Nominations open for Keeling Curve Prize 2024

Deadline Date: February 12, 2024

Donor Name: Global Warming Mitigation Project

Grant Size: $10,000 to $100,000

The Global Warming Mitigation Project’s flagship program, the Keeling Curve Prize, awards $50,000 annually to each of 10 global projects that demonstrate the ability to reduce, replace, or remove greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and oceans.

The Keeling Curve Prize is more than a financial award – it jumpstarts growth for countless deserving climate leaders at the pace required to achieve meaningful and lasting emissions reductions across the planet.

Categories

Carbon Sinks

• Projects in this category activate and accelerate natural and/or man-made (engineered) systems for carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS). They are developing, advancing, and/or implementing technological and nature-based strategies for capturing and/or utilizing heat-trapping gases from the air and/or oceans.
• Energy
  • Projects in this category decarbonize energy, support zero-carbon energy innovations and are leading the way in the supply, distribution, access, infrastructure, or improvements of low or zero-emissions energy systems worldwide. Specifically, they are looking for projects that are focused on clean energy for equitable energy access, including innovations in smart utility-scale grids with low end-user costs, and mini-grids and off-grid solutions to reach the “last mile” customers in underserved areas worldwide.
• Finance
  • Projects that apply in this category are making the economics and/or financial mechanisms work for heat-trapping gas reduction and/or reversal ventures.
• Social & Cultural Pathways
  • Projects in this category are changing the way people consider, understand, and act on humanity’s impacts affecting the livability of planet Earth.
• Transport & Mobility
  • Projects that apply in this category should be reimagining and reinventing all types of vehicles, fuels, and mobility options for both people and products. These projects will confront the carbon footprint of the vehicles themselves and the routes traveled.

Eligibility Criteria

• They welcome entries for active projects or programs from anywhere in the world.
• One of the ways that the Keeling Curve Prize is unique and wonderful is that they accept applications from a broad range of innovators and climate thinkers, ranging from those elevating tried and true traditional solutions to those pursuing new high-tech frontiers. Whether you are an entrepreneur/startup, a university research group, a non-profit or community leader, or an intrapreneur at a large company or organization, they want to hear about the best initiatives to reduce emissions or increase uptake of greenhouse gases. They want to activate and accelerate climate solutions from many different corners of the world and voices.
• The Keeling Curve Prize is awarded for current programs and projects only – not ideas that are only conceptual.
• Applications centered on past work, unimplemented ideas or untested hypotheses will not be accepted.
• Applications for the Keeling Curve Prize must be submitted in English. To ensure the legitimacy and accuracy of your responses, GWMP cannot take responsibility for their translation. They encourage the use of online translation tools, if necessary, and please know that applications will be scored on concept, not grammar.
• Your project may align with more than one prize category. The application form requires that you designate a primary category for your application, but also allows you to list secondary categories for consideration. However, applicants are only eligible to win in one category in any given year.
• Previous applicants are welcome to apply in subsequent years. However, past prize winners may only submit applications for new projects that are measurably different from their previously awarded project and that utilize different methods and approaches to reduce or increase uptake of greenhouse gas emissions.
• Applications that do not attempt to quantify their emissions reductions or address the project’s functional and financial scalability will not be considered.

By completing an application, you are granting the Global Warming Mitigation Project permission to disseminate information about your project at its discretion. Applicants that are scored highly by their analyst team, regardless of whether they win the prize, will be included in their Climate Impact Conduit database unless they opt out. Requests for confidentiality can be designated within the application. For more information, visit Global Warming Mitigation Project.