Deadline: March 3, 2021
Applications are open for the Ashden Awards 2021. The Awards boost outstanding climate solutions. For more than 20 years the awards have backed radical ideas delivering lower emissions and a fairer world, with grants and development support on offer to winners and finalists.
Now, in a pivotal year for the future of our planet, they want to hear about your bold and brilliant work. This year’s award categories include greener communities, energy access, green skills, natural climate solutions, sustainable cooling and more. Some categories focus on the UK, and others cover work in low- and middle-income countries. Businesses, public bodies and charities can all apply.
Award Categories
- International
- Ashden Award for humanitarian energy
- Ashden Award for natural climate solutions
- Ashden award for energy access innovation
- Ashden Award for cooling in informal settlements
- UK
- Ashden Award for climate innovation in the UK
- Ashden Award for green skills
- Ashden Award for green communities
Benefits
- Winning an Ashden Award brings a prize of up to £20,000 as well as ongoing development support, from professional mentoring to pro-bono legal help.
Eligibility
- Businesses, NGOs, government organisations, social enterprises and community groups are all eligible. Work must be currently available to clients, customers or beneficiaries.
- The Ashden Awards for green skills and green communities are open to work in the UK.
- The Ashden Award for climate innovation in the UK is open to work in Britain and Europe – but European applicants must spend the prize money bringing their work to the UK.
- The five remaining awards are only open to work in low- and middle-income countries, as defined by the World Bank.
- The natural climate solutions award focuses on solutions in the Amazon basin, Congo Basin and South East Asian rainforest.
Judging Criteria
Eligible applications will be judged against the following general criteria, and against how well they fit with the theme of the award applied for:
- Radical decarbonisation: The applicant is contributing or has the potential to contribute to radically reducing carbon emissions before 2030, while recognising people’s right to a good quality of life.
- Reducing inequality: The applicant is reducing inequality, particularly in the context of making the transition to a fair and sustainable low-carbon society. This could impact both the end-users of the work, those involved in delivering it, and those benefiting indirectly.
- Participation and democratisation: The applicant’s work encourages participation and democratisation, for example by involving or consulting with the community, customers or beneficiaries, or by shared ownership.
- Resilience: The applicant’s work builds resilience to climate change impacts and economic and other shocks, and is appropriate for the context in which it operates. They are especially interested in how the work has responded to the coronavirus pandemic this year.
- Additional benefits: The applicant’s work brings other benefits alongside decarbonisation, such as positive health and wellbeing outcomes, improved air quality, community cohesion or new and better jobs.
Application
The deadline for applications is March 3, 2021, and winners will be announced in Autumn 2021 (date tbc). To apply in French, Spanish or Portuguese, email [email protected] and request a form in the relevant language.
Click here to apply in English
For more information, visit Ashden Awards.
