Applications call for Keeling Curve Prize 2021.

What is the Keeling Curve?

The Keeling Curve is a graph that represents the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth’s atmosphere since 1958. It is named after its creator, Dr. Charles David Keeling.

Since the recordings began, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has steadily increased, representing anthropogenic climate change. It’s our goal to bend the curve back down.

Categories

The Keeling Curve Prize seeks those projects with a proven track record of taking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. It has five categories, each one addressing a specific sector of climate innovation.

• Capture & Utilization: Projects in this category are advancing technological and nature-based strategies for capturing and/or utilizing heat-trapping gases from the air or oceans.
• Energy: Projects in this category decarbonize energy, support zero-carbon energy innovations, and lead the way in improving the supply, distribution, and access of low or zero-emissions energy systems worldwide.
• Finance: Projects in this category are making financial mechanisms and economics work for greenhouse gas reduction and/or reversal ventures.
• Social & Cultural Pathways: Projects in this category are changing the way people consider, understand, and act concerning human impacts on planet Earth. They are trying to answer the question: what does it take, socially and culturally, to develop beyond fossil fuels?
• Transport & Mobility: Projects that apply in this category are 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.

Prize

• They award $25,000 to two projects in each category annually.

Eligibility

• The prize welcomes entries for active projects or programs (not ideas or untested hypotheses) from anywhere in the world.
• Prizes are awarded for ongoing work only (not as a reward for unimplemented ideas or past work).
• They will not award prizes to the same applicants two years in a row. However, if you are not the winner, you may apply next year and in any subsequent years.
• You may submit for multiple categories, but you will only be eligible to win in one category during any given year.

2021 Application Now Open