๐‚๐‹๐ˆ๐๐‚๐‡ June 2024 is an upcoming contest by ๐‚๐‹๐ˆ๐Œ๐€๐…๐ˆ๐— aimed at inspiring college students to innovate for climate.

In the run-up to the event, we are conducting the ๐‚๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐๐ซ๐š๐ข๐ง ๐œ๐ก๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ž๐ง๐ ๐ž, where participants tackle daily climate-related questions, showcasing their creativity and knowledge.

๐‚๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐๐ซ๐š๐ข๐ง ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ƒ๐š๐ฒ ๐Œ๐š๐ฒ 28 – ๐€๐ซ๐ฉ๐ข๐ญ ๐€๐ ๐š๐ซ๐ฐ๐š๐ฅ ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐ˆ๐ˆ๐…๐“

The winner for that day will be given the Climate Brain title for the day.

The challenge for May 28 was:

๐ˆ๐ฆ๐š๐ ๐ข๐ง๐ž ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐š ๐‚๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐ˆ๐ง๐ง๐จ๐ฏ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ. ๐˜๐จ๐ฎ ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐š๐ฌ๐ค๐ž๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐œ๐ก๐จ๐จ๐ฌ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐ž๐ซ ๐Ÿ๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐š๐ฆ๐จ๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐ซ๐ž๐ž ๐ข๐ง๐ง๐จ๐ฏ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌย ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐›๐ž๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ:

๐ˆ๐ง๐ง๐จ๐ฏ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง 1 : A breakthrough idea in nuclear fusion that can make it modular, though it could take at least 2 decades to become commercial

๐ˆ๐ง๐ง๐จ๐ฏ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง 2 : A free, intuitive smart phone app that claims to provide effective sustainability education to the masses right away, covering over 50 lifestyle activities

๐ˆ๐ง๐ง๐จ๐ฏ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง 3 : An innovative, affordable monitoring system that can increase the output of large solar power plants by about 15% and which can be implemented within months for many existing solar power plants.

Which of the three innovations would you choose as the winner, and why.

About 50 participants answered – thank you to every one of you!

The ๐‚๐ฅ๐ข๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐๐ซ๐š๐ข๐ง ๐‘๐ฎ๐ง๐ง๐ž๐ซ-๐ฎ๐ฉ for May 28 is:

Arpit Agarwal – from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

His answer:

Innovation 3, which improves solar power plant efficiency by 15%, can be implemented immediately. With the global solar capacity at 1412 GW in 2023, this innovation would add an impressive 211 GW and significantly reduce CO2 emissions by about 809 million kg.

In contrast, Innovation 1, a modular nuclear fusion concept, while potentially transformative, requires over 20 years to commercialise and is currently feasible for only few nations because only 32 out of 195 countries are using current fission technology.

Innovation 2, a sustainability education app, faces competition from existing apps like GoodGuide and JouleBug, making it less unique. Therefore, the rapid deployability and substantial environmental impact of Innovation 3 make it the most effective and feasible choice.

Congrats Arpit, and may you scale greater heights.