Developing countries currently receive less than 10% of the funding needed to adapt to climate change, creating a staggering $310 billion annual finance gap by 2035. This massive shortfall is driving unprecedented demand for innovative climate solutions.
Recent data shows that 88% of climate tech startups in emerging economies are youth-led, demonstrating students’ critical role in developing contextually relevant solutions. They are the next generation of entrepreneurs who understand local contexts and emerging technologies.
$100,000 Prize Funding
The MIT Climate & Energy Prize represents one of the world’s most significant opportunities for university students to transform climate challenges into scalable business solutions.
This global competition is for student-led startups developing climate technologies that can address the urgent adaptation and mitigation needs across developing countries. Teams must have minimum two members and can include non-students focusing on nine comprehensive tracks
- Energy: renewables, storage, grid management
- Transportation: EVs, zero-emission vehicles
- Food & Land Use: sustainable agriculture, alternative proteins
- Built Environment: green buildings, efficiency
- Carbon Capture & Removal: carbon verifiers and ratings enablers
- Water Resources: wastewater reuse and treatment, harvesting rainwater
- Industrial Decarbonization: low-carbon cement, chemical and plastics
- Climate Services & Software: emissions reporting, climate intelligence
- Climate Adaptation: resilience infrastructure, wildfire management
This competition offers unparalleled opportunities to scale climate solutions globally, including mentorship from industry experts, access to AI tools for pitch development, networking with sponsors, and travel support for semi-finalists and finalists.
Apply Now: Deadline: January 11, 2026.
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Please assist me to participate and to get funding for my innovation of self-charging system for Electric vehicles and others – Katorus T Electricity Specialist
I’m building Steeloloop, an AI‑first circular‑steel startup that turns messy, informal scrap flows into high‑quality, traceable feedstock for low‑carbon steel. I’ve already spent the last two years running a steel trading business and talking directly to scrap dealers and mills, so I understand the real pricing, quality, and logistics pain on the ground. With Steeloloop, small suppliers can just send a photo or video of their scrap and get instant AI‑based grading, pricing, pickup, and digital payment, while mills see furnace‑ready scrap bundles with known chemistry and CO₂ footprint. Behind the scenes, we use computer vision and machine‑learning “green recipes” to design optimal scrap blends and supply chains, helping mills cut raw‑material costs and emissions in a global steel scrap market that is already tens of billions of dollars and growing. My goal is to prove this model in one industrial cluster in India and then scale it across other Global South regions that need green steel but currently rely on chaotic, informal scrap networks.