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People take part in a climate protest coinciding with COP28 being held in Dubai in Brussels, Belgium, December 3, 2023. Photo credit: Shutterstock
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Hello,
Starting a new year presents the opportunity to look back and celebrate the milestones we’ve reached, as well as look forward to where we hope to go in the year to come. We have much to celebrate in 2023! Here are three highlights:
- Our new practitioner-led board made its first grants, building on some of CJRF’s most successful past partnerships and growing our Loss and Damage Initiative. We deployed $2.4M to ten organizations driving systems change at local and national levels, empowering people on the front lines of the climate crisis, and developing opportunities for deep learning and exchange.
- We wrapped up our Solution Series—a partner-led webinar series exploring different climate justice approaches to building resilience. You can read more about the series and key lessons we distilled from it below. We are grateful for all the organizations that hosted a session and advanced our learning.
- ISET International reviewed our portfolio from the first six years of CJRF grantmaking and made recommendations for improvement in the coming years. You can read the full report and Director Heather McGray’s reflections on the evaluation on our blog.
Our work in 2023, and the six years before it, positions us for an expansive 2024. Here’s a sneak peek at a few things we’re planning:
- The board has approved an 18-month strategy to deploy up to $4M in funding by test-driving different participatory grantmaking methods. This includes an open call where an applicant collective will select the awardees; network-driven grantmaking where current and past grant partners refer organizations for funding; a re-granters collective; and more. We will share more about these participatory initiatives as details emerge in the coming months.
- Our team is growing! We hired Kanchen Shakya as our new program assistant. Kanchen has been our intern since June 2023 and became a full-time member of our team at the beginning of 2024. Additionally, we plan to add three more team members in the first half of 2024. These new roles will support the growth of our L&D Initiative, help the board develop our next multi-year strategy, and continue to raise CJRF’s profile in the climate justice space.
Please read our newsletter below for more on how we wrapped up 2023. Make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and X for the latest updates!
Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy, and justice-centered 2024.
The CJRF Team
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CJRF Director Heather McGray on Bloomberg Green's panel "Advocating for Inclusive Climate Action" at COP28. Photo credit: Bloomberg Green
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In December, members of the CJRF team were excited to meet with grant partners, colleagues, policy makers, and friends from the climate community at this year’s UNFCCC’s Climate Change Conference in Dubai (COP28).
CJRF’s Director, Heather McGray participated in several high-level events, including Bloomberg Green’s panel discussion “Advocating for Inclusive Climate Action” and a roundtable discussion on philanthropy’s call to action on adaptation. CJRF also co-hosted this year’s Development and Climate Days (D&C Days) workshop. This year’s event focused on themes of building equitable partnerships, creating frameworks for accountability to help the global community reach our Paris Agreement goals, and decolonizing climate finance to ensure it reaches people and organizations working at the front lines of the climate crisis. Check out the key messages coming out of D&C Days on IIED's website.
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Big Steps Forward in Addressing Loss & Damage
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A Fijian person shows a UUSC team member the effects of climate change on their communities. Photo credit: UUSC
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COP28 began with an agreement to establish the UNFCCC Loss and Damage Fund, the mandate for which was announced at COP27 and has been the center point of climate conversations throughout the year. Read Heather McGray’s opinion piece on the establishment of the fund in Context.
To aid public and private funders of loss and damage, our partners at Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) released a report ahead of COP28 detailing lessons learned from the Scottish Government’s 2021 funding commitment to CJRF to help address loss and damage. CJRF is proud to have played a part in funding community-driven approaches to address the impacts of the climate crisis. Read the lessons learned in the full report today!
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Climate Justice Approaches for Building Resilience
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An Indigenous person shares their story at the Climate Story Lab Amazonia. Photo credit: DocSociety
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In 2022, CJRF launched the Solution Series, a set of webinars where our grant partners shared lessons, challenges, and impactful outcomes of their work with our community of grantees, funders, and climate practitioners. We closed out this series in 2023 after ten partners shared their experiences. On our blog, we note four key approaches that partners highlighted to build resilience to climate change. Read the insights we’ve gained.
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In the News
CJRF’s grant partner Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) was featured in BBC Future. The piece covers YPSA’s efforts to provide climate refugees in Bangladesh with resilient homes and alternative livelihood sources.
Thomas Reuters Foundation’s media platform Context quoted CJRF director and grant partners Helvetas Bangladesh and YPSA in their piece, “Early 'loss and damage' funding puts communities in driver's seat.”
Director Heather McGray authored an opinion piece for Context on the establishment of the Loss and Damage Fund at the UN Climate Conference in Dubai.
CJRF’s Loss and Damage Program Officer Ayesha Dinshaw coauthored a piece in Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists entitled, “COP28 creates fund for vulnerable countries for loss and damage from climate change—but will it reach vulnerable people?”
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