It’s the kind of zany stuff you might have seen featured on BBC’s Tomorrow’s World.

I am totally blown away by the innovativeness of these five far-reaching ideas which have been shortlisted in the Financial Times Climate Change Challenge which I wrote about last November.

You are invited to vote for your winning choice at the FT link here, and the $75,000 prize money will be spent on making the inventor’s dream become a reality.

This is the shortlist for you to choose before the 3 April deadline 3 April:

1. The Black Phantom is a machine that turns wood and organic material into charcoal. This can be used as a fertiliser or burnt in power stations and cooking stoves. Alternatively, this highly stable form of carbon can be stored underground in ‘carbon sinks’ (Carbonscape, New Zealand/UK)

2. Deflecktors are wheel covers that make lorries more fuel efficient by reducing drag. The inexpensive, lightweight fabric devices cover holes in the wheels, cutting fuel consumption by two per cent. The devices also offer money-making opportunities as advertising space (ADEF Ltd., USA)

3. Kyoto Box is a cheap, solar-powered cardboard cooker. The simple design can be made in existing cardboard factories, flat-packed and easily distributed. It could halve firewood use, saving trees and preventing carbon emissions (Kyoto Energy Ltd., Kenya)

4. Mootral is a feed supplement for livestock that reduces the methane they emit by 15 per cent. The garlic-based extract is a natural antibiotic that works by fighting bacteria in the  stomachs of cows and sheep. Neem estimates the world’s herds and flocks are responsible for 20 per cent of global warming (Neem Biotech, UK)

5. Hollow ceiling tiles are used in an air cooling system that can work with or replace traditional air conditioning. Instead of pumping cool air into a room, the tiles are built into a false ceiling to draw warm air out. The process works by evaporating water stored in the tiles (Loughborough University, UK)

I personally favour Mootral. It seems a very simple way to make a huge impact on reducing carbon emissions. I have followed this issue with plant scientists I worked with in the past, as well as my MEP, and it can produce instant results. It’s a win-win.

I did hope to get an invitation to an award winning ceremony to meet one of media idols, Lionel Barber, Editor of the FT. But apparently there isn’t going to be one. I’m hugely disappointed at this, but wish this competition every success. I hope the other brilliant ideas will not be wasted.