Our History

The “Cleaner Production and Climate Innovation Center (CPCIC)” was born out the merger between the decade-old Rwanda Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production Center (RREPC) and the planned Climate Innovation Centre (CIC).

Established in 2008, the Rwanda Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production Center (RRECPC) was initiated as a partnership between the Government of Rwanda (through the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Rwanda Environment Management Authority) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to facilitate the adoption of resource efficient and cleaner production technologies amongst local industries and businesses.

To further streamline technological innovation and respond to low industrial productivity, climate change and environmental challenges, RRECPC was merged with the long-envisioned Climate Innovation Center (CIC), that was promoted by the Ministry of Environment (MoE) and The National Fund for Environment and Climate Change (FONERWA), to create the “Cleaner Production and Climate Innovation Center (CPCIC)”.   

The Center is working to ensure that the country meets its green growth ambitions and to deliver technical support, policy advice, technology transfer, and training that promote resource efficiency, cleaner production and climate technologies.

The Center is a recognized member of the UNIDO-UNEP Global Resource Efficient and Cleaner Production Network (RECPNet), the African Roundtable for Sustainable Consumption and Production and the Climate Technology Center and Network.

The Center has demonstrated capacity to provide needed technical assistance in green technologies that facilitate institutions, businesses and communities to adopt environmental sound technologies, cleaner production and climate innovation services.

Over the years, the Center has grown into a mature institution that supports Rwandan industries, and small and medium sized enterprises with preventive approaches to minimize their environmental impact while saving on resources (material, water, energy and turning wastes into by-products) and minimizing their operational costs.

The Center is working to address the following existing challenges:

• Low penetration of green technologies and principles of circular economy in priority sectors;
• Low productivity and limited environmental compliance;
• Limited access to finance and business know-how;
• Limited access to technological information and awareness on clean technologies/climate innovations, systems and practices;
• Limited access to technical facilities and services to design, prototype, test and demonstrate green products; and
• Limited access to information and international networks.