Drawdown Insights

Climate solutions and efforts to improve the well-being of people experiencing extreme poverty can—and must—be complementary. How can African countries use their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to chart a path forward that not only achieves low-carbon development and builds climate change resilience but also helps lift people out of extreme poverty? Project Drawdown’s landmark 2022 Climate-Poverty Connections report provides compelling evidence that 28 climate solutions (Figure 1) can simultaneously generate substantial human well-being benefits (Figure 2) for rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia; 26 of these 28 solutions are applicable for the countries in this analysis.

On October 21, 2022, Drawdown Labs, in conjunction with Rewiring America, Evergreen Action, and ClimateVoice, hosted a webinar exploring why climate advocacy should be a key part of any corporate climate strategy, what the most impactful policy levers are, and how to take concrete action today. Leah Stokes, associate professor of environmental politics at University of California, Santa Barbara, provided opening remarks. Lena Moffitt, chief of staff at Evergreen Action, moderated the panel. Panelists were: Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. senator for Rhode Island Stephan Nicolaeu, partner at FullCycle Paul Augustine, head of sustainability at Lyft. With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it has become clear that climate policy is a winning political platform and that the business community has an indispensable role to play in building more climate power. The IRA is projected to cut emissions around 38% by 2030. This is a massive shift that could dwarf the operational emissions reductions of a single company. Any company that is serious about addressing climate change should take note of this opportunity––and use their power and influence to support climate candidates and bold climate legislation at the local, state and federal level.

Did you know that climate mitigation solutions that contribute to increasing human well-being, alleviating extreme poverty, addressing inequities, and advancing adaptation are at hand? Building off of the key findings contained within its landmark 2022 Climate-Poverty Connections report, the Drawdown Lift program is excited to announce the official release of a new video—“Climate Solutions that Boost Human Well-Being in Africa and South Asia”—which illuminates various pathways for policymakers and decision-makers to harmonize policies and align funding to address climate change and poverty synergistically across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. With its release timed to coincide with International Day of Climate Action 2022, this new Project Drawdown video aims to inform, inspire, and engage influential leaders and institutions to advance policy discussions about climate solutions that can substantially contribute to socioeconomic development priorities and promote low-carbon pathways to growth. With the COP27 climate summit kicking off in Egypt in early November, the video also serves to more broadly expose high-level delegates from low- and middle-income countries in Africa and South Asia to Drawdown Lift’s research on the climate-poverty nexus and emphasizes the powerful role that climate mitigation solutions can play in improving quality of life in some of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries.

What if you could access news stories from around the world describing how non-governmental organizations, governments, businesses, and academic institutions are working to solve the climate crisis? Now you can, with the Solutions Journalism Network’s Climate Solutions Story Collections. Grouped around Project Drawdown themes,  these collections feature hundreds of stories of climate solutions in action—stories you and others can use to inspire and guide your own efforts to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere in your workplaces, community, and home.  Find these collections and related resources on the Solutions Journalism Network’s Teaching Climate Solutions page.  

Do you want to discover your role in stopping catastrophic climate change? Drawdown’s Neighborhood, presented by Project Drawdown, is a series of short documentaries featuring the stories of climate solutions heroes, city-by-city. Join host and Project Drawdown storyteller Matt Scott on a journey to “pass the mic” to climate heroes whose stories often go unheard, and elevate climate action in the process. Drawdown’s Neighborhood showcases the diverse community of people working to help the world reach drawdown, the future point when levels of greenhouse gasses start to steadily decline. Each story in the Drawdown’s Neighborhood series serves as a bridge between climate solutions and people like you who are looking to tap into their own superpowers to stop climate change. Hear their voices, learn about their “green careers,” and be inspired about the many ways that you too can utilize your unique gifts and talents to accelerate climate solutions and be part of shaping a better world and just future for all. Our latest series features the city of Atlanta, known as the heart of the U.S. civil rights movement, which is located on the unceded ancestral land of the Mississippian, Creek and Cherokee Nations. Drawdown’s Neighborhood: Atlanta features nine stories from a city with a deep history in leadership, entrepreneurship, and activism. In response to the impacts of climate change, diverse collaborations across Atlanta are building momentum to draw down emissions and create a healthy, just, and vibrant future. We invite you to watch and share this short documentary series, created in collaboration with adventure filmmaker Erik Douds (erikdouds.com) and Andrea Willingham (trailmixedmedia.com). In addition, we encourage you to discover solutions and take action using the discussion questions and resources accompanying each film, developed in collaboration with Jothsna Harris of Change Narrative (changenarrativeconsulting.com).

In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, climate mitigation solutions that boost human well-being, contribute to poverty alleviation, address inequities, and advance adaptation are at hand. This brief video offers a quick look how policymakers, decision-makers, and funders can harmonize policies and align funding to address both climate change and poverty together. To learn more, explore Drawdown Lift’s landmark report Climate–Poverty Connections: Opportunities for Synergistic solutions at the Intersection of Planetary and Human Well-Being.

Today’s definition of business climate leadership centers on companies doing less harm, gradually reducing their emissions—and the damage they cause—over time. But this version of leadership neglects the many other levers companies have at their disposal to help or hinder our future on a livable planet. A drawdown-aligned company leverages all aspects of its business—its social, political, and financial capital, and the power of its employees—to reduce emissions well beyond its own operations and help secure a just climate future for all. Hear from cutting-edge leaders across sectors working to help demonstrate a new leadership paradigm. Speakers: Vanessa Fajans-Turner, Executive Director, BankFWD Alyah Kanso, Sustainability Manager, Golden State Warriors Mia Ketterling, Global Sustainability Lead, Pinterest Breene Murphy, Vice President, Strategy and Marketing, Carbon Collective Matt Renner, Vice President, Seneca Solar Jamie Alexander, Director, Drawdown Labs at Project Drawdown (moderator)

Between keynote talks, sold-out panel discussions and early looks at some new content, Project Drawdown was proud to bring climate solutions to the main stage at Climate Week NYC last month. But now that the festivities are over … what’s next? One of the obvious criticisms of Climate Week and other climate conferences is that they encourage thousands of people—ourselves included—to descend upon remote destinations, with all the planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions that go along with it. Look, nothing compares to experiencing the palpable energy in a room during a vibrant discussion, or the deep trust and alliances that can be built between people and movements when they happen across a table instead of behind a screen. But we need to make sure that all those big climate announcements and pats on the back lead to tangible climate action, or we’re exacerbating the problem we’re working to solve. At Drawdown Labs, we advocate for stronger accountability from our private sector partners, urging the businesses we work with to set measurable targets and be transparent about how they’re measuring up against their climate promises. So in that spirit, we’re sharing some of what we launched during Climate Week—and some ways you can hold us accountable to them. Align climate funding with a Drawdown Roadmap: At the Nest Summit, Project Drawdown executive director Jonathan Foley presented new, cutting-edge work to align funding decisions made by philanthropists and investors with Earth’s “carbon portfolio.” By leveraging the best science, we can better identify when, how, and where to direct capital to fund strategic climate solutions.   Hold us accountable: In the coming months, look for the launch of our new network of philanthropists and investors who will work with us to better align catalytic capital with strategic climate solutions—making funding decisions that are guided by science and rooted in our planetary carbon portfolio. Normalize drawdown-aligned business climate leadership. In a lively panel discussion, six climate advocates came together to illustrate how businesses can go beyond “net zero” to helping the world achieve drawdown quickly and safely, and with equity and justice at the heart of the transition.  Hold us accountable: By early 2023, we will make specific metrics for each aspect of the Drawdown Aligned Business Framework publicly available. By the end of 2023, we aim to align each of our formal Drawdown Labs business partners with this framework. Equip employees to take tangible climate action at work. At the Marketplace of the Future, we soft-launched our Job Function Action Guides, equipping employees in seven common corporate job functions to accelerate and expand their company’s climate action far beyond the sustainability team.   Hold us accountable: By the end of 2022, we aim to get our climate action checklists into the hands of at least 1,000 corporate employees and begin tracking their impacts. In early 2023, we’ll release action guides for at least three new job functions. Galvanize new forms of climate leadership in new sectors. Project Drawdown hosted a panel discussion with the lead vocalist of the Lumineers, a retired NHL hockey player, and others in the live events space to explore how cultural icons and institutions can move climate leadership faster and reach new audiences. Hold us accountable: By the middle of next year, Project Drawdown and our partners will publish a crosswalk of the Drawdown Aligned Business framework and the live events space, identifying key leverage points in live events that can help the world achieve drawdown. Did your company or institution make a climate pledge/promise/commitment during Climate Week? If so, make it count. And think about how your role might contribute to helping them get there and helping the broader world achieve drawdown, quickly, safely, and equitably.

Discover solutions in action & find your role through the stories of nine climate heroes in Atlanta, Georgia, premiering in November 2022.

In the 50 years since the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment established the important link between the environment and poverty, we have seen remarkable action to protect the planet and improve people’s lives. Unfortunately, these efforts have often taken place independently of each other. Imagine how much more good we could do if the solutions being funded yielded benefits for both climate action and poverty alleviation, while boosting human well-being. Globally, public and private financing tend to focus on either climate action or improving human well-being—defined as people’s ability to access fundamental social, cultural, economic and natural/environmental resources critical for sustaining a decent living standard and living a life they value. However, addressing climate change without attention to human well-being threatens to cut back on years of development progress because of the impacts climate change has on human well-being. Those of us working to advance sustainable development are witnessing firsthand how rising temperatures, drought, flooding and extreme weather are rapidly rewinding hard-won progress in poverty eradication, human development and gender equality. For instance, heat waves and dry spells in Bangladesh are threatening natural resource–based rural livelihoods and creating economic insecurity, which can contribute to increased rates of child, early, and forced marriage and unions, speeding girls’ transitions to adulthood and ending their formal education. And In Malawi, where most people experience poverty and nearly one-third experience extreme poverty, climate change has exacerbated poverty, particularly for women, in recent decades as increasing temperatures and intense rain lead to both drought and flooding. Combined, these have resulted in shorter growing seasons, poor crop yields, food shortages, hunger and the spread of waterborne diseases. In addition, increasingly devastating seasonal flash floods disrupt learning for students as classrooms are used as shelters for displaced people. And intensified climate hazards often exacerbate child labor, especially for children from under-resourced families. We know that there are many readily available and financially viable technologies and practices that offer proven, substantial benefits not only for climate but also for livelihoods, health, food security, education, gender equality, and energy. Funders, philanthropies and decision-makers can help to ensure a brighter future for people and the planet by directing more financing to fund climate solutions that can also be transformational in alleviating poverty and increasing resilience, especially in frontline, climate-vulnerable countries and communities that have contributed the least to the climate crisis while being impacted the most.