BNEF Pioneers Program 2023 – Addressing Net-Zero Challenges

Deadline: 18-Nov-22

Bloomberg NEF is pleased to invite all early-stage companies and innovative projects for its Pioneers program 2023 that addressing Net-Zero Challenges.

The BNEF Pioneers program has identified a group of game-changing technologies or innovations annually – each with the potential to accelerate global decarbonization and halt climate change. Pioneers can be innovators serving the energy, transport, materials, manufacturing, consumer and agriculture sectors, or providers of solutions and technologies that help increase understanding of the climate, scale up carbon capture, utilization and storage, and promote climate adaption.

Challenges

While they welcome applications that demonstrate climate-tech innovations of all types, they have chosen three specific challenges to focus on in 2023.

• Challenge 1: Accelerating the deployment of clean hydrogen
  • The potential of clean hydrogen is well established, with numerous studies showing it can be a cost-effective and scalable way to decarbonize several sectors of the global economy. Among its many uses, hydrogen can serve as a feedstock for fertilizers and chemicals, a source of heat for steel and aluminum production, or a fuel for heavy transport in the form of pure hydrogen or as a derivative product like ammonia or methanol.
• Challenge 2: Sustainable metals and materials for an electrified future
  • The scale-up of clean energy, along with the electrification of heating, transport and industrial activities, will require a rapid escalation in the supply of key materials such as lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel and others. However, the extraction of such materials also needs to minimize the impact on biodiversity, water use and land use where possible.
• Challenge 3: Building a net-zero food production system
  • The agriculture sector directly accounts for around 13% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the volume of emissions produced is projected to keep growing as human population and income levels rise.

What they are looking for?

• Applicants are judged on three fundamental criteria:
  • Potential impact
    • What is the scale of the opportunity being addressed? To what extent can this solution address the net-zero challenge? Can you quantify the greenhouse gas emissions your technology could eliminate? Is your business local or can it be rolled out in multiple geographical markets? Will it spawn an entire ecosystem of new supporting businesses? Might there be negative unforeseen impacts of the technology when it scales?
  • Innovation
    • How original is your technology or business model? Is it a ground-breaking modification of what others are doing, or is it something completely new? Is it patented or otherwise proven? Are there barriers to its adoption or success and can these be overcome? What complementary policies or business structures already exist?
  • Likelihood of adoption
    • Over what timeframe could your innovation scale? What partnerships, clients and investors do you have? How do you plan to take your product to market? What is your level of cost competitiveness? What would the carbon price have to be? Can your business model or technology attract the necessary amount of investment?

Benefits

• Being a Pioneer
  • Winning BNEF Pioneers benefit from a number opportunities:
    • Be recognized as a BNEF Pioneer 2023, a leading innovator with a product or service capable of driving the low-carbon transition forward.
    • Join the prestigious group of Pioneer alumni.
    • Get the opportunity to actively attend one of their six global BNEF Summits.
    • Appear in BNEF public reports, research and videos.
    • Receive one year of access to their BNEF Web product and all their insights.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants can be any one of the below:
  • Pilot projects and joint ventures: Any innovative pilot projects or joint ventures working on net-zero challenges.
  • NGOs, laboratories and innovation communities: NGOs, university or state-sponsored labs, and any other innovation groups creating net-zero products or technologies with commercial implications.

Visit https://about.bnef.com/bnefpioneers/

Apply here