Giving Compass' Take:

• Katharine Wilkinson explains how Project Drawdown acts as a guide for grantmakers who want to make an impact on climate change, with the Skoll Foundation's work lifting up women while tackling global warming. 

• How can funders choose their best approach to climate change? How does climate change intersect with other global issues?

• Learn about grantmaking pitfalls to avoid. 

Scientists have done an extraordinary job detailing the current and future impacts of global warming. Despite three decades of committed international research, however, no one had developed a comprehensive, actionable, and convincing path forward to reverse it. Humanity has been more adept at imagining the end of civilization than its transformation, and more inclined to throw up our hands in despair or to dream of silver-bullet saviors, however unlikely. Detachment and disengagement has been the norm. Many powerful solutions have gone unnoticed or are unknown.

Project Drawdown was created to change that. We are a nonprofit and international coalition comprised of researchers, geologists, agronomists, biologists, political leaders, climatologists, botanists, economists, policy analysts, engineers, architects, sociologists, urban planners, writers, activists, business people, nonprofit leaders, and more. What unites us is a singular goal: to reverse global warming.

Rigorous research and clear, compelling communication are Project Drawdown’s twin strengths. Through research, we map, measure, and model the potential of solutions already in hand—diverse practices and technologies that are commonly available, economically viable, and scientifically valid. Through communication, we bring to life a blueprint of possibility and convey humanity’s ongoing activity and collective wisdom. This critical combination accelerates understanding of how to reverse global warming, stimulating the imagination and the conviction to scale solutions.

The Skoll Foundation also honed in on our work at the intersection of climate solutions and gender equity. We used Drawdown to frame exploration of a key topic at this year’s Skoll World Forum: women and girls’ central role in “Catalyzing Change in the Climate Crisis.” All too often, the gender-climate nexus is absent in discussions of global warming—particularly solutions to it. Drawdown lifts up and quantifies the importance of securing access to high-quality, voluntary family planning and of addressing gender gaps in education and smallholder farming. All three must be advanced for the benefit of women, girls, their families and communities. Doing so will also have positive ripple effects on emissions, as well as resilience.

Read the full article about reversing climate change by Katharine Wilkinson at PEAK Insight Journal.