Name (or Topic/Theme) of Proposed Round:
Climate Solutions Round
Social Handle of Your Organization:
Twitter: Climate Coordination Network
Eligibility Criteria:
GG21 Climate Solution Round Eligibility Criteria
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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) are required to provide a new update on their progress and impact via KarmaGAP. Each project must have a minimum of 2 milestones updated since the completion of GG20 AND include a summary of the project’s climate impact over the past year
- Projects can also include the challenges they have faced. This will ensure accountability to supporters and provide context for your work and accomplishments
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Even if the project was accepted into previous rounds, grantees will be eliminated from participation in the GG21QF Round for the following reasons:
- 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
- If they submit more than one project into the round
- If they are primarily a token launch or NFT project to raise money for a liquidity pool
- If the project does not clearly demonstrate a primary focus on being a climate solution with clear and proven climate impacts
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All returning grantees are required to include the following:
- An update to their proposal including any lessons learned from previous work
- A description of how they plan to use the additional funding from the upcoming round and how additional funding will help the project meet its goals
- A rough timeline for the project overall
- A short bio for each team member and their qualifications
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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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Projects must comply with Gitcoin core rules and eligibility.
Round History:
History of Nine Climate Solutions Rounds: GR12 to GG20
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 here.
CCN Overall Impact
Since GR12, the Climate Solutions Round has enormously impacted the web3 Climate/ReFi space. We have crowdfunded over $1M and distributed over $4.2M in funding to hundreds of projects using the EVM.
GG20 Climate Solutions Snapshot
- 129 Climate Solutions Grantees worldwide (see GG20 Impact Map below)
- Total crowdfunding: $58k
- 9,314 contributions
- 2,262 unique donors
- Average contribution: $4.08
- Climate Solutions Round Report card
For more details, please see the GG20 Climate Solutions Round Retro.
GG20 Impact Map
Team Running This Round:
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. All of the team members come from the more traditional climate and regeneration movement and have a combined 50+ years of experience in the space.
The CCN Team:
Jon Ruth
Ben West
Coleen Chase
Marco Gerletti
Pranav Khanna
Tarah Stafford
Alignment with Gitcoin’s Mission 3 and Essential Intents:
Gitcoin’s Mission
Gitcoin creates technologies and opportunities that enable communities to build, fund and protect what matters
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 Solutions projects coordinate, operate, and collectively help grow the greater public goods ecosystem worldwide.
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 with an average of 104 grantees per round and over 116k project donations. 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)?
Anticipated Size of the Matching Pool:
The matching pool is anticipated to be $250k, fundraised through supporting partners.
Funding address: 0x697B6bb004C1883b945174E2E209c07BF94650eB
Advisors for This Round:
We take feedback from the community but our current team members also serve as our current advisors.
Funding Mechanism: QF + Ranked Impact
For GG21, we will continue to utilize the QF Funding mechanism but we will test the idea of capping the round at 70 projects. This will achieve three goals:
- Incentivize grantees to include clear evidence of impact and metrics;
- Offer contributors a curated round of high-impact projects to support;
- Ensure that participating projects receive more funding.
We will utilize a ranking tool which allows each reviewer to rank projects that meet our eligibility criteria based on real-world climate impact. Then the individual rankings will be averaged for a final ranking and the top 70 projects will be included into GG21.
We will pay out the matching funds using a combination of COCM and standard QF with Passport for Sybil protection.
Community Size and Engagement:
- In the GG20 Climate Solutions Round we had 129 grantees approved from over 169 applicants from around the world and $58k crowdfunded from 9,314 donations from supporters.
- 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.
Type of Projects to Fund:
We aim to fund climate solutions projects worldwide that have a proven history of real-world impact. Specifically, these projects will showcase evidence of how they help reduce GHGs or are an important core infrastructure for Web3 climate solutions in the following nine categories:
- Renewable Energy
- Oracles & dMRV
- Carbon Accounting
- Climate Activism/Education
- Nature-Based Solutions
- Ocean-Based Solutions
- Climate Adaptation/Climate Resilience
- Supply Chain solutions
- Built Environment/Transportation
Estimated Number of Eligible Grantees:
70 high-impact Climate Solutions projects
Impact Assessment Plan:
New for GG21, we intend to assess grantee impact through the requirement that each grantee utilize the KarmaGAP tool. Each grantee will be required to have an updated KarmaGAP profile, clear climate action milestones and updates. A concise and relevant summary of the project’s real-world climate impact over the past year is also encouraged.
We will continue to update the CCN Metrics Garden as a resource for applying to the Climate Solutions Round. This resource aims to provide Climate Solution projects with a framework for measuring what matters and attesting to their impact so that:
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Projects can showcase their climate impact and have a better chance of making it into the round;
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Grantees can continue to evolve their impact measurement and attestations to attract more funding;
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The Climate Solutions round and CCN can attract more funding for future rounds.
Additional Considerations:
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; to fix this, it’s estimated the world needs to invest trillions of $ of investment every year to reach net zero by 2050 to limit such devastating effects worldwide.
By supporting a climate solutions grant round, you are fostering equitable access to climate solutions and creating a better world for ourselves and future generations. 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.
Potential Conflicts of Interest:
Our international team of round operators is composed of professionals who are building and implementing Climate Solutions first hand with various climate initiatives. Some of these projects have been part of the Climate Round as they are a vibrant part of the community and require support. You can read about our review best practices here: How do we review, including conflict of interests protections.
Our team and projects they have been representing:
Marco - Founder of Solarpunk Nomads and applying for GG21.
Jon - Co-founder of The Solar Foundation and applying for GG21.
Coleen - Co-founder of The Solar Foundation and applying for GG21.
Pranav - Active community member of many orgs but not applying for the round.
Tarah - Co-founder of Elephant in the Room and applying for GG21
Ben - Co-founder of Elephant in the Room and applying for GG21