The world's most effective climate charities for Giving Season 2024 💚💡
How do you donate effectively to climate change? | What are the best ways to stop biodiversity collapse? | Which strategies for reducing meat consumption work?
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💶 Exceptional climate charities for Giving Season 2024
During the last month of the year, many people choose to donate to causes they care about. We believe that donating is a great way to contribute to systems change for tackling climate change and other environmental issues. But did you know that there are astounding differences in the cost-effectiveness of different charities? Donating to the best charities can easily be a 100x more impactful than donating to average ones!
What are the most impactful charities that tackle climate change? For your donations, consider following independent research organisations that identify the world’s most effective climate charities through rigorous analysis. The charity researchers at Giving Green have identified the following non-profits as the cutting-edge of climate philanthropy in the last year:
🌋 Project Innerspace is making the rapid development of next-generation geothermal energy possible by mapping heat resources and starting demonstration projects.
🚢 Opportunity Green is eliminating emissions from maritime shipping and aviation, sectors that are growing but get little attention in climate action.
🔨 Industrious Labs is making the production of essential steel, aluminium, cement and heat possible with circular and cleaner production.
🧆 The Good Food Institute is revolutionising the food system by advancing sustainable proteins, like plant-based and cultivated meat, to drastically reduce the emissions and pollution from industrial animal agriculture.1
🔬 Future Cleantech Architects accelerates innovation in critical industries where sustainable solutions are still in early stages. They advocate for responsible and effective R&D spending.
⛅ The Clean Air Task Force is pushing for policy change and innovation to meet the world’s rising energy demand in a way that’s financially, socially, and environmentally sustainable.
Haven’t heard of these charities before? Most people haven’t. Larger charities are often already well-funded and work on climate solutions that are less neglected. Smaller charities usually have a larger capacity to absorb new funding: small donations may allow them to expand their programmes or team substantially. This is why your donations - even if they’re smaller - can actually make a big difference in a global problem like climate change!
Can’t choose between these organisations? You don’t have to. You can simply donate to the Giving Green Fund and your donations will be spread among these charities.
For more recommendations and giving options, see our website.
(This newsletter has independently decided to highlight Giving Green’s recommendations because of their thorough research process. We are not paid by or affiliated with Giving Green or any of the recommended charities.)
🐛 Effective philanthropy for biodiversity conservation
What can charities and donors best tackle biodiversity collapse? The German non-profit Effektiv Spenden has published a report on effective giving for biodiversity. Biodiversity supports human well-being, is important to the global economy, and is an important buffer against global warming. The biggest drivers of biodiversity are land use change and overexploitation through logging, hunting, and fishing.
While environmental philanthropy has grown rapidly in the past few years, most resources spent are not allocated to have the greatest impact. Effektiv Spenden identified these impact areas to be particularly impactful, since they tackle a large driver of biodiversity collapse, it should be easy to make progress, and few philanthropic resources are used to address the issue. They are also tackling urgent issues that exacerbate of time.
🥓 Alternative proteins. Switching from animal-based to plant-based and cultivated meat can make a big dent in the land-use footprint of agriculture, especially with global meat demand on the rise.
⛓ Supply chain transparency. Ensuring companies are held responsible for ecological damage like deforestation is vital for effective conservation.
⚖ Legal action. Implementing environmental regulations and leveraging litigation can drive transformation in sectors contributing to biodiversity decline.
💧 Wetland conservation and restoration. Wetlands, offering exceptional carbon storage and biodiversity support, are undervalued and vanishing rapidly despite their critical ecological roles.
📰 Short news and organisational updates
🗣 Forum announcement: We’ve posted to the Effective Altruism Forum about our plans for Effective Environmentalism field-building and our funding gap. (Read more about our funding gap below.)
🥗 Food security: ALLFED, a non-profit food security non-profit, has prepared a database of research projects for volunteers interested in food security for global catastrophic scenarios.
🍖 Library of Interventions for Meat Elimination: Researchers from Rethink Priorities and Tilburg University have launched a growing collection of experimental studies examining interventions to reduce animal product consumption. It’s helpful to understand the state of the research and the evidence base for different interventions. (Currently in beta.)
🌋 Geothermal energy: The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill with bipartisan support to remove permitting regulations for geothermal power plants. Concerns remain over bypassing environmental regulations.
🇳🇱 Dutch Climate Plan: We’ve worked with the Dutch effective environmentalism and effective altruism communities to improve the Dutch Climate Plan by responding to the public consultation.
🇪🇺 Protein brewing: Fermentation startup Farmless received a €1 million grant from the EU regional development fund to brew protein without agricultural land.
🦋 Butterflies are the new blue birds. We’re now on Bluesky via @effectiveenv.bsky.social. Also check out our Bluesky Starter Pack.
📚 What we’ve been reading and listening to
🐜 Is insect farming really a climate solution? New research finds significant economic and environmental challenges:
Most farmed insects are used for farm animal feed and pet food, which supports conventional livestock farming rather than replacing it - which diminishes the expected environmental benefits.
Insect-based products emit two to ten times more greenhouse gases than traditional pet food.
🍖 Paper (preprint): Meaningfully reducing consumption of meat and animal products is an unsolved problem: A meta-analysis. Most researched interventions only have small effects, but promising interventions still await rigorous evaluation.
⚡ Paper (published): Exploring cultures of evidence in energy policymaking in the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. Dutch and German systems emphasise independence through external expertise, while the UK prioritises procedural credibility, reflecting distinct institutional histories and beliefs about impartiality.
🐘 Opinion: Trump Is Not the End of the Climate Fight (Jesse Jenkins) and Climate trade bills may get momentum under Trump (Emma Dumain)
🌍 Opinion: The World Bank and other IFIs should get serious about climate adaptation in low-income countries. Instead of merely externalizing high-income countries’ policy priorities (especially mitigation), focus should be on promoting energy access for rapid growth and adaptation. (Ken Opalo)
📆 Upcoming events
December 5: Powering systems change: Bold climate philanthropy for 2025 and beyond. Presentation of Giving Green’s strategy and recommendations featuring leaders from the top non-profits announced above.
December 5: Ambitious Impact (AIM) (formerly Charity Entrepreneurship) is hosting a virtual event with talks from founders of their 40+ charities covering the successes and challenges they’ve encountered over the last year as they’ve scaled, pivoted, or just gotten started. AIM will also share updates on its expansion to new programs and paths to impact.2
December 14-15: EAGxSingapore 2024. Conference for people in Southeast and East Asia who want to do the most good, also outside the environmental domain. (Applications have closed.)
February 21-23: EA Global: Bay Area 2025. Conference for people who want to do the most good, also outside the environmental domain. (Applications have closed.)
👩💼 Job openings and opportunities
We are highlighting some outstanding opportunities to make a positive difference with your careers. These positions are vetted by Effective Environmentalism and 80,000 Hours and are not sponsored.
Europe
Senior Policy Manager in Climate Protection at Future Matters (Brussels) (For more experienced candidates: Head of Climate Protection)
United States
U.S. Federal Policy Manager at the Clean Air Task Force (Washington, D.C.)
Remote
Air Quality Scientist and Data Scientist at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air
Other
Tälist’s Alt. Protein Career & Hiring Report with data-driven insights for alternative protein job seekers and employers is now available, providing a look into hiring trends, skill gaps, and regional growth in the industry. This report is a valuable guide to help you navigate the future of food.
Sign up for the High Impact Professionals Talent Directory to find impactful employment.
Have you joined our new Effective Environmentalism LinkedIn group yet? Share links, ask questions, and find collaborators on your projects. It’s a great way to stay up-to-date with the effective environmentalism community and find employment.
You can find more impactful environmental job openings at 80,000 Hours, or find careers specific to developing alternative proteins here.
💶 Effective Environmentalism is looking for funding
Effective Environmentalism is currently a volunteer-run initiative, but we would like to scale up our activities to more effectively grow a global community of people and organisations tackling environmental issues as effectively as possible, starting early 2025. Financial support would help us to devote more time to growing the field of effective environmentalism.
If you are a donor or work for a grant-making organisation, please get in touch.
Transparency statement: the newsletter author previously worked for the Good Food Institute Europe.
Transparency statement: the newsletter author is a Research Fellow at Ambitious Impact.