The San Francisco-based Climate Breakthrough has announced the 2025 recipients of its Climate Breakthrough Award, which supports climate mitigation efforts considered too ambitious or early-stage by traditional funders.

This year’s cohort—the largest in the program’s history—provides the five awardees each with $4 million in multiyear, flexible, non-directive funding. This year’s recipients are Alessandra Orofino (Brazil), founder of Peri Productions; Gavin McCormick (United States), cofounder of WattTime; Liming Qiao (Singapore), a strategist in Asia’s energy transition with more than two decades of experience in everything from climate negotiations to renewable energy deployment; Ramón Méndez Galain (Uruguay), executive director of Ivy; and a team including Giuliana Furci (Chile), Merlin Sheldrake (United Kingdom), and Toby Kiers (Netherlands), who are working to establish the legal, regulatory, and scientific groundwork to integrate fungi into global climate agendas and on-the-ground restoration efforts.

“I’m constantly amazed by the caliber of our awardees, and the 2025 cohort is no exception,” said Climate Breakthrough executive director Savanna Ferguson. “At a time when global uncertainties and challenges threaten climate action, what we’ve seen with all our awardees shows that when you give capable people the resources and freedom to pursue their boldest ideas, they can create the transformation the world needs.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Laurence Dutton)