Global temperatures are consistently reaching record-breaking highs, with the first half of 2024 experiencing unprecedented heat and the hottest months ever recorded. The urgency to meet the climate targets outlined in the Paris Agreement in 2015 has never been more critical, as both communities and ecosystems face growing risks from rising temperatures, extreme weather, and environmental degradation.

As greenhouse gas emissions rise at an alarming rate, we are approaching critical tipping points, and the economic consequences of inaction are growing. To meet the goal of cutting emissions by 43 percent by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, collective action is essential. This requires coordinated efforts, including supportive regulatory frameworks, strategic investments, and widespread adoption of cutting-edge technologies.

The Liveability Challenge (TLC), Asia’s largest platform for sustainability solutions, will return for its eighth edition in 2025. It will seek innovative climate solutions from around the world that push the limits of creativity and progress.

Over S$2 million in funding will be distributed, with two grand winners each receiving a S$1 million grant at the TLC Grand Finale during Ecosperity Week in May 2025.

The Challenge Statement

The eighth edition of The Liveability Challenge features two main themes:

1. Decarbonisation

The search is on for disruptive deep-tech solutions that offer scalable and impactful ways to reduce carbon emissions across a variety of industries.

Examples of such solutions include, but are not limited to:

• Waste-to-Resource: Effective capture and conversion of key waste streams (e.g., point-source carbon, biomass, or other waste carbon) into valuable products (e.g., point-source or direct CCUS for consumables such as sustainable aviation fuels, marine fuels, chemicals, higher carbon products, fertilizers, and proteins), or permanent carbon removal and storage (e.g., point-source or direct CCUS into stable building materials).
• Renewable Energy: Technologies that generate cost-effective energy from renewable sources (e.g., wind, solar, hydropower), advance the clean energy transition (e.g., green hydrogen, ammonia), and address energy storage challenges and intermittency (e.g., batteries and energy storage systems).
• Energy Efficiency: Solutions that drastically reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions in systems of the built environment (e.g., building cooling systems) and hard-to-abate industries (e.g., manufacturing sectors like food & agriculture, cement, steel, aviation, marine, logistics, healthcare).

In addition, the solutions should meet the following criteria:

• Be carbon negative throughout their lifecycle, with zero or minimal externalities.
• Be technology-based (e.g., physical, chemical) or nature-based (e.g., community models).
• Be commercially viable and scalable.
• Be capable of conducting a pilot in Singapore (for technology-based solutions) or within Southeast Asia (for nature-based solutions).

The top two solutions will receive S$1 Million each in grant funding.

Application link - https://www.theliveabilitychallenge.org/decarbonisation-track

2. Cool Earth

The search is on for groundbreaking innovations that directly address the challenges brought on by climate-induced extreme weather events.

The goal is to find solutions that improve mitigation, resilience, and adaptation to extreme weather, particularly heat, to create a more livable planet. Proposals are also welcomed that offer large-scale cooling benefits and adaptive solutions that enhance resilience across various industries.

Examples of such solutions include, but are not limited to:

• Heat Mitigation: Solutions aimed at addressing the growing issue of excessive heat by reducing temperatures or providing adaptation strategies to help societies, particularly vulnerable populations, cope with and adapt to the adverse effects of rising temperatures and more frequent heatwaves (e.g., climate-smart and climate-resilient agriculture, advanced cooling materials such as nano-coatings and films).
• Nature-Based Solutions: Approaches that build climate-resilient societies for at-risk groups through replicable, viable models that deliver impact for the planet, people, and profit in blue carbon (e.g., seaweed cultivation, mangrove restoration for coastal communities) and green carbon (e.g., bamboo cultivation, low-methane agriculture).

The top two solutions will be awarded S$1 Million each in grant funding.

Application link -

https://www.theliveabilitychallenge.org/cool-earth-track