In two years’ time the United Nations will host the COP 30 climate conference in the Brazilian Amazon. This is a unique opportunity, and philanthropy should be planning right now to heed the call for collaboration that empowers historically excluded voices, typically those most affected by extreme weather events.

We will need to bring together diverse strategies and combine resources to have the impact the world needs on climate change. The complexity of the problem we’re trying to solve demands it.

The Global South Should Lead

It is morally—and strategically—right for philanthropic voices from the Global South to take leadership roles as we prepare for COP 30 to come to the Amazon. The runup to COP 30 over these next two years is the moment to right a serious injustice in climate philanthropy, with the majority of Global North funding going to Global North organizations for projects whose impact should be greatest on the Global South, where communities are most affected.

In particular, 75 percent of the world’s children live in the Global South, yet their rights and concerns are rarely prioritized by climate decision-makers. It is a glaring omission and also a profound opportunity. Organisations from Brazil and other Global South countries, with distinct perspectives and solutions, are well placed to shape and shepherd investments to address these kinds of inequities.

An Integrated Approach To Combating Climate Change

Years of advocacy around climate at the U.N. have taught us that a single strategy is not enough, and philanthropy won’t solve everything alone. For effective change, we need to knit multiple approaches together: We need robust policy advocacy. We need solid research. We need to reach people’s hearts as well as their minds. And we need to partner with other stakeholders, including public authorities and policymakers, to leverage and scale up our efforts. It’s these four things together that create a solid rope that can pull for real and systemic change.

Read the full article about empowering the global south to lead in climate change by Pedro Hartung at Alliance Magazine.