The India Climate Collaborative (ICC) is a first-of-its kind collaborative with the goal of building India’s climate ecosystem. We harness climate philanthropy’s potential, using a three-pronged approach:
We unlock philanthropic capital flows by advising philanthropists who are new to climate action or want to give differently.
We discover, design, and surface climate priorities that mitigate emissions and build resilience, aligned with India’s development pathways.
We build connective infrastructure to enable impactful funding through platforms or shared resources for the sector.
We achieve this through four clear priority areas:
Building a cohort of visionary climate philanthropists.
Unlocking corporate philanthropy.
Enabling cross-sectoral investments to accelerate climate action.
Pooling grant funding to achieve systemic climate action.
With the overall goal of building a by-India, for-India climate philanthropy ecosystem, the ICC, with the support of Rainmatter Foundation, aims to:
Increase donor knowledge and advise them on strategic climate investments
Build capacity of non-profits
Platform Indian voices and leadership at global forums
Strengthen the climate ecosystem through collaboration
We believe in the power of collective action and through this partnership, we want to collaboratively bolster the Indian climate philanthropy ecosystem to facilitate equitable, impactful, and just climate action in India.
The ICC has created and launched a climate solutions platform, Earth Exponential (EE), that aims to build momentum towards solving the climate crisis by accelerating funding towards home grown climate solutions. The goal of the platform is to unlock corporate philanthropy by connecting Corporate Social Responsibility teams to high-impact climate projects. The EE website showcases solutions across five priority thematic areas: Farms, Cities, Jobs, Nature, and Resilience. Currently, 15 projects have been onboarded onto the platform and 5 more are being added in the next few months.
In addition to this, the EE team has also started hosting thematic convenings for the CSR and funder community at large. On the 2nd of May, the team organised a virtual convening on the topic ‘Cities of the Future: Building Climate Resilience’. With an aim to foster inclusive, sustainable, and scalable solutions, the session delved into understanding urban resilience frameworks, CSR funding perspectives, and showcased solutions on waste management and supporting urban street vendors. The event entailed a context setting introduction by Aagya Purohit from C40 Urban Planning Climate Labs, a panel discussion with Sharada Singh, RPG Foundation and Santanu Basu, HCL Foundation, moderated by Manu Gupta, SEEDS India, and presentations by Hunnarshala Foundation and Waste Warriors on their urban resilience work. The event was attended by over 140 people from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from NGOs and policy organisations to corporates.
Additionally, the India Climate Leaders (ICL) vertical at the ICC has put together a series of documents to guide donors towards identifying key areas of impact. This repository of information can help potential donors learn about what constitutes a ‘good climate solution’ and help them understand it ibetter by describing the problem, its connection with climate, and the potential approaches to solving it. This is the first of a series of collateral that is being planned, and we hope to create several more such documents.
The ICC recently released ‘Trends in Climate Philanthropy’, a first-of-its-kind assessment that analyses key trends in climate philanthropy in India and suggests how funders can embrace India’s climate mandate. After realising that there is a paucity of data regarding the funding landscape in India, which can limit giving or result in disproportionate and unequal funding, the ICC decided to fill this gap. Through Trends in Climate Philanthropy, the ICC aimed to shed light on where funding is flowing, how funding is being deployed, and which regions need the most attention. The report draws on quantitative and qualitative insights from conversations with and publicly available data on 65 funders (CSR, domestic, and international) for the period 2018-2023. Click here to read the report.
The ICC, in partnership with The Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation, also hosted a National Impacts and Adaptation Convening in August, with the aim to foster multi-stakeholder collaboration with a particular emphasis on the role of philanthropy in advancing climate adaptation research, planning, and implementation. The two-day convening held in Delhi featured high-level discussions led by experts in heat stress, climate and health, and food systems, focusing on developing strategic frameworks and locally led adaptation strategies. Participants shared insights and best practices, contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the challenges posed by climate impacts in India.
The Earth Exponential (EE) vertical of the ICC also hosted an exclusive corporate session on “The Role of CSR in Blended Finance for Climate Action in India”, in collaboration with The Blended Finance Company at the India CSR & ESG Summit on 17th October, 2024, in New Delhi. This exclusive panel discussion cum roundtable brought together corporate leaders and CSR professionals to explore the role of CSR in advancing blended finance for climate action in India. Through strategic discussions, participants gained actionable insights into leveraging CSR to accelerate climate projects, with a focus on successful models, scaling impact, and immediate intervention areas. Read about it here.
Additionally, Shloka Nath, CEO of the India Climate Collaborative, did an interview with Alliance Magazine, where she shared her insights on the necessity of viewing climate as a lens that can be applied across all other issues, the importance of philanthropic capital being deployed patiently and catalytically, and the need for sub-national climate action and working with local actors to advance impactful and equitable climate action. Read the entire interview here.
