Your chance to win the 2024 Climate Investment Challenge
It all begins with an idea.
Introducing the Climate Investment Challenge
Imperial College Business School is proud to present the world-leading Climate Investment Challenge. In partnership with the Grantham Institute and the Centre for Climate Finance & Investment, we invite you to participate in the fifth edition of this challenge.
The Climate Investment Challenge invites university students from around the globe and from all academic backgrounds to develop and pitch innovative financial solutions to tackle one of the 21st century's most pressing challenges: climate change.
To participate, you simply have to complete a “Concept Note” highlighting the problem you are addressing, how feasible the implementation of your idea would be, its climate impact and potential scalability. Once completed, you can submit the Concept Note with your application form.
This year's main competition winners will earn £12,000, while runner-up prizes include the £7,000 Emerging and Developing Markets prize and the £7,000 Data Analytics prize. The challenge also allows finalists to connect with accelerator programmes and potential employers.
The first step is to submit your application by the 4th of March, 2024. Selected Concept Notes will be invited to the semi-finals, where they will expand on their ideas for a chance to be selected for the finals, where a panel of experts will choose the winners in June at The Royal Institution.
The role of finance in tackling climate change
Innovative climate finance solutions have a role in accelerating the world's transition to Net Zero emissions, and participants in the Climate Investment Challenge can contribute to these global efforts.
Meeting the Paris Agreement's goals of keeping global temperature increases well below 2C° above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit global warming to 1.5C° is imperative if the world is to mitigate the worst effects of climate change.
According to one of the latest studies by Imperial College, we have less than 250 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide left in the world's carbon budget to have a 50% chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
With annual emissions of 40 gigatonnes per year, this would give us a little over six years. Given the urgency, global finance flows need to be aligned with a transition to low-emission economies and ensure that societies can be resilient to climate change.
Investments in mitigation projects, such as clean energy developments, and adaptation projects, such as flood-resistant infrastructure, must be rapidly scaled to increase our chances of meeting the narrowing window of a 1.5°C future.
A global challenge to spearhead positive climate impact
In this international challenge, we invite teams of students to generate climate finance innovations and suggest how untapped opportunities could play a role in global climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.
Between 2021 and 2022, annual climate finance flows reached $1.3 trillion. Despite being at their highest levels yet, $10 trillion is estimated to be required yearly to avoid climate change's worst effects.
One of the main blockers to the growth of climate finance flows is the lack of profitability and bankability of the solutions being implemented. Through the Climate Investment Challenge, students can develop real-world solutions to this problem.
Given the scale of climate change, the Climate Investment Challenge welcomes any ideas meeting the evaluation criteria. Climate change will impact various parts of the world differently, which is why we accept ideas that impact every sector, topic, and region of the world.
Last year's edition of the Climate Investment Challenge saw 438 students from 23 international universities participating. With 121 Concept Notes submitted, this growing challenge is excited to welcome ideas from an even greater range of regions and academic backgrounds this year.
Previous winners and your opportunity to win
The 2023 main competition winner was “GreenPeat Capital”. These students pitched a blended finance fund that would provide loans and upfront capital needed by farmers wishing to grow wet crops on peatlands.
Their solution allows farmers to develop additional revenue streams by selling new crops while leveraging commercial opportunities from carbon markets. It also enables the restoration of European peatlands, which are vital ecosystems and carbon sinks.
Students from the University of Waterloo pitched financial solutions to manage the risks of wildfires in savannahs and won the Emerging Markets prize. University of Cambridge students won the Data Analytics prize for their idea of using social impact bonds to ensure a just coal transition in India.
While some students might have already developed an idea, we invite potential applicants to review the 2024 Inspiration Hub and the suggested themes you can use as inspiration for your own idea. You can also leverage the evaluation criteria and sample Concept Notes to tailor your pitch.
Participants in this year's challenge will have the opportunity to connect with passionate students, develop key professional skills, and grow their network with leaders and employers in the climate finance sector.
How climate finance drives climate action
Climate finance plays a key role in enabling a low-carbon and climate-resilient future. It will be crucial in emerging markets that are rapidly developing and need to align their growth with global climate objectives.
One example of a country benefiting from climate finance is Indonesia. It is the fourth most populated country in the world, accounts for nearly 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is expected to be the fourth largest economy by 2050.
Despite being home to 40% of the world's potential geothermal resources, 60% of the country's electricity comes from coal. Significant investments will be required in the Indonesian energy sector to ensure its growth until 2050 is not heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
In one initiative to accelerate its renewable energy transition, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Green Climate Fund and the private sector have invested $410 million to scale up geothermal energy generation and reduce emissions from fossil fuels.
This is one of many examples of how climate finance can contribute to fighting climate change. The Climate Investment Challenge looks forward to reviewing your ideas on how to leverage finance as a tool for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The Climate Investment Challenge is grateful to its sponsors, Candriam, CGFI, Engie, Ninety One and the Singapore Green Finance Centre, for making this global competition possible and investing in the next generation of climate entrepreneurs.