The Wilkes Center for Climate Science & Policy announced the seven finalists for the $500,000 Wilkes Climate Launch Prize at the University of Utah this week.
The Climate Launch Prize supports innovative ideas from organizations at all stages, both for-profits and nonprofits—anywhere in the world—to help fund and accelerate solutions to climate change.
Among the seven finalists is one startup from British Columbia, Vancouver’s Taking Root.
Taking Root’s technology platform enables smallholder farmers in the tropics to restore native forests and remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Historically, the cost and complexity of producing rigorous reporting across thousands of dispersed, small farms has created barriers for farmers to access carbon finance.
Taking Root’s technology streamlines operations, requiring only a smartphone to support thousands of smallholders growing trees and accurately measure the carbon they remove from the atmosphere.
As a result, 4,200 farmers are restoring 15,000 hectares of land, removing 4.3 million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere.
Taking Root’s solution is demonstrating a scalable model to remove carbon, restore nature, and improve the livelihoods of the world’s 475 million smallholder farmers.
The Wilkes Climate Launch Prize is one of the largest university-affiliate climate awards in the world and is geared to spur innovation and breakthroughs. The prize is specifically calibrated to support unconventional or first-of-a-kind projects that often have difficulty getting funding.
The finalists’ solutions will be evaluated by a team of expert judges for scalable impact, feasibility and potential for co-benefits for communities, economies or ecosystems.
The finalists will present their solutions at the upcoming Wilkes Climate Summit on May 14 at the Eccles Alumni House at the University of Utah. A single winner of the Climate Launch Prize will be announced in September 2024.
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