Deadline: 20 March 2020
Open to: everybody aged 18 – 30
Benefits: USD 50,000 grant from Asahi

Description

Climate change is affecting every country on every continent. They know from the IPCC’s 2018 Special Report that Climate-related risks to livelihoods, food security and water supply among others are projected to increase with global warming of 1.5°C and increase further with 2°C. Yet today, the world is on track to warm by more than 3°C by 2100.

Farmers are one of the most vulnerable groups to climate change in both developing and developed nations, and are a cornerstone of every food supply chain including the hops and barley in our beers. There is an urgent need to ramp up efforts to help smallholder farmers in particular cope with existing changes and to adapt to future climatic conditions. The risk we face is that as a result of climate change, the stability of food supply globally is projected to decrease as the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events that disrupt food chains increases.

Beyond responding to climate change, actions to reduce emissions are also urgently required within Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU), where activities account for 23% of humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions. The largest contributors in this sector are methane produced by livestock and enteric fermentation, collectively accounting for 50% of agricultural emissions.

Overcoming these challenges requires new technologies and support to build new skills that can improve adaptive capacities and mitigate the effects of a changing climate.

At Asahi, beyond eliminating our own climate impact as part of our Asahi Carbon Zero campaign, we are also working with farmers to help them adapt and prepare for a changing climate. This includes through Campus Peroni in Italy, a centre of excellence promoting and spreading innovation and sustainability in agriculture, Biocycle in Japan, a plant bio-stimulant which reduces the effects of external stresses on crops, and many other local partnerships with farmers, co-operatives and academia in countries where we operate.

Asahi is proud to support the Lead 2030 Challenge for SDG 13. The Challenge aims to find and support solutions that will contribute to the future of sustainable agriculture by supporting and enabling farmers to reduce their emissions and/or help adaptation and resilience against the climate challenges of this decade and beyond. The challenge welcomes solutions from young innovators that:

• Improve the climate resilience of crops through sustainable practices.
• Reduce on-farm GHG emissions, water or energy use through new technologies (e.g. digital solutions)
• Support farmers in fostering innovation and improving access to information, raising awareness of climate risks and new skills training.
• Farm to fork (and bottle!): Whole supply chain solutions to reduce GHG emissions or integrate circular principles beyond the farm to the end point of farmed produce consumption

Eligibility

• Aligned: Evidently aligned with the SDG13 challenge. See ‘Challenge outline’.

• Youth-led: Founded by a person aged 18 – 30.

• Focused: Well-structured time horizon, identified key stakeholders and beneficiaries, and proposed outcomes that are reasonable and well thought out.

• Proven: Readily available, in or past implementation phase.

• Impactful: Solutions must have a positive social impact, for example generating employment, or developing skills.

• Measurable: Impacts of solutions must have been adequately measured and/or be measurable.

• Financially viable: Must be able to achieve efficiency and to survive independently through the resources they generate and/or the investments and donations they attract.

• Scalable: Potential to perform as well or better after expanding in scope or size and/or being transported to other regions.

Benefits

The winning solution will receive

• A USD 50,000 grant from Asahi

• 12 months of mentorship from a team of Asahi professionals. The mentorship team will work to accelerate your solution based on the needs of your initiative or organization, such as:

  • Business strategy

  • Best practices for data collection

  • Monitoring and evaluation

  • Product design

How to Apply?