Inventing New Decarbonization Pathways

Even if your startup doesn’t fit into one of the listed categories, you can still apply and be considered for selection as a wildcard nomination for Energy Tech Challengers. We are looking for companies that offer the most ambitious and fast pathways to reach a gigaton impact and contribute to the global effort to decarbonize the planet. We are interested in a wide range of climate tech solutions, including disruptive hydrogen solutions, future grid technologies, and e-mobility innovations. If your startup is working on a solution that addresses multiple decarbonization issues and has the potential to help the world transition to a low-carbon future, we encourage you to apply and be considered for this opportunity. Don’t miss out on this chance to showcase your innovative ideas and accelerate your business growth!

Almost every reputable company has committed to reaching net zero emissions, but they won’t be able to achieve this goal through reducing their own emissions alone. That’s where voluntary carbon markets come in. These markets allow companies to offset their emissions by purchasing carbon credits from projects that reduce or remove emissions. However, the voluntary carbon market is still in its early stages and is highly inefficient, resembling the bond market of the early 20th century.

The Enabling Voluntary Carbon Markets track is looking for solutions that will accelerate the adoption and increase the transparency of the voluntary carbon market. If you’re developing a price discovery and risk management tool, offering carbon project insurance, or enabling the market in any other innovative way, don’t miss your chance to join the ranks of the most impactful companies driving decarbonization. This is your opportunity to be a part of the solution and make a real difference in the fight against climate change.

The transportation industry is a major contributor to climate change, with 22% of global CO2 emissions coming from the sector in 2020. A significant portion of these emissions come from shipping, air cargo, and trucking. The race is on to decarbonize these industries. Many of the world’s largest freight companies have made commitments to electrify, decarbonize, and optimize their fleets. If you’re part of this movement and your startup is using new technologies to optimize payloads, address bottlenecks, match supply and demand, or decarbonize cold chain transit, you should join Energy Tech Challengers and share your innovative solutions with industry experts.

We’re looking for groundbreaking technologies and pioneering solutions that can reduce the carbon footprint in sectors such as aviation, shipping, and heavy duty transport. Do you have what it takes to join the Decarbonizing Long-haul Freight cohort and showcase your solutions to the world?

The competition to lower carbon emissions is growing stronger, causing numerous sectors to come up with new ideas and strive for a net zero-carbon target. The construction sector is among them. Are you developing new cutting-edge solutions for decarbonizing concrete and cement? Striving to improve design decisions, optimize processes and influence a building’s lifetime emissions? If so, then Decarbonizing Construction Materials is your go-to track.

From producing cement with a process that doesn’t release carbon to reducing the amount of cement needed through AI-enabled production — if your business disrupts the sector with innovation, we highly encourage you apply in the Decarbonizing Construction Materials track.

Batteries are crucial for the transition to a low-carbon economy and for meeting the European Union’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030. Both the energy and transportation sectors heavily rely on access to affordable batteries. As a result, the production, design, management, and end-of-life usage of batteries are becoming a focus for utilities, car manufacturers, corporations, and governments, particularly due to the increasing importance of raw material access. There is significant room for innovation in this field, particularly in regards to raw material access, supply chain transparency, battery manufacturing and design, analytics and monitoring, second-life usage, and recycling. If your startup is working on solutions in any of these areas, this track is the perfect fit for you. We welcome applicants who are innovating along the entire battery value chain, from production and design to application, second-life usage, and recycling. We are excited to hear about your technical innovations, whether they be hardware or software-based.

Applicants in the emissions management track should be technology companies in the carbon emissions ecosystem, creating solutions to measure, report, react, reduce, offset, score, rank, and screen carbon emissions. We expect companies to showcase cutting-edge software and (or) hardware solutions such as carbon accounting, carbon credit marketplace, API and advanced analytics & ratings, and other novel technologies enabling better emissions management and acceleration of the journey to net-zero.

Applicants to the E-mobility section should be building new electric mobility solutions, whether it is in-vehicle information, and communication technologies or connected infrastructure to enable the electric fleet from first to last mile or different business models powered with sharing and gig economy. We expect companies to showcase significant innovation and technological advancement either through software of hardware applications.

Applicants to the Future grids section should be building new ways to enhance existing grid infrastructure, or completely redefine how grids will be perceived in the future, through emergence of a more decentralized approach. Whether it is a better analytics, inspection, optimization and predictive maintenance of current grid, or enabling decentralized grid and ways to balance and manage the current and grid of the future. We expect companies to showcase significant innovation and technological advancement either through software of hardware applications.