The Gigaton Throwdown Initiative encourages companies, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and investors to build big solutions to create climate stability and energy security. Founded by Sunil Paul in 2007, the Gigaton Throwdown sponsors research and awards to educate and inspire the private sector to achieve climate stability and eliminate oil as a strategic commodity. The initiative currently consists of two projects and is open to proposals for additional efforts.
The Gigaton Awards – operating under the auspices of the Carbon War Room – acknowledge companies that truly contribute the most to climate stability. The winners are selected by the Gigaton Academy, an exclusive group of business and climate leaders including Richard Branson, Ted Turner, Nick Stern, and Jose Maria Figueres. For more information go to http://www.gigaton-awards.com
The Gigaton Throwdown Study is a collaboration of academics and industry experts who evaluated the challenges and feasibility of scaling nine different technologies to avoid 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide equivalent per year by 2020. The study published in 2009 can be found here on this site.
“This study is a loud, clear message about the importance of acting now to create a vibrant clean energy economy”
— U.S. Senator John Kerry.
“The Gigaton Throwdown sets our collective sights on game changing combinations of science, technology and policy that can turn the needed levels of climate protection and energy security into a road map for laboratory-to-industry partnerships”
— Dan Kammen, of the University of California, Berkeley.
“What we’ve outlined today is an incredibly ambitious goal, but one that is entirely attainable through hard work and a concerted effort between government, business and private investment”
— Sunil Paul, founder of the Gigaton Throwdown and founding director of Spring Ventures.
PDF: 9 MB)