(Photo: The Bezos Earth Fund)
The Bezos Earth Fund, a philanthropy funded by Jeff Bezos in 2020 with a commitment of $10 billion to tackle climate change, announced on Jan 10 that a $1 million ideation prize to generate creative ideas and solutions to remove greenhouse gas emissions.
Bezos’ vision for the Earth Fund is to develop a global roadmap in collaboration with an ecosystem of players to outline the milestones necessary to remove about 10 gigatons every year by 2050.
The Bezos Earth Fund $1 million Greenhouse Gas Removal Ideation Prize is calling on innovators, scientists, engineers, and environmental enthusiasts, whether new to this field or with decades of experience, to help illuminate and innovate on ideas that will speed up the race to scale technological greenhouse gas removal solutions.
Andrew Steer, Bezos Earth Fund’s President, said, “We know we must prioritize cutting greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, we must harness technology to begin removing these gases from the atmosphere entirely… This is not an ‘either-or’ but a ‘both-and’ imperative.”
Andrew Steer, Bezos Earth Fund’s President. (Photo: The Bezos Earth Fund Youtube)
The first phase of the initiative includes the submission of one-page proposals of greenhouse gas removal solutions with a deadline of Feb 1. Incentive prizes will be awarded to up to 50 proposals.
Finalists will have the option to submit for the second phase, in which up to 12 submissions will be eligible for one-year grants of up to $50,000. This funding will support the validation and experimentation of the proposed solutions on the path to accelerating them to scale.
The Bezos Earth Fund, in collaboration with partners from the US Department of Energy, will host a workshop on scaling greenhouse gas removal, featuring leading experts. The workshop is scheduled to take place on February 6 and 7.
