Aspen nonprofit awards $500000 to global climate change fighters - The Aspen Times
Aspen nonprofit awards $500,000 to global climate change fighters | AspenTimes.com
Aspen nonprofit awards $500,000 to global climate change fighters
Provided | Isadora Brant, Health in Harmony
Ten climate-focused organizations from around the world will receive $50,000 each from an Aspen-based nonprofit.
The Global Warming Mitigation Project is a 501(c)(3) that focuses on supporting climate solutions worldwide.
Their Keeling Curve Prize — named after a graph that represents the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere since 1958 — awards grants to 10 climate change-related organizations from around the world. The laureates fall within the categories: carbon sinks, energy, finance, social & cultural pathways, and transport & mobility. Teams of climate experts narrow down the applicant fields to name laureates.
This year is the first year since its 2018 inception that the prize dollar amounted to $50,000 per laureate, as opposed to $25,000 each in the past. But to the project, winning the prize is more than a one-time grant.
“We see the (Keeling Curve Prize) as being a launching pad, an identifier of good projects and programs that create a very drastic growth in their ability to bring in more funding and more outcomes,” founder and Executive Director Jaquelyn Francis said.
She said the money to fund a doubled prize amount came from a variety of sources. The project received a $200,000 grant from the Charles & Lucille King Family Foundation in 2022.
Because of the organization’s base in Aspen, Francis said that the project demonstrates the importance of wealthy areas taking responsibility for climate change and empowering others to mitigate climate change effects.
“Wealthy communities can really be much more impactful in the solutions, because the wealthy communities have an amazing lifestyle,” Francis said. “And if they want to continue to enjoy life the way they do, then giving back to the planet and caring about the biosphere is really the only road forward. Any other way is not going to let anyone continue life as usual.”
This year’s winners were announced on Monday in Detroit at the TED Countdown Summit:
- Regen Organics: Manufacturer of regenerative agriculture products using black soldier fly larvae.
- Vesta: Coastal carbon capture using the natural mineral olivine for ocean alkalinity enhancement.
- Reeddi: Energy capsule for clean, affordable, reliable electrification Sub-SaharanAfrica.
- Build Up Nepal: Eco-friendly brick manufacturing and local economic development.
- Stand.earth Research Group: Non-profitable organization working to halt expansion of oil and gas drilling by securing Amazon Exclusion Policies from major global banks.
- Vita: Facilitates rural climate-smart economies in Africa.
- Health in Harmony: Non-profitable organization working alongside indigenous communities to regenerate livelihoods and protect rainforests.
- Waste Warriors Society: Non-profitable organization working with government agencies and communities municipal waste problems.
- C40: Global network of mayors in leading cities united inaction to confront the climate crisis.
- Auto-TruckEA Limited: Kenyan-based company manufacturing electric mobility products and solutions.
The slate of winners represents a variety of countries and industries, as well as research organizations, for-profits and nonprofits. According to the project, 350 applicants represented 114 countries — many of which are countries hardest hit by the effects of climate change.
“We look for both low tech and high tech solutions,” Francis said. “And we’re trying to get people to understand that the opportunity in crisis is so broad, and it’s all systems changing.”
As the years pass, Francis said, her organization has seen solar and wind energy production reach financial viability in ways they were not before, plus oceanic efforts gaining traction. And with the summit’s location in Detroit, Francis said it signals a friendlier attitude toward electric vehicles from the automotive industry.
“People are really understanding that the need for the health of all ecosystems is important, because human beings rely so much on a healthy biosphere and all of it is interconnected,” she said.
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”