The Financial Times is launching a competition to find the world’s most creative ideas for tackling the threat of climate change.

At a time of global financial crisis and economic downturn, the temptation to focus on the most urgent short-term problems is strong. The FT Climate Change Challenge, backed by Hewlett-Packard, the information technology company, and Forum for the Future, the sustainable development group, aims to highlight businesses and other organisations with ground-breaking approaches to what is arguably the greatest long-term danger we face.