In April 2024, CO2RE announced an image competition to gather images of Greenhouse Gas Removal methods, technologies, and practices. The aim was to demystify GGR by highlighting what it can look like, recognise its presence in our everyday lives and environment, and explore how it can shape climate futures.
We called for people of varied interests and professions – photographers, artists, designers, illustrators, researchers with creative interests, and more – to engage with the environmental, economic, sociocultural, or political implications of GGR.
Our jury – including architect and ecological researcher, Marvi Mazhar, scientist and artist, Dr Cécile Girardin, and two CO2RE researchers, Dr Isabela Butnar and Dr Laurie Waller – assessed images based on their engagement with evidence, ability to communicate research and the realities of GGR, their potential to affect an impact, and their alignment with category guidelines.
Seven shortlisted images and winning entries from each category can be viewed on the following pages:
- Capturing GGR: photographs that capture one or more GGR methods or technologies as they exist or are being developed
- Envisioning GGR: illustrations, graphic posters, or digital art that draw up possible climate futures by creatively engaging with or imagining scenarios that could take shape by adopting various approaches to GGR
All shortlisted images were on display at the Café in the Old Fire Station in Oxford from 3 June until 1 July.
Capturing GGR Photo Gallery
*These are preview images. Please visit the ‘Capturing GGR’ page to view full size photographs and photographers’ statements.
Juried Prize Winner: “Biochar: Halo and Bubble of Life” – Harn Wei Kua, Abhimanyu Goel, Huang Lei
Juried Prize Runner-Up: “Future Leaders and Carbon Catchers: A Snapshot of Progress and Play” – Amy Ruddock
Popular Choice Prize Winner: “For Peat’s Sake” – Anna-Marie Sturrock
Popular Choice Prize Runner-Up: “Greening the Ocean Desert” – Michael Sswat
Envisioning GGR Image Gallery
*These are preview images. Please visit the ‘Envisioning GGR’ page to view full size designs and artists’ statements.
Juried Prize Winner: “GGR Dream Map” – Sabiha Imani
Juried Prize Runner-Up: “Net Zero” – E West
Popular Choice Prize Winner: “Pathways” – Molly Palmer
Popular Choice Prize Runner-Up: “Carbon Sponges” – Freya Morris
The Jury
Dr Cécile Girardin
Marvi Mazhar
Dr Isabela Butnar
Dr Laurie Waller
“Representing diverse worldviews, the submissions to this competition offer us vital glimpses into the social realities of greenhouse gas removal. They show us why image-makers will play a critical role in anticipating how technology can change the atmospheres of everyday life.” – Dr Laurie Waller
*Note that the jury have shortlisted and awarded prizes based on an image’s potential to affect an impact, provoke critical questions, and enable engagement with GGR. Their decisions should by no means imply their, their organisation’s, or CO2RE’s endorsement of any particular GGR method, technology, or project.