Young Leaders Advancing Potential Climate Solutions Could Win $1 Million Grants
Youth-led climate groups are getting a $25 million injection from a philanthropic collaborative that hopes other funders will follow their lead in supporting solutions created by younger generations grappling with a future marked by increasing temperatures and rising sea levels.
Despite recent upticks in donations to nonprofits combating climate change, Enlight Foundation President Xin Liu said emerging leaders on the front lines of the crisis are not getting enough of that money. So she and The Patchwork Collective are offering 1 million multi-year grants to 25 community organizations led by 15- to 35-year-olds. 'There's a little funder stigma of trusting youth, trusting young funders, trusting their capacity, their ability to lead,' Liu said. 'They're really quite often very innovative and creative. And very much close to the problem, which drives them to come up with really impactful solutions,' she added. 'As an older generation, we have a responsibility in helping them, empowering them to scale their work too.'
The award is open to anyone globally who is tackling a broad range of climate issues, including education, justice, resilience, conservation, sustainable agriculture, and disaster preparedness. Applicants have until Sept. 22 to enter the open call run by Lever for Change, a nonprofit affiliate of the MacArthur Foundation. The competition is part of Enlight Foundation's spend-down strategy. The nonprofit–created by Liu and Chinese tech billionaire Duan Yongping to fund education equality and youth empowerment–plans to give away all its resources in the next eight years. Liu said the foundation won't be able to sunset without collaborations like this one. Lever for Change, which has rallied its donor network to unlock $2.5 billion across 16 open calls, made for a perfect partner. The Patchwork Collective–a family philanthropy founded by Marie and Benoit Dageville that funds grassroots programs developed by communities to address their own issues–voluntarily contributed $5 million after learning about the competition. Lever for Change President Kristen Molyneaux said everyone has a role to play. More than a dozen young advisors gave feedback on the open call's design and will help with peer review, according to Liu. Youth-led organizations and climate experts are welcome to participate in the external evaluation panel. Liu is inviting more funders to join because she said each additional $1 million will allow them to benefit another awardee. 'The people who are most invested in this are the people who are going to be bearing the burden of climate change in their future,' Molyneaux said. 'So they understand the importance of this issue and how to mobilize their communities.' The length of the multi-year grants will be tailored to the recipients' needs. Recognizing that some organizations might not have the capacity to accept all that money at once, Liu said two- to five-year periods are fine. Enlight Foundation will also do more than just write a check. Liu promised to provide mentorship and connections to 'really watch them flourish.' 'I am very excited, especially during this very uncertain time for young people around the world,' Liu said. 'They are going to build a much better and brighter future when they are engaged.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
37 minutes ago
- Arab News
EU plans to add carbon credits to new climate goal, document shows
BRUSSELS: The European Commission is set to propose counting carbon credits bought from other countries toward the European Union's 2040 climate target, a Commission document seen by Reuters Commission is due to propose a legally binding EU climate target for 2040 on July EU executive had initially planned a 90 percent net emissions cut, against 1990 levels, but in recent months has sought to make this goal more flexible, in response to pushback from governments including Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic, concerned about the internal Commission summary of the upcoming proposal, seen by Reuters, said the EU would be able to use 'high-quality international credits' from a UN-backed carbon credits market to meet 3 percent of the emissions cuts toward the 2040 document said the credits would be phased in from 2036, and that additional EU legislation would later set out the origin and quality criteria that the credits must meet, and details of how they would be move would in effect ease the emissions cuts — and the investments required — from European industries needed to hit the 90 percent emissions-cutting target. For the share of the target met by credits, the EU would buy 'credits' from projects that reduce CO2 emissions abroad — for example, forest restoration in Brazil — rather than reducing emissions in say these credits are a crucial way to raise funds for CO2-cutting projects in developing nations. But recent scandals have shown some credit-generating projects did not deliver the climate benefits they document said the Commission will add other flexibilities to the 90 percent target, as Brussels attempts to contain resistance from governments struggling to fund the green transition alongside priorities including defense, and industries who say ambitious environmental regulations hurt their include integrating credits from projects that remove CO2 from the atmosphere into the EU's carbon market so that European industries can buy these credits to offset some of their own emissions, the document draft would also give countries more flexibility on which sectors in their economy do the heavy lifting to meet the 2040 goal, 'to support the achievement of targets in a cost-effective way.'A Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the upcoming proposal, which could still change before it is published next countries and the European Parliament must negotiate the final target and could amend what the Commission proposes.
Asharq Al-Awsat
14 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Japan Launches Climate Change Monitoring Satellite
Japan on Sunday launched a satellite monitoring greenhouse gas emissions using its longtime mainstay H-2A rocket, which made its final flight before it is replaced by a new flagship designed to be more cost competitive in the global space market. The H-2A rocket lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan, carrying the GOSAT-GW satellite as part of Tokyo's effort to mitigate climate change. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which operates the rocket launch, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will hold a news conference later Sunday to give further details of the flight. Sunday's launch marked the 50th and final flight for the H-2A, which has served as Japan's mainstay rocket to carry satellites and probes into space with near-perfect record since its 2001 debut. After its retirement, it will be fully replaced by the H3, which is already in operation, as Japan's new main flagship, The Associated Press reported. The launch follows several days of delay due to malfunctioning in the rocket's electrical systems. The GOSAT-GW, or Global Observing SATellite for Greenhouse gases and Water cycle, is a third series in the mission to monitor carbon, methane and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Japan sees a stable, commercially competitive space transport capability as key to its space program and national security, and has been developing two new flagship rockets as successors of the H-2A series — the larger H3 with Mitsubishi, and a much smaller Epsilon system with the aerospace unit of the heavy machinery maker IHI. It hopes to cater to diverse customer needs and improve its position in the growing satellite launch market.
Arab News
17 hours ago
- Arab News
Sacrificing tomorrow's survival in favor of today's foreign exchange
Countries in the Mediterranean appear trapped in a calculated, self-inflicted crisis. Those on southern shores systematically drain finite-capacity aquifers to cultivate luxury exports for foreign consumers, while simultaneously surrendering their food security to volatile global grain markets. This is not environmental misfortune but an engineered outcome of decades of policy choices prioritizing export revenues and external interests over national water resilience and domestic sustenance. The sheer magnitude of this engineered dependency defies sustainability. Consider Egypt, for instance, which is already categorized as a water-scarce country. It holds the dubious distinction of being the planet's single largest importer of wheat, spending billions in precious foreign currency simply to secure the basic flour it needs for its state-subsidized bread, a cornerstone of social stability consumed by millions daily. Yet, simultaneously, Egypt ranks among the world's Top 12 exporters of citrus fruits, potatoes, strawberries, and cotton. Each of these crops demands a staggering amount of irrigation in an environment where every drop of water is contested. Exporting a single tonne of strawberries or a bale of Egyptian cotton effectively ships thousands of precious cubic meters of the nation's dwindling water reserves, primarily to European supermarkets. What emerges is a financial calculus that reveals a profound distortion; the collective annual revenue generated by these 'high-value' agricultural exports falls drastically short of covering the colossal, ever-increasing bill for imported wheat. This gap is further widened by population growth and the immense fiscal burden of bread-subsidy programs, which are essential, yet unsustainable, props for fragile social contracts. It is a pattern replicated across other parts of the Mediterranean's southern shores. Morocco, for instance, in the midst of persistent droughts severe enough to mandate water rationing in urban areas, paradoxically functions as a mega-exporter of water-thirsty tomatoes, citrus, melons, berries, and avocados. Its primary trading partner for this exchange is Europe, eerily perpetuating an extractive dynamic disguised as free trade. Meanwhile, lucrative profits flow to private exporters and satisfy European consumer demand for off-season luxury produce, but the true cost is borne by depleted aquifers and communities facing shrinking water quotas. Similarly, Jordan, drawing down the shared Al-Dissi aquifer that is under the strain of scarcity, channels high-quality groundwater into growing peaches and nectarines, again for export. A common trend begins to emerge in which water-thirsty goods are prioritized over achieving relative domestic food sovereignty. Israel has even managed to take things a step further. Jerusalem not only leverages its prowess and contested control over land and water resources to dominate high-value fruit exports to supportive European markets. Capitalizing on an ongoing 'avocado boom,' while exerting near total control over the food supplies of subjugated neighboring territories, it essentially weaponizes sustenance and robs surviving Gazans of the ability to achieve food and water security on their own terms. So why do states persist in these self-destructive exchanges, given the region's acute water distress amid the worsening effects of climate change? It is a slow-bleed crisis in which the most vulnerable are the first to pay as aquifer levels fall and soaring bread prices rip up social contracts. Hafed Al-Ghwell Firstly, follow the water — and the money. The conversion of arid landscapes into export-oriented plantations did not happen spontaneously; it was engineered through decades of deliberate policy shifts. Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating into the 1980s, international financial institutions imposed structural adjustment programs that demanded the privatization of state assets, the dismantling of farming subsidies, and wholesale reorientation toward foreign exchange generation. This created an agricultural aristocracy: large-scale agribusinesses and politically connected landowners who secured preferential access to subsidized water and prime land. In Egypt, while smallholders faced crippling energy price hikes for irrigation pumps following subsidy cuts mandated by the International Monetary Fund, forcing many to abandon farming, elite exporters flourished by cultivating water-guzzling strawberries bound for European supermarkets, using state-subsidized infrastructure. This contrasts sharply with the diffuse, long-term societal cost of depleted aquifers and a staggering national food import bill. Egypt's annual wheat expenditure alone dwarfs the collective revenue from its famed citrus and potato exports. Today, exporters form a potent lobby, thereby ensuring policies continue to prioritize their water-intensive cash crops over staples for local consumption, directly undermining national food resilience. Secondly, a dangerous technological fatalism appears to have invaded the region's policy-setting circles. Wealthier countries have conjured a myth of infinite hydrological adaptation through massive, energy-intensive seawater desalination projects. This creates a convenient illusion for leaders in less affluent, and increasingly parched, countries that future megaprojects will absolve them from the need to confront the unsustainable water exports of today. This partly explains why drought-stricken Morocco continues to expand its water-thirsty avocado orchards. And, why Jordan continues to extract water from non-renewable aquifers at rates far exceeding the ability to replenish, to supply farms growing fruit for export while clinging to hopes of large-scale desalination, despite lacking the fiscal capacity or sources of sustainable energy to deploy it meaningfully. Such cognitive dissonance is jarring, since present-day policymakers actively accelerate water depletion for short-term export gains, while banking on unaffordable or ecologically questionable technologies to bail them out later. This 'magical thinking' ignores a harsh arithmetic: the energy cost and environmental footprint of desalinating seawater for basic survival would be exponentially higher than the water that is effectively, and recklessly, exported today in every tonne of off-season berries or citrus fruit. The end result is a system that functions as a slow-motion crisis transfer, extracting irreversible natural capital from the South to subsidize stability and abundance in the North. European consumers gain year-round access to affordable luxury: Moroccan winter strawberries retailing for €2.50 ($3) a kilogram in Parisian supermarkets; Israeli avocados shipped to Dutch tables; all irrigated with water sourced from aquifers that might require millennia to replenish. Simultaneously, Southern Mediterranean elites and transnational agribusinesses secure reliable profits. Moroccan tomato exporters and Egyptian cotton magnates operate with state-subsidized water allocations that distort true resource costs. Meanwhile, the ecological and economic foundations of water-stressed countries undergo systematic erosion. Fossil aquifers are drained. Local food systems atrophy as once-thriving milling industries across Iraq, Syria and Palestine have collapsed, forcing 'Fertile Crescent' countries to become flour importers despite their proximity to the historical heartlands of wheat. Water flows perpetually uphill toward power and capital. The true cost of this — which can be measured in depleted water reserves, escalating import bills, lost agricultural resilience, and the deepening vulnerability of the majority — is borne by the populations and the very ecological stability of these countries. Each tonne of exported citrus uses 560 cubic meters of irreplaceable Egyptian groundwater. Each hectare of Moroccan avocados consumes 1.5 million liters a year, while the taps of the local population run dry. It is a system that sacrifices tomorrow's survival in favor of today's political quietism and foreign exchange — a slow-bleed crisis in which the most vulnerable are the first to pay as aquifer levels fall, deserts advance and soaring bread prices rip up social contracts. Addressing this requires a dismantling of the political economy that privileges water exports over conservation and local nourishment — a task that demands much more courage than simply investing in the next desalination plant.
