$3 Million Global Cooling Prize launched, with Branson onboard

The Government of India, Mission Innovation and the Rocky Moutain Institute have announced the launchof The Global Cooling Prize, an international competition to incentivize the development of a residential cooling technology that will have at least five times less climate impact than the standard Room Air Conditioning (RAC) units.

The prize is supported by Government of India through the Department of Science and Technology and Mission Innovation and will be administered by a coalition of research institutes—Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), Conservation X Labs, Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE), and CEPT University.

It also has Sir Richard Branson, founder, Virgin Group, onboard as Global Cooling Prize Ambassador.  "If we don’t do something about the growing global impact of air conditioning on our climate today, it will derail our best attempts to meet the Paris Agreement goal on emissions,” said Branson. "So, I congratulate the Indian government for driving such an ambitious effort to tackle the problem, and encourage all global entrepreneurs to take up this challenge today."

Over US $3 million will be awarded in prize money over the course of the two-year competition. Up to 10 short-listed competing technologies will be awarded up to US $200,000 each in intermediate prizes to support the design and prototype development of innovative residential cooling technology designs.  

The winning technology will be awarded at least US $1 million to supports its incubation and early-stage commecialization.

The winning AC technology could prevent up to 100 gigatons (GT) of CO₂-equivalent emissions by 2050, and put the world on a pathway to mitigate up to 0.5˚C of global warming by 2100, said the prize organizers.

 According to a just-released report by Rocky Mountain Institute, “Solving the Global Cooling Challenge,” business-as-usual measures are insufficient to overcome the impact of RAC growth and calls for a “5x” solution.

“What we have done is defined the target, and we are asking the world’s innovators, whoever you are, to hit that target,” said Paul Bunje, co-founder and COO/CSO of Conservation X Labs. “Have five times less climate impact - and you will win. By doing that, we all change the world.”

For further details on the Global Cooling Prize, visithttps://globalcoolingprize.org.