Julia Kumari Drapkin

Ambitious #climate goals are bringing #cities and counties face-to-face with a serious reality: the need for carbon dioxide removal in addition to #decarbonization. As some local governments start to look at carbon removal strategies, experts say the public sector entering the ring could help bring down the cost for everyone. My story for Smart Cities Dive:

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"The time is now for ambitious, strategic funding. Philanthropy must seize this moment to accelerate progress toward 2030 climate goals. With countless investable solutions ready to scale, the field is ready to absorb significantly more funding right now. Collaborative platforms and resources are in place to guide funders toward maximizing impact for people and the planet." - Surabi Menon, VP of Global Intelligence, ClimateWorks Foundation This year’s #FundingTrends2024 report covers five years of foundation funding data from 2019 to 2023. ⬇️ 🔹Annual foundation funding for climate mitigation nearly tripled from 2019 to 2023. 🔹 Low-to-middle-income countries receive much lower levels of flexible or core funding for climate mitigation. 🔹 Adaptation and resilience initiatives gained momentum, receiving at least $600 million in 2023. Read the report: https://lnkd.in/gabxE5ty

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Today the White House announced new actions to expand access to capital for small and medium-sized climate businesses and startups. These include the release of a guidebook of capital programs across the federal government and an expansion of small business financing under the 504 Loan Program. CEBN President Lynn Abramson provided a statement of support: “As the White House’s new Climate Capital Guidebook states, ‘start-ups and small businesses are at the heart of new ideas and solutions.’ CEBN is encouraged to see the Administration take these important steps to expand access to capital for our nation’s small business innovators that are pushing the clean energy economy forward." See our full statement here: https://lnkd.in/gbaAr7bd See the White House’s Climate Capital Guidebook here: https://lnkd.in/gtkDHmwE

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#portfoliospotlight What drew Heading for Change to MCE Social Capital is the intentionality with which they integrate a gender lens into their work. Their MESA Fund is specifically focused on the nexus of climate and gender, through investments in sustainable agriculture and in mitigation, adaptation and resilience solutions for rural farmers across the agricultural value chain, including in waste, water and renewable energy. An example of the fund's portfolio company is the pioneering social enterprise Community Markets for Conservation that not only addresses malnutrition by providing women with seeds and organic gardening training, but also empowers women to improve family nutrition and generate income from surplus produce, leading to increased crop production and better health outcomes. Through the MESA fund, MCE Social Capital plans to finance approximately 35 agribusinesses and finance organizations over the next nine years and Heading for Change is thrilled to be on this journey with them, exploring the impact of integrating both climate and gender perspectives throughout the agricultural value chain. Last year ImpactAlpha did a great feature on MCE and its MESA fund, which you can read in full here: https://lnkd.in/eFWSZSRG

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Turning down the heat rather than simply learning to live in a hotter room… the story of mitigation.  Climate mitigation and #adaptation are often conflated but represent distinct approaches to addressing the #climatecrisis. #Climateadaptation is about responding to the effects of the changing climate, such as building seawalls or developing #droughtresistantcrops. While essential, adaptation alone cannot prevent the worst consequences of #globalwarming. Enter mitigation, which focuses on reducing #greenhousegas emissions to slow #climatechange. The need for urgent #climatemitigation is increasingly apparent. Our planet is sending clear signals of distress through intensifying #weatherevents that are not isolated incidents but symptoms of a constantly warming world. To avoid catastrophic consequences, we must then reduce our reliance on #fossilfuels and invest in a transition to #cleanenergy sources. Delaying #climateaction will only exacerbate our challenges, making future adaptation efforts more difficult and costly. https://lnkd.in/d7NDNzch

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🌟 Webinar Alert! 🌟 📅 Date: December 16th
🕐 Time: 1 PM EST
🎯 Topic: Introducing Our Climate Data Portal for US Native Lands We’re thrilled to invite you to an exclusive deep dive into the Climate Data Portal, a groundbreaking resource designed to support sovereign tribal decision-making. This dynamic tool organizes climate data through five interconnected themes, reflecting Indigenous perspectives and empowering holistic, community-driven conservation strategies. 🌱 Whether you’re a tribal leader, planner, or advocate, this webinar will provide invaluable insights on leveraging data for climate adaptation, land management, and sustainable decision-making. Join us for the official launch of the Climate Data Portal for US Native Lands! Developed with support from the Native American Agriculture Fund, this living resource is designed to empower sovereign tribal decision-making and climate planning. 🔗 Reserve your spot today: https://loom.ly/qSG-DPc 📢 Don’t miss this chance to engage with a resource built to strengthen Native resilience, sovereignty, and climate action! #ClimateAdaptation #NativeSovereignty #TribalLeadership #ClimateData #HolisticConservation #NativeLands

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Today in #impinv news: ✏️ The Liist: Signals for impact fundraising in 2025. ✏️ Commercial and industrial solar in Vietnam. ✏️ Digital revolution in Africa. ✏️ Next front in climate and diversity wars: Major corporations. https://hubs.li/Q031qjph0

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SEI was thrilled to welcome Kristy Drutman as our Climate Corps speaker, leading a workshop on Intersectional Environmentalism!🌟🌿 #seisustainability #climatecorps Founder of Brown Girl Green and Co-Founder of the Green Jobs Board, Drutman emphasized the power of INCLUSION. "We need to address the significant lack of diverse leading and voices in the environmental space," Drutman said. Making environmentalism #intersectional – uplifting marginalized voices, centralizing local perspectives – "can be the difference between life and death for certain communities." Drutman left the Fellows with the following questions: 🌎 What is your environmental story? 👋 Who needs to hear it? 🕰️ When will you tell it?

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🎉 This year I'm looking forward to joining friends and colleagues on the board of Vibrant Planet Data Commons (the non-profit arm of Vibrant Planet) to help guide their efforts towards effective public understanding and sustainable climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. https://lnkd.in/gkvES6VD High quality open and accessible data is essential for response to the #climatecrisis. 🌲Vibrant Planet Data Commons is working to make this kind of high quality data on #forestry in the western US much more well integrated into public efforts to manage forests and #watersheds, predict the causes of #wildfires, collect better #AI-ready canopy data, and much more.

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CDP outlined five key ways to drive city climate action through partnerships, leveraging the Inflation Reduction Act: 1. Partnerships can fill the implementation gap. 2. Create accessible spaces to bring together diverse voices. 3. Identify experienced intermediaries. 4. Working collaboratively to support workforce development. 5. Building trust to create lasting partnerships. By aligning efforts across local governments, businesses, and communities, cities can overcome resource challenges and bring climate goals within reach. #StrongerTogether Learn more: https://lnkd.in/e_T-ZcnG

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Every $1 invested in adaptation can create up to $10 in net economic benefits! When funds are invested in large-scale climate adaptation activities, there are clear health, social, and economic benefits. Our #HeatSeason campaign brings attention to these impacts, and shares solutions-focused guidance for individuals and communities. By raising awareness, our campaign acts as a catalyst for meaningful change and long-term resilience. Join our #HeatSeason campaign to learn about the actions your city and community can take to ensure a safe, cool future. https://bit.ly/4eAaNf1

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🚨 Exciting news from Giving Green! 🚨 We’re thrilled to announce our 2024 climate giving research and recommendations! Here’s a breakdown of what’s new: 🌍 3 new philanthropic strategies, including advancing the energy transition in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), scaling demand for carbon dioxide removal (CDR), and advancing solar radiation management (SRM) governance. These join our five longstanding recommended strategies: decarbonizing heavy industry, reducing food systems emissions, decarbonizing aviation and maritime shipping, advancing next-gen geothermal energy, and supporting advanced nuclear. 🏆 6 Top Nonprofits, including 1 new. Future Cleantech Architects, a climate think tank driving innovation in heavy industry decarbonization, joins our list alongside returning organizations: Clean Air Task Force, The Good Food Institute, Industrious Labs, Opportunity Green, and Project InnerSpace. 📢 20+ additional Giving Green Fund grants, made possible by the transformative anonymous $10M donation we received this summer.  Interested in learning more? Our latest blog post will walk you through these philanthropic strategies, Top Nonprofits, grantees, and more. Have a read here: https://lnkd.in/eGPF2e5i Inclined to turn these recs into action? Here’s what you can do: 🌱 Donate to the Giving Green Fund to support ALL our Top Nonprofits, plus other grantees via our new, expanded scope of grants.  ⭐ Donate directly to our Top Nonprofits. 🔍 Support our research by donating to Giving Green operations.  💻 Join our webinar on effective climate giving this December—more on this soon! Head to the link to our blog post to express early interest. #ClimateAction #Philanthropy #ClimateSolutions #EffectiveGiving

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We’re so excited to share that DSG is a 2024 Giving Green grantee for our work to advance governance capacity and policy engagement on SRM! 🌍🎉 This recognition highlights the need for inclusive, systems-based strategies in the face of rapid climate change, and this critical support will help us to facilitate inclusive, global collaboration on SRM, especially for climate-vulnerable regions. #SRMGovernance https://lnkd.in/gPTf3TK5

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We are deeply grateful for Giving Green's support of our livestock enteric methane mitigation program. Reducing methane from "cow burps" 🐮💭 will mitigate climate change, and with this support, we'll make faster progress on solution, policy, and market development. Learn more about why Giving Green is supporting Spark Climate Solutions's livestock enteric methane mitigation program towards addressing emissions from the global food and agriculture sector: https://lnkd.in/gamxiRMQ Join them in supporting this important work: https://lnkd.in/gen3YRS9

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Week 2 Recap from Climatebase! 🌏 🌍 🌎 🙌 #ClimatebaseFellowship #ClimatebaseCohort6 #ClimateChange #SustainabilityClimate #ESG

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