To solve the climate crisis and reach global net zero emissions a wide range of solutions will need to be deployed. Forests need to be protected and restored, new energy solutions introduced, politicians need to be convinced to stop supporting fossil fuels and carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere and stored away permanently.
To help make this happen the impact platform Milkywire has set up a Climate Transformation Fund that finds and supports a wide range of projects currently addressing the climate crisis. We also open the possibility for everyone, companies and individuals, to contribute to the same projects.
In total we have supported 30 projects so far that have been allocated a total 8 million USD since 2021. See previously supported projects on our CTF page and in our 2023 Progress report. The fund is supported by a diverse group of donors such as Klarna, Spotify, ING Bank, Pangaia, Northzone, Mentimeter, and others.
Maximizing the impact of donations Our aim is to find projects where your financial contributions will make the biggest impact. Many important solutions are happening without the need for carbon finance. Wind and solar power for example is already profitable in large parts of the world and market forces are deploying them quickly. But other projects are unprofitable, or lack a market besides people wanting to pay extra for helping to solve climate change. This is the case with carbon removal or supporting non profit groups trying to create policy change. We want to support projects that won't happen without your donation, and help bring about the growth of new solutions.
How we select projects We focus on three areas when selecting projects and have defined a framework of requirements and criteria to evaluate them against. We also work closely with an expert advisory group who give input on our framework, help us evaluate and select the projects.
Not offsetting To offset means you count emission reductions or removed carbon against your own emissions and buy a certain amount of carbon credits to claim carbon neutrality. We’re taking a different approach trying to create the maximum climate impact of each donation. By focusing on climate impact we open the possibility to fund climate advocacy projects, catalytic research in new removal techniques and to donate to small effective grassroots organizations that can not bear the cost of carbon credit certifications. We also believe that companies and individuals have a responsibility to reduce their emissions, our focus is therefore on climate impact, not on neutrality claims.
We will support screened and vetted organizations that preserve and protect forests and ecosystems and restore degraded areas. This helps reduce emissions, absorb CO₂ and conserve our nature globally.
Criteria:
Projects either protecting or increasing carbon stocks in nature.
Catalytic effect of donation: We prefer projects that could be replicated, spread to new communities, or help create new innovative solutions.
A strong track record of previously successful projects.
Sustainable from a social and local environmental perspective: The deployment of the project does not cause harm to people or local ecosystems.
Co-benefits: Projects are given a higher priority if they create benefits for marginalized communities , contribute to environmental justice or if they help ecosystems in other ways beyond storing more carbon.
To stop the climate crisis, we must cut CO₂ emissions in half over the next decade and then bring them close to zero. But emissions reductions won’t be enough to limit global warming to 1.5°C, some emissions from hard-to-abate sectors are expected to remain and to counterbalance that, carbon will need to be removed from the atmosphere and stored permanently. To address overshoot and bring temperatures back down the world also needs to remove large amounts of legacy CO₂ emissions. By supporting new ways of removing and storing carbon, we contribute to these methods developing and becoming cheaper for others to implement. As recent research has shown, the coming decade is pivotal for carbon removal. Without the necessary support to bring it through its formative phase, CDR is not likely to be available at scale and in time to reach net-zero.
Criteria:
Sustainable from a social and local environmental perspective. The deployment of the project does not cause harm to people or local ecosystems.
High additionality: The tonnes removed wouldn’t happen without someone paying for it.
Potential. The method has the potential to become a large part of the solution to the climate crisis.
Future low-cost: We assess the potential cost in the long-term and don’t fixate on the price today.
A catalytic effect. Our donation or purchase of removal certificates leads to a larger growth of the method than just the tonnes that we purchase.
Effectiveness: Does the activity have a net cooling effect from a system perspective taking secondary effects into account?
Durability (permanence). The CO₂ should ideally be stored away for hundreds or thousands of years.
Delivery: Certainty of the project happening as agreed.
Innovation and knowledge contribution: Does the solution broaden the ecosystem of CDR solutions or significantly increase scientific knowledge of the method used?
Co-benefits. Projects are given a higher priority if they create benefits for people in poverty, or if they help ecosystems in other ways beyond storing more carbon.
When credits or certificates are bought they will be retired, which means they cannot be resold and will not be counted as a financial instrument.
We will support effective projects that reduce emissions but are not profitable enough to happen on their own, this can for example be building renewable energy to replace fossil fuels in remote locations. We will also support civil society organizations that are effective in advancing efforts to accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels. We are also open to projects that reduce emissions of other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide.
Criteria:
Sustainable from a social and local environmental perspective. The deployment of the project does not cause harm to people or local ecosystems.
Climate impact: Potential direct or indirect effect of the project on avoided emissions
High additionality: We want to support projects that are unlikely to happen without our support, (it is for example unlikely we would support a project if similar projects are happening without donations or sale of carbon credits).
Catalytic effect. Potential of the type of solution to scale and create impact outside of the project boundaries (for example by being a first of kind project for a new solution).
Co-benefits. Projects are given a higher priority if they create benefits for people in marginalized communities, create other social co benefits or if they help ecosystems in other ways beyond storing more carbon.
We are interested in getting feedback on our approach and framework, please send any thoughts or questions to climate@milkywire.com