Climate Solutions

Overview

Grantmaking concentrates on reducing greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, etc.) from energy-related sources. There is an emphasis on strengthening support for subnational work in key cities, states, and regions across the world, with heightened attention to the United States and India. We will support equitable climate solutions by improving citizen engagement in shaping climate policy within the context of each country’s politics, society, and economy. To a much lesser extent, we provide seed funding to innovative and/or timely approaches to advance climate solutions, including around finance, governance, and philanthropy.

We are committed to learning with and from communities disproportionately affected by climate change and strive to share decision-making with organizations led by or representing these communities. Beneficiaries of grant support will include organizations led by and representing communities that do not have access to reliable, clean energy, are/will be economically disadvantaged due to the energy transition, and experience disproportionate health impacts of climate change. This includes organizations led by and representing communities of color, Indigenous peoples, rural communities, and displaced workers. Other beneficiaries may include investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and aligned funders.

Awards will focus on four general approaches that organize the Climate Solutions’ collective grantmaking:

Altering Political Discourse

Activities and grantees infuse the public narrative about the climate crisis with more equitable solutions identified by and for people disproportionately affected by climate change and the transition to clean energy.

Advancing and Enforcing Climate-friendly Energy Policies and Regulatory Action

To help rapidly expand clean energy and technology deployment, activities center on educating policymakers, regulators, businesses, and consumers about the costs and benefits of existing and less-carbon intensive energy policy.

Expanding Financing and the Climate Solutions Funding Community

We use our institutional voice to increase support from domestic and international funders for advancing equitable climate solutions, and we invest concessionary capital to help deploy clean energy and technology to communities that have or will be disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis.

Supporting Power Building

To center racial, economic, and generational equity in conjunction with decarbonization, we support active participation of communities most affected by the climate crisis who have substantive contributions to make in shaping climate solutions. This approach includes both a cross-cutting dimension of the other three approaches as well as a stand-alone approach. In the United States, we focus on supporting community power building among BIPOC-led organizations and those representing rural communities that have been disproportionality affected by the transition to a clean energy economy. In India, activities are focused on capacity-building among organizations that may not focus exclusively or primarily on climate, as well as organizations representing workers’ and smallholder farmers’ interests. These activities are both a cross-cutting dimension of the other above-mentioned approaches as well as a stand-alone approach.