Soil to Sky: Climate Solutions That Work

Yesterday, the CLIMA Fund released its report Soil to Sky: Climate Solutions That Work.

As Grassroots International Executive Director Chung-Wha Hong stated:

For funders serious about making a difference on climate change, ‘Soil to Sky: Climate Solutions that Work’ is a report that gives tangible, actionable ways to reduce emissions, and advance health and well-being. And it starts with investing in grassroots solutions and strategies led by those most impacted. “Soil to Sky” details each strategy and invites — no, challenges — philanthropy to step up to the challenge and be part of the solution.

Soil to Sky: Climate Solutions That Work plots a path towards a 1.5 degree future that also advances human rights and equity. The report powerfully affirms that funders who have traditionally invested in top-down strategies to the climate crisis can also make lasting, effective, and scalable investments in grassroots-driven responses. It brings together the best available research to demonstrate how blending traditional and local knowledge with advocacy and alliance building can create lasting change to cool the planet and build rights-based resilience for the long-term.

Soil to Sky: Climate Solutions That Work uplifts the solutions that have too often been excluded from climate philanthropy, yet have great potential for scaled impact on the most urgent crisis of our time.

The CLIMA Fund is a pathway for funders to directly support Indigenous, women, and youth-led work building climate resilience and mitigating climate chaos. The CLIMA Fund is a collaboration of Global Greengrants, Grassroots International, Thousand Currents, and the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Rights.

what leaders in the collaborating organizations are saying about this report:

“Most funders I talk to want to make a positive impact in addressing climate change and the devastating impacts it is having around the world. The good news is that ‘Soil to Sky: Climate Solutions that Work’ gives funders clear scientific analysis, examples and ways to maximize our impact by identifying effective solutions that start with those most impacted by climate change, help cool the planet and mobilize for a more sustainable and just world.” Chung-Wha Hong, Grassroots International

“We only have a limited amount of time to do what is right as funders. Grassroots solutions often get overlooked, but here is a collection of evidence that makes the case for why they matter and just how transformative these approaches are.” — Solomé Lemma, Thousand Currents Executive Director

“As the climate crisis grows more dire by the minute, funders need to invest in those at the grassroots level: the youth, women, and Indigenous Peoples who are developing and implementing solutions in real time to save our planet. This new report provides powerful evidence for these solutions that have been overlooked by philanthropy, yet drive transformative change from the bottom-up on the most pressing issue facing humankind.” — Terry Odendahl, Global Greengrants Executive Director

” ‘Soil to Sky’ posits gender equity not just as a climate change strategy, but as a drastically underemployed strategy. Women’s movement building for climate receives less than 0.02% of philanthropic backing and we know women’s rights advocacy also improves the inclusion of Indigenous, land, and environmental rights – all overlooked strategies that together build a world full of possibility.” — Kate Kroeger, Urgent Action Fund Executive Director