The Keeling Curve Prize Is Awarding 10 Local weather Options $50,000—Here is Find out how to Apply

The Keeling Curve Prize is an annual award that targets to assist clear up native local weather change by serving to fund duties that cut back greenhouse gasoline emissions. The winners pay money for unrestricted grant cash to assist duties that cut back, take away, or substitute planet-heating air air air pollution. This yr’s prizes have doubled to $50,000 and there’s nonetheless time to utilize.

Run by the nonprofit World Warming Mitigation Problemthe Keeling Curve Prize has awarded a complete of $1,250,000 over the sooner 5 years to 50 duties which is prone to be all working inside the route of fixing the native local weather disaster. This yr, 10 completely completely completely different duties can win just a little little bit of the $500,000 full prize. Two winners is prone to be chosen from 5 completely completely completely different programs of decisions: Carbon Sinks, Vitality, Finance, Social and Cultural Pathways, and Transport and Mobility.

To decide on winners, capabilities are reviewed by a bunch of analysts and the prize’s advisory council to hunt out out a gaggle of finalists. A panel of judges then votes among the many many many finalists to make the ultimate phrase awards.

“Capabilities are reviewed and scored by a panel of 12 native local weather consultants, so the extra proof you possibly can present to reveal how your enterprise or program reduces greenhouse gasoline emissions, the higher,” Megha Krishnan and Hannah Odell inform Treehugger. Krishnan is the communications supervisor on the World Warming Mitigation Drawback and Odell is the group’s progress director.

Krishnan and Odell say that doubling the dimensions of the prize will present nonprofits and companies with important funds to rush up their critically wanted decisions. “Be it putting in entry to renewable vitality, advancing nature-based duties, piloting new utilized sciences, or advancing completely completely different progressive decarbonization packages, this funding will catalyze progress and native local weather motion on a worldwide scale.”

Final yr’s winners are a diverse group of companies and organizations which is prone to be addressing worldwide warming on many alternative fronts. For example, BasiGo is a Kenya-based company that’s bringing electrical buses to East Africa. Symbrosia is one completely different 2022 winner and was acknowledged for its work rising seaweed in Hawaii for use as livestock feed, one issue that analysis suggests can cut back methane produced by cows by 80%. Completely completely different earlier winners embrace nonprofit organizations, like Residents’ Native climate Lobbywhich trains grassroots lobbyists to advocate for bipartisan native local weather decisions, and the Educated Alternatives Programwhich creates science-based education schemes about how meals alternatives impression the setting.

Along with the prize’s preliminary funding, winners furthermore pay money for assist and mentoring from a World Warming Mitigation Drawback’s group of native local weather consultants and organizations, often resulting in additional investments. In line with the nonprofit, winners from the sooner 5 years have cumulatively raised an additional $1.1 billion after receipt of the Keeling Curve Prize.

To qualify, award hopefuls should be actively working to implement their native local weather decisions, as “unimplemented concepts or untested hypotheses” is not going to be thought-about. Candidates should furthermore make an effort to quantify how fairly a bit greenhouse gasoline would possibly most likely be averted or sequestered by their determination. In line with the World Warming Mitigation Drawback, the duties they’ve helped to fund are collectively on monitor to cut once more worldwide carbon by an estimated 100 billion tonnes.

Odell and Krishnan share one completely completely different essential piece of recommendation for potential prize candidates: “Please don’t self-reject!”

“We settle for capabilities from a broad vary of innovators and native local weather thinkers—starting from these elevating tried and true normal decisions to these pursuing new high-tech frontiers,” they’re saying. “Candidates can embrace: entrepreneurs, startups, faculty analysis teams, nonprofits, neighborhood leaders, and intrapreneurs at massive companies or organizations. The Keeling Curve Prize seeks initiatives to cut once more emissions or improve the uptake of greenhouse gases—considerably individuals who activate and velocity up native local weather decisions in every single place on the planet. Our earlier candidates hail from 103 nations, so we welcome submissions from anyplace.”

The deadline to utilize for this yr’s Keeling Prize is February 10, 2023. Be taught further regarding the utility proper right here.