As is the case with many systemic, pressing challenges, no one has all the answers. From October 2018 to April 2019, CLIMA hosted a series of online ‘dialogues’ unpacking the assumptions and narratives that drive climate philanthropy. We created a space for transparent, deeper discussion about the underlying narrative frames and assumptions around who climate protagonists are and what constitutes a ‘climate solution.’ With a stellar line-up of speakers, this series uncovered powerful insights that are captured in video and summary here.
The world is changing rapidly due to climate disruption, and that’s not going to stop. But the direction and impact of those changes are still up for grabs. What role does philanthropy play in supporting action towards justice, collective health, and sustainability?
The CLIMA Fund organized Round II of our Underpinning Stories Dialogue Series The End of the World as We Know It?: International Solidarity in the Climate Crisis from April to August 2020.
In this five-part dialogue series, the CLIMA Fund and guest speakers from grassroots movements around the globe connected the dots across our global ecological and social crises and how grassroots solutions are growing to meet the challenge.
Grounded Action: Grassroots Movements and Climate Justice
In philanthropy, ‘grassroots’ is often equated with ‘community’ and with ‘small-scale.’ Grassroots solutions come from the community but are not often small. And because grassroots solutions come from the people most impacted by the problem they seek to solve, they can be more effective and holistic in the problems they address.
As communities around the world face increasing impacts and threats from the climate crisis, funders have a unique opportunity to invest in movements building locally, nationally, and internationally. The climate crisis demands that “business as usual” stop and transform, and that includes philanthropy.
The CLIMA Fund organized Round III of our Underpinning Stories Dialogue Series Grounded Action: Grassroots Movements and Climate Justice in April 2021.
In this two-part dialogue series, speakers from grassroots movements and philanthropy unpacked the many different forms of grassroots action in confronting the climate crisis and heard directly from frontline voices on the inroads for -and the hurdles facing -grassroots movements. The series addressed the question, “What role does philanthropy play in supporting action towards justice, collective health, and sustainability?”
The climate crisis is escalating, and grassroots climate justice movements are rising to meet our global emergency. The recent report Soil to Sky: Climate Solutions That Work connects the dots between seemingly “small” grassroots solutions, carbon mitigation, and building rights-based resilience for the long-term.
On October 29, 2019, the CLIMA Fund hosted a webinar to hear directly from some of those transforming our economies & cultures. This webinar presented human stories related to grassroots-driven responses: from agroecology and direct resistance of extractive industries to community-controlled renewables and Indigenous rights defense. We created a space for a conversation with three climate justice movement leaders about how grassroots solutions are cooling the planet & building power and resilience for the long haul.
