The burning of agricultural waste has catastrophic consequences for human health and the environment, causing air pollution that in some areas has reduced life expectancy by a decade.
This plays out every year in the fields surrounding New Delhi. Smoke from man-made infernos fills the air, with serious consequences for the health of locals. One of their number is Vidyut Mohan. His social enterprise, Takachar, is putting out the fire.
Takachar has developed a cheap, small-scale, portable technology that attaches to tractors in remote farms. The machine converts crop residues into sellable bio-products like fuel and fertilizer.
Takachar’s technology reduces smoke emissions by up to 98% which will help improve the air quality that currently reduces the affected population’s life expectancy by up to 5 years. If scaled, it could cut a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year: a win for India’s farmers will be a win in the fight against climate change.
The Earthshot Prize prizemoney of £1 million has allowed Vidyut and the team to speed up their product prototyping process and double the size of their team. They have also seen new customer enquiries triple, and a major uplift in social media footprint, and were awarded $1M by the Musk Foundation’s XPrize for carbon removal.
Vidyut had the chance to share more on his work and journey with Earthshot Prize Council Member Cate Blanchett on her “Climate of Change” podcast and has taken private meetings with both Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, and Mike Bloomberg.
Over the last ten years, the evidence that we face urgent challenges to protect the environment has become indisputable, and it’s clear that the time to act is now. Drawing inspiration from the concept of moonshots, which since the moon landing in 1969 has become shorthand to talk about the most ambitious and ground-breaking goals, Prince William announced the Earthshot Prize: an ambitious set of challenges to inspire a decade of action to repair the planet.
Over the last ten years, the evidence that we face urgent challenges to protect the environment has become indisputable, and it’s clear that the time to act is now. Drawing inspiration from the concept of moonshots, which since the moon landing in 1969 has become shorthand to talk about the most ambitious and ground-breaking goals, Prince William announced the Earthshot Prize: an ambitious set of challenges to inspire a decade of action to repair the planet.
Over the last ten years, the evidence that we face urgent challenges to protect the environment has become indisputable, and it’s clear that the time to act is now. Drawing inspiration from the concept of moonshots, which since the moon landing in 1969 has become shorthand to talk about the most ambitious and ground-breaking goals, Prince William announced the Earthshot Prize: an ambitious set of challenges to inspire a decade of action to repair the planet.
Over the last ten years, the evidence that we face urgent challenges to protect the environment has become indisputable, and it’s clear that the time to act is now. Drawing inspiration from the concept of moonshots, which since the moon landing in 1969 has become shorthand to talk about the most ambitious and ground-breaking goals, Prince William announced the Earthshot Prize: an ambitious set of challenges to inspire a decade of action to repair the planet.
Over the last ten years, the evidence that we face urgent challenges to protect the environment has become indisputable, and it’s clear that the time to act is now. Drawing inspiration from the concept of moonshots, which since the moon landing in 1969 has become shorthand to talk about the most ambitious and ground-breaking goals, Prince William announced the Earthshot Prize: an ambitious set of challenges to inspire a decade of action to repair the planet.
