Name (or Topic/Theme) of Proposed Round
Climate Solutions Round
How many times has this round been run during a Gitcoin Grants round?
Eight rounds - GR12 to GG19
The team started operating the first rounds in 2021, with the first climate round in GR12 December 2021. The first seven Climate Solutions Grant Rounds were run by Gitcoin and managed by the climate advisory team (now CCN). In October 2023, the Climate Round decentralized from the Gitcoin Grants Program and has since been managed by CCN. You can learn more about this decentralization in the Climate Coordination Network Gitcoin Gov Post included here: Announcing the Climate Solutions Round
How big is your team that will run this round? Who is your team?
The Climate Coordination Network (CCN) is a dedicated team of six people from around the world (two from Canada, one from Europe, one from India and two from the US) who have served for the past two years on the Gitcoin Climate Advisory team.
The CCN Team:
Ben West
Jon Ruth
Coleen Chase
Marco Gerletti
Pranav Khanna
Tarah Stafford
How does this round align with Gitcoin’s mission 2 and essential intents?
We’re on a mission to accelerate community-supported climate solutions on a global scale, catalyzing diverse forms of climate action to create a sustainable and equitable future for all. Through strategic grant distribution coupled with support, we empower climate projects dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and serving as essential core infrastructure for Web3 climate solutions. The grant round and participating Climate projects coordinate, operate, and collectively help grow the greater public goods for the climate.
Gitcoin’s Mission - Gitcoin creates technologies and opportunities that enable communities to build, fund and protect what matters
The climate round has always been about building, funding, and protecting what matters. This round is heavily aligned with Gitcoin’s mission, and will continue to use Gitcoin’s technologies to fund our community of builders. Beyond that, we see this round as serving all communities as climate change affects us all.
Network Effects - Maximizing the network effects of our ecosystem to grow product adoption
The climate round has built a vibrant community of grantees and supporters. As some grantees have begun to graduate from the round, some have already expressed interest in running their own grant rounds for their specific communities. By funding CCN and the Climate program, we will continue to grow our community and grow usage and adoption of Gitcoin’s products.
Community First - Cultivating a community that thrives on providing positive change and meaningful engagement
While Gitcoin ran the Climate program, this essential intent has always been one of our north stars. We have cultivated a rich community of builders and educators all with a mission of making the world a better place through the fight against climate change. These grantees are all making positive changes in the world and engaging with the broader Gitcoin community. CCN is aligned with this, and building and cultivating our community will always be one of the drivers of how we operate.
Financial Longevity - Ensuring the economic health and vitality of Gitcoin
By continuing to fund and run the climate round, we are supporting Gitcoin’s mission to drive $1B of funding through GS/Allo in the coming years. We plan to continue growing this round which will help Gitcoin reach its goal.
What do you anticipate the size of the matching pool will be (either fundraised from partners, raised independently through your connections, or a combination of both)?
200K USD
Please describe the eligibility criteria you envision for this proposed round.
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Projects must be at least 3 months old. We use Twitter, web domain registration date, and other public info to determine this. Newer projects should establish themselves and submit to the next round.
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The Grant must be primarily focused on climate solutions (the group may do other work but the grant proposal should be directly related to climate solutions). The proposal should explicitly outline how this project will help reduce GHGs or is an important core infrastructure for web3 climate solutions. Examples include: Renewable Energy, Oracles & DMRV, Supply Chain Analysis, Carbon Accounting, climate activists / collectives, Natural Systems’ CO2 Sequestration.
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Grantees who received funding in a previous round(s) must provide a new update on their progress and impact. You can also include the challenges you’ve faced. This will ensure accountability to supporters and also help encourage contributors by showing what you’ve been accomplishing. We encourage grantees to mint Hypercerts for the work and the impact they have accomplished. Priority review will be given to grantees who have minted a Hypercert.
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All returning grantees are expected to update their proposal, in addition to project updates the proposal should include lessons learned from previous work and how they will use the additional funding from the upcoming round. The updated proposal should indicate how additional funding will help the project meet its goals, and include a rough timeline for the project overall.
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There is a general expectation that projects are within the “realm of viability”. Even if a project is very early, it must still seem credible to the average person with an understanding of web3 technology and climate solutions. Including information about the team’s expertise, qualifications and skills will help us review your grant. Grantee founders must genuinely intend to build the project, and the project must not broadly be considered an impossibility.
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Grantees can be eliminated from consideration in the round if they are found to be encouraging or enabling Sybil attacks or other forms of malicious manipulation of the grants platform or the Gitcoin community.
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Projects must comply with Gitcoin core rules and eligibility.
How large is your community approximately?
In the GG19 Climate Solutions Round we had 100 grantees approved from over 150 applicants from around the world and 14,559 donations from supporters as shown in the chart below:
We have a vibrant community of builders and each of their projects has its own community. It is hard to say the exact size of this organic community but I would guess 50k+ people in the overall community.
What type of projects would you like to fund?
The Grant must be primarily focused on climate solutions (the group may do other work but the grant proposal should be directly related to climate solutions). The proposal should explicitly outline how this project will help reduce GHGs or is an important core infrastructure for web3 climate solutions. Examples include: Renewable Energy, Oracles & DMRV, Supply Chain Analysis, Carbon Accounting, climate activists / collectives, Natural Systems CO2 Sequestration and Ocean-Based Solutions.
Approximately how many grantees do you believe will be eligible to apply to this round?
100
Impact Assessment: If and how do you intend to assess grantee impact over successive rounds? This could include, but is not limited to Hypercerts, GAP, Deresy, etc.
For past rounds, impact assessment has been primarily accomplished by:
- Asking Grantees who have received funding in earlier rounds to provide an update on their progress and impact
- Optional creation and submission of Hypercerts
- Project verification ( to extent possible ) through social channels and team network to vet projects
New for GG20, we are piloting a CCN Metrics Garden (modeled after the OP Metrics Garden designed by @LauNaMu) for the Climate Solutions Round. This resource aims to provide Climate Solution grantees with a framework for measuring what matters and attesting to their impact so that they can: 1. Assist with the review process; 2. Continue to maximize the impact of our funding; 3. Attract more funding for the Climate Solutions round and the individual climate projects.
Each project is unique in its impact, technical knowledge, ability to pay gas fees, etc. and so we refrain from being prescriptive; instead, we will offer a set of tools and options whereby the grantee can pick at least one measurement tool that best fits their needs. Examples include: Attestations (EAS), Hypercerts, Deresy, and Karma Gap.
Is there anything else that community members should consider when voting for which rounds to focus on in the upcoming GG20 grants round?
CCN Impact
Since GR12, the Climate Solutions Round has enormously impacted the web3 Climate/ReFi space. We have crowdfunded nearly $1M and distributed almost $3.9M in funding to hundreds of projects using the EVM. The Climate Solutions Round global impact can be seen in the GG19 Grantee Database which shows a summary of the types of climate projects (e.g., renewable energy, natural solutions, DMRV, etc) as well as where the grantee is based and the region impacted (please see link in last section of this application).
Focusing on Climate Solutions is crucial due to climate’s interconnectedness with other social, economic, and environmental issues and our ethical responsibility to protect vulnerable communities from climate-related risks. Climate change is a threat multiplier that exacerbates existing vulnerabilities and tensions, such as conflict, migration, health impacts, poverty, and inequality.
By supporting a climate solutions grant round, we are fostering equitable access to climate solutions and creating a better world for ourselves and our children. Blockchain has, at its core, the ability to support a myriad of solutions, including:
- Facilitating peer-to-peer energy trading in decentralized grids
- Enabling secure and efficient carbon accounting and reporting
- Empowering communities to collectively fund renewable energy projects
- Streamlining supply chain management for sustainable sourcing and distribution
- Improving data integrity and accuracy in climate impact assessments
- Supporting various MRV methods for sustainable agriculture, forestry and carbon-reducing ocean initiatives
- Ensuring transparency and traceability in carbon offset markets
- Enabling decentralized governance models for climate initiatives, fostering inclusivity and collaboration
- Supporting the development of decentralized climate registries for tracking emissions reductions and climate action initiatives.
Funding Address:
0x697B6bb004C1883b945174E2E209c07BF94650eB
Website:
climatecoordination.org
Twitter:
@climate_program
Telegram:
https://t.me/climatecoordinationnetwork