The Financial Times and Forum for the Future hosted a competition to find the most innovative solution to the effects of climate change. Sponsored by Hewlett-Packard, the $75,000 prize aims to turn the best idea into reality.

Our panel of judges – made up of business leaders and climate change experts – selected five finalists, with Carbonscape as the favourite. Nearly 15,000 people then visited the website during the public vote and the Kyoto Box took the lead, capturing people’s imagination.

We put together the results of the public vote with the judges’ ratings, and Kyoto Box emerged as the clear winner. We hope the publicity generated by the competition will help bring all the finalists success in tackling climate change.

Short-listed entries

The Black Phantom is a machine that turns wood and organic material into charcoal. This can be used as a fertiliser or burnt in power stations and cooking stoves. Alternatively, this highly stable form of carbon can be stored underground in ‘carbon sinks’ (Carbonscape, New Zealand/UK)
	Deflecktors are wheel covers that make lorries more fuel efficient by reducing drag. The inexpensive, lightweight fabric devices cover holes in the wheels, cutting fuel consumption by two per cent. The devices also offer money-making opportunities as advertising space (ADEF Ltd., USA)
Kyoto Box is a cheap, solar-powered cardboard cooker. The simple design can be made in existing cardboard factories, flat-packed and easily distributed. It could halve firewood use, saving trees and preventing carbon emissions (Kyoto Energy Ltd., Kenya)
	Mootral is a feed supplement for livestock that reduces the methane they emit by 15 per cent. The garlic-based extract is a natural antibiotic that works by fighting bacteria in the stomachs of cows and sheep. Neem estimates the world’s herds and flocks are responsible for 20 per cent of global warming (Neem Biotech, UK)
Hollow ceiling tiles are used in an air cooling system that can work with or replace traditional air conditioning. Instead of pumping cool air into a room, the tiles are built into a false ceiling to draw warm air out. The process works by evaporating water stored in the tiles (Loughborough University, UK)

Lionel Barber	Sir Richard Branson	Eileen Claussen	Mark Hurd	Sir Terry Leahy	Dr Rajendra K Pachauri	Jonathon Porritt	Leon Sandler