The world desperately needs new ways to tackle our climate crisis. But coming up with innovative solutions, let alone scaling them, is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive—plenty of startups fail before they can reach critical mass. Prizes can often play a crucial role in driving positive change, rewarding individuals and companies with both the funding and the increased recognition needed to make real progress.
That’s where the Zayed Sustainability Prize comes in. Since 2008, the prize—established as a tribute to the sustainability and humanitarian efforts of the UAE’s founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan—has been celebrating sustainability pioneers, from high schools to SMEs to nonprofits. In total, over 378 million people across 151 countries, and counting, are now benefiting from the solutions developed by its 106 winners.
The Zayed Sustainability Prize has long focused on key areas crucial for environmental and human development: Health, food, energy, and water security, as well as a special prize for high schools. Last year’s winners ranged from the French insect protein company Ÿnsect to LEDARS, a Bangladesh-based nonprofit that focused on solving water-scarcity issues in disaster areas. Previous years have seen organizations awarded ranging from improving public health access to innovative peer-to-peer solar power grids.
This year sees the addition of a new category, Climate Action, designed to reward NPOs and SMEs deploying innovative solutions to our most urgent sustainability challenges. Nominations can be made from anywhere in the world; the eventual winner will receive $600,000 at a ceremony in December.
That amount of money can have a significant impact on a small business. 2022 winner S4S Technologies, for instance, uses solar conduction dryers to help farmers convert otherwise lost food into preservative-free, nutrient-rich ingredients, boosting farm profits in the Global South by up to 200 per cent. Winning the Prize not only provided critical funding, but brought international recognition that helped S4S reach thousands more farmers and female micro-entrepreneurs. In total, the company is thought to have prevented 36,000 tons of food waste and supplied nutrition to 1.2 million people.
The Prize’s new Climate Action category comes as the UAE marks a Year of Sustainability, and prepares to host the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference—COP28—in December. “It is more important than ever to recognize and support innovative solutions that protect the planet and people from the impacts of climate change,” says Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and director general of the Zayed Sustainability Prize.
“The UAE is committed to delivering a COP of action—a solutions-focused COP that promotes inclusive sustainable development and accelerates the adoption of policies that will deliver across mitigation, adaptation, climate finance, and loss and damage. The new Climate Action category of the Zayed Sustainability Prize reinforces this commitment by supporting the deployment of solutions the world needs today to keep the Paris Agreement alive and limit warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
Crucially, the Climate Action category will be geared towards solutions that can drive scalable and significant change. “We are proud to encourage and reward innovative solutions needed to turn climate pledges into concrete action, and drive tangible, inclusive, and lasting progress for our planet and communities,” Al Jaber said.
Deadline is closed, find out more at zayedsustainabilityprize.com
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
