Climate Breakthrough Award

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Climate Breakthrough Award

Bold climate action deserves bold philanthropy. We support social change leaders to build, launch, and scale their boldest new climate initiatives.

Learn about the prestigious Climate Breakthrough Award program at climatebreakthrough.org A global multi-million-dollar, multi-year, flexible grant for extraordinary climate leaders to pursue their most ambitious, innovative climate endeavors. Managed by Climate Breakthrough.

05/04/2026

They came, they saw, they broke through!

A huge shoutout to our three Awardees for completing their tenure in the Climate Breakthrough Award program: Kathrin Gutmann, Denise Fairchild and Sara Jane Ahmed, all part of the 2021 cohort.

But here’s the thing: being a Climate Breakthrough Awardee is forever. While their “official” time with us has ended, they remain part of a distinguished, global community of bold strategists committed to innovative and transformative work to resolve the climate crisis.

We can’t wait to see how they build on what they’ve launched through our program and scale it even further.

Kathrin launched as a coalition-driven campaign to transform Europe’s power sector to 100% renewable energy. The goal isn't just about changing energy sources, but reshaping Europe’s relationship with energy consumption and production as energy costs push many Europeans into potential poverty and climate impacts become more severe.

Sara expanded the then-early-stage Climate Prosperity Plans initiative, building customized financial and economic models for climate-vulnerable countries. CPPs offer a pathway for vulnerable nations to move beyond dependence on foreign aid. If successful, this approach could fundamentally reshape how climate-vulnerable nations participate in the global economy, transforming them from aid recipients to investment destinations.

Denise launched , a BIPOC-led, coordinated, values-driven (vs. technology-driven) initiative to reduce the production and consumption of non-essential consumer products and their associated GHG emissions. Rather than treating reduced consumption as a sacrifice, the initiative frames it as an opportunity to heal both communities and the planet. It's a return to values of sufficiency, interdependence, and harmony with nature that they say many Indigenous cultures have long embraced.

04/22/2026

Happy . Let’s bet big, let’s break through!

For we are celebrating the brilliance of Climate Breakthrough Awardees and the transformative climate action they have launched and scaled through our Climate Breakthrough Award program.

04/17/2026

What’s a seven letter word for bold vision? A W A R D E E.

We are celebrating the brilliance of Climate Breakthrough Awardees and the transformative climate action they have launched and scaled through our Climate Breakthrough Award program.

We’re often asked, why do we invite all our Awardees (past and present) together every year? They’re working on different issues in different parts of the world, engaging with different communities, decisionmakers, and industries, and using disparate approaches in their strategies.

What does an Awardee working on an international treaty have in common with someone advancing largescale renewable energy investments in emerging economies? What does a fossil fuel campaigner share with an ecologist rewilding the Arctic? How much can they have in common?

What we’ve discovered is that they have an enormous amount in common and get a lot out of being in one another’s company. They are people of exceptional ambition who also possess the rare ability to turn those bold ideas into reality. And they are all laser-focused on solving the same problem: how do we end the climate crisis?

Giving people like that the opportunity to engage one another provides them with something we all need: peers. Awardees quickly see in one another that shared drive, boldness, and uncommon capability. And very often they find that they are facing the same challenges and questions as they pursue their breakthrough ideas.

In engaging with each other they also discover that their collective potential for impact is greater than the sum of their individual work.

And that changes everything.

04/15/2026

⬅️ Right to left. Let’s break through.

Right-to-left thinking requires us to bring boldness and ambition that matches the scale of the problems we’re working to solve. We start with the future we need and work backward to figure out what must begin today.

What if the world had a global fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty? Imagine if low-carbon options were readily available, we wouldn’t be making pizza boxes out of endangered trees. Imagine if clean energy and nature protection were no longer a partisan issue in rural America. What if fossil fuel projects couldn’t get insurance to move forward? What would it actually mean to have a stable climate by 2060?

We’re celebrating the brilliance of Climate Breakthrough Awardees and the transformative climate action they have launched and scaled through our Climate Breakthrough Award program.

03/26/2026

Fear less. Let’s break through.

Breakthrough work starts with big thinking and pushes through setbacks. We’re celebrating the brilliance of Climate Breakthrough Awardees and the transformative climate action they have launched and scaled through our Climate Breakthrough Award program.

03/18/2026

Out of the box. Let’s bet big, let’s break through!

We’re celebrating the brilliance of Climate Breakthrough Awardees and the transformative climate action they have launched and scaled through our Climate Breakthrough Award program.

02/06/2026

Is it National Selfie Day?!?

Always a privilege to see Climate Breakthrough Awardees from different years come together and be in each other’s company.

01/06/2026

Fear less. Let’s break through!

12/19/2025

Savanna Ferguson, Executive Director of Climate Breakthrough, has published her 2025 annual letter, reflecting on the year and what lies ahead. Highlights include:

1. Climate Breakthrough received a $20 million unrestricted gift from MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving

"Her gift reminds me that unrestricted funding isn’t just about money. It’s a principle of freedom. Freedom to imagine, to test, to fail, and to pursue ideas that rigid systems might not allow."

2. Next year marks the Climate Breakthrough Award program's 10th anniversary

"I’m thinking a lot about responsibility. Philanthropy cannot replace public leadership, but it can open doors. It can create conditions where underexplored ideas can take root and grow. It can give people the confidence and freedom to achieve things that once seemed impossible."

3. We need a portfolio of audacity

"Former US Vice President Al Gore said something when we announced our 2025 Awardee cohort that stuck with me: "This is a moment of full potential." I keep returning to that phrase. Not guaranteed success, but possibility. It’s the space where breakthroughs can happen if we create the conditions for them. That's what Climate Breakthrough exists to do: create those conditions. To find people with the vision and capability to pursue solutions as innovative and incisive as the problem demands, and then trust them with the resources and freedom to do it. I don't know exactly which of their initiatives will break through. That's simply the contours of breakthrough work. But I know we need to support ambitious leaders and greater visions of what's possible. We need a portfolio of audacity."

4. Expanding our public engagement

"In the year ahead and beyond, we’ll expand our public engagement and invite more people into conversations about what breakthrough thinking makes possible—and what it takes to support it. This is our opportunity to help shape a broader narrative around ambition, risk, and the kind of nimble philanthropy this moment requires."

11/27/2025

Thankful for all Climate Breakthrough Awardees, and everyone pushing climate action forward, for the challenging work they’re doing to swiftly and justly close the gap between today and a sustainable future.

11/20/2025

Liming Qiao (Awardee 2025) is a pioneering strategist in Asia’s energy transition. With over two decades of experience spanning international climate negotiations to renewable energy deployment, she has emerged as one of the most influential voices shaping Southeast Asia’s path toward a decarbonized energy future.

Selected last month for the Climate Breakthrough Award program, Liming wants to tackle what she sees as the next big bottleneck in the transition to renewable energy in the ASEAN region: grid flexibility and energy storage.

ASEAN is the world’s fourth-largest energy consumer with a fast-growing population, making it a critical region for renewable energy transition. As Southeast Asian countries reach high targets for variable renewable energy, there will come a point where peak supply cannot be integrated into the grid without significant energy storage and improved grid flexibility.

For this work, she has just launched the Future Energy Storage and System Integration Alliance (FESSIA), a multi-stakeholder coalition composed of industry players, think tanks, and academia.

They will work to create a new “route to market” framework and ensure there is a pathway for large-scale deployment of energy storage technology to drive a resilient, inclusive, and fully decarbonized energy future across Southeast Asia.

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https://www.climatebreakthrough.org/

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