Businesses, individuals, and public sector bodies are this week all being invited to enter a new EU-wide competition designed to celebrate the continent’s most innovative “climate solutions”.

EU Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, announced yesterday that the Commission’s recently launched A World You Like climate change campaign has teamed up with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new Sustainia think tank to launch the new competition, dubbed “The World You Like Challenge”.

“The Challenge is a great opportunity to move beyond mere talking about climate change, said Hedegaard. “By submitting your project, you help us show that building a world we like with a climate we like is both feasible and affordable. And it won’t make our lives dull and grey.”

Over the next three months projects from across the EU are being invited to enter the challenge, providing details of how innovative technologies, business models, or campaigns are serving to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Visitors to the campaign website will then be able to vote on the best shortlisted entries during May and June, before the 10 most popular projects are then assessed by a judging panel of experts including Hedegaard and Schwarzenegger.

Three overall winners will be selected, with their entries used as a showcase for the wider World You Like Campaign. Meanwhile, national winners will be selected in Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, Poland and Portugal, where the best entry will be promoted through a billboard campaign.

A European Commission spokesman said the competition would help deliver on the campaign’s goal of “changing the narrative on climate change” in order to focus on the innovation and quality of life benefits green projects can deliver, rather than the “doom and gloom” typically associated with climate change impacts.