle.

The event continued with the introduction of state-of-the-art technologies developed by Synhelion and Climeworks, which both originated at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) as spin-offs. Dr. Gianluca Ambrosetti, CEO and co-founder of Synhelion presented a pioneering approach to turn air and sunlight into fuels, including the current state of the technological development and the roadmap to market-readiness. Climeworks that offers technology to capture CO2 directly from air was represented by its Chief Commercial Officer Daniel Egger who featured characteristics and opportunities in the Japanese market.

The second part of the event started with an introduction on Switzerland Innovation by Toshihiro Matsuda, Head of Investment Promotion of the Swiss Business Hub Japan. After that, the participants were invited to address questions directly to Synhelion, Climeworks and Switzerland Innovation in breakout rooms. The session was concluded with the closing remarks by Claudio Mazzucchelli, Head of Business Hub Japan.

The event was organized by the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan (Science & Technology Office Tokyo, Swiss Business Hub Japan and Communication & Culture  Section) in the framework of #SwissTech, a campaign initiated by Presence Switzerland in collaboration with Switzerland Global Enterprise and supporting institutional partners Innosuisse, digitalswitzerland and the Swissnex. The campaign aims to promote Switzerland as a leading high-tech nation that has much to offer international investors and foreign companies.

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