The 1st Climate Curve Awards: Hosted by Seth Meyers

Climate Curve will honor the winners of the 2026 Keeling Curve Prize and finalists of the 2026 Climate Curve Prize: Methane at a July 1 ceremony at the Paul JAS Center

Late-night television host, Emmy Award-winning writer, and New York Times bestselling author Seth Meyers will take the stage as emcee at Climate Curve's awards ceremony for their 9th annual Keeling Curve Prize (KCP) and their new, first-of-its-kind Climate Curve Prize: Methane (CCP:M) on Wednesday, July 1, 2026, at the Paul JAS Center in Aspen. The evening event, starting at 6:00 PM, will reveal the winners of the 2026 KCP — one of the world's most prestigious honors in climate innovation — and the finalists of the 2026 CCP:M — the first global prize supporting methane solutions in food and waste systems. This award ceremony is being presented in partnership with XPRIZE, one of the world’s top innovation catalysts, and the Global Methane Hub, the primary supporters of the CCP:M and a global leader in methane reduction initiatives.

The ceremony will announce the KCP winners, selected from a field of over 600 applicants and 20 finalists from around the globe. Winners will receive $50,000 each to scale their work and impact. Also, sixteen organizations, the first cohort of finalists for the CCP:M, will be announced during this event, marking a significant, global milestone in methane innovation.

In addition to the prize announcements, Climate Curve and XPRIZE will use the occasion to highlight the Global Prize Network and the natural synergies between their respective prizes.

“The inspiration and opportunities I see within our database should be on everyone’s radar. This ceremony is about celebrating work being done and elevating these efforts. Our future can be regenerating, innovative, cleaner and transformative. These prizes are leading the way,” says Jacquelyn Francis, the Founder and Executive Director of Climate Curve.

Tables are available to the public for purchase. For more information and to reserve a spot for the Climate Curve Awards show, visit www.climatecurve.org/cc-awards. All sales directly support Climate Curve’s mission to decarbonize the planet by identifying innovative climate leaders and deploying resources to advance solutions.

This event is sponsored by Atlantic Aviation, Bank of America, Charles Cunniffe Architects, City of Aspen, and Pitkin County, and it is made possible by the generous support of event chairs Spike Buckley and Eric Ringsby and Annie Baldo as well as the hosts Adam and Melony Lewis, David Newberger, and Vince Willis.

About the Keeling Curve Prize

The Keeling Curve Prize is Climate Curve's flagship program, administered by a team of analysts and globally recognized judges who follow a rigorous analysis process to select winners. Prize laureates receive funding that is often crucial for navigating the "valley of death" — the critical phase where promising new ventures face their greatest financial challenges before becoming viable — along with significant visibility and exposure to help scale their work.

The five categories from which laureates will be selected each represent a distinct domain where innovation holds significant potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally:

• Carbon Sinks: Projects that accelerate carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) through natural or engineered solutions, focusing on scalable, verifiable, and lasting impact.

• Energy: Projects that advance low or zero-emission energy systems with a focus on equitable access, affordability, and scalability.

• Finance: Projects that enable climate solutions through innovative, inclusive financial strategies that support emissions reduction and long-term ecological and economic sustainability.

• Social & Cultural Pathways: Projects that shift mindsets and behaviors to drive cultural, social, and policy change toward a post-fossil fuel world, with clear paths to impact and scale.

• Transport & Mobility: Projects that reimagine transportation by reducing emissions from vehicles, fuels, and systems — advancing cleaner mobility, smarter logistics, and alternatives to the internal combustion engine.

  
  

Since its founding, Climate Curve has awarded $2.75 million to 80 nonprofits, companies, and startups; helped generate $2.87 billion in follow-on funding for prize winners; and provided more than 560 fellowships through its Constellations Fellowship program, which places students and recent graduates directly within top-performing Keeling Curve Prize laureate and finalist organizations for hands-on experience and mentorship in the climate mitigation space.

Ten of the 20 2026 Keeling Curve Prize Finalists will be announced as winners of $50,000 each to scale their work and impact at this event.

About the Climate Curve Prize: Methane

The Climate Curve Prize: Methane is the first global climate prize dedicated to identifying and supporting methane solutions for food and waste system. This new initiative was launched by Climate Curve, with support from the Global Methane Hub, in February 2026, and just completed it’s first application cycle on April 17 in which nearly 300 organizations with sector-specific solutions to one of Earth’s most harmful superpollutants.

Climate Curve launched this prize in order to fill a significant funding gap between methane solutions for oil and gas and those focused on agriculture and waste management — of which 60% of all anthropogenic methane emissions stem from.

Methane is 80 times more environmentally impactful than CO2 and is a key contributor to tropospheric ozone that is responsible for approximately one million premature deaths globally. The CCP:M’s focus on methane represents one of the fastest, most efficient climate wins available to humanity today.

The 16 prize finalists, announced at this event, will have the chance to be one of eight winners of $25,000 each in funding.

About the Partnership with XPRIZE

XPRIZE sparks breakthroughs for humanity by designing and executing audacious, outcome-driven prize competitions that tackle complex global challenges. Working toward a future of equitable abundance, XPRIZE drives technological innovation across areas including climate, health, and space. The July 1 ceremony will mark a new chapter in the Climate Curve–XPRIZE partnership, with the launch of additional prize competitions to be announced that evening.

“Methane represents one of the most urgent and underappreciated opportunities to slow warming in the near term,” said David Babson, Executive Vice President of Energy, Climate, & Nature at XPRIZE.

“Climate Curve has done extraordinary work surfacing and recognizing many of the most promising innovators tackling this challenge. Through this partnership, we have the opportunity to not only celebrate those innovators, but to build momentum toward launching Mission Methane, a global XPRIZE that further challenges them, raises ambition across the innovation ecosystem, unlocks capital, and accelerates the path to scaling the solutions these innovators are developing — all in service of the shared goal of targeting methane to arrest warming quickly.”