ImpactAlpha, Nov. 9 – Two months after announcing a $1 billion climate commitment, the Rockefeller Foundation has awarded its first batch of climate grants.
A total of $11 million will go to 25 organizations working on a range of climate solutions. More than half of the grants ($7.5 million), from Rockefeller’s Climate Exploration Fund, will go to projects that the foundation says will help inform its future work, test hypotheses, and identify partners. “Deepening our understanding of climate development by partnering with communities on their priorities” will help the foundation more effectively catalyze change, said Rockefeller’s Elizabeth Yee in a statement.
Among the awards: The University of the West Indies will design research to help quantify the impact of climate on health. Climate Mayors, C40, and Urban Sustainability Directors Network will support city leaders in implementing the US Inflation Reduction Act. Hivos Foundation will create a dialogue with Amazonian communities and tap their ancestral knowledge to identify climate solutions.
An earlier grant was awarded to Elemental Excelerator to help climate entrepreneurs move from demonstrations to commercialization.
Another $3.5 million will support specific solutions in energy, health, food, and finance.
Grantees include The Asian Institute of Technology to catalyze regenerative agriculture practices, the Nepal Economic Forum to promote climate insurance innovation in Asia, and RMI to develop solutions for emissions resulting from the global pipeline of planned coal plants.