US Policy Change
While donations to policy organization do not result in certain changes, they are a primary way of promoting massive, systemic change. We focus our recommendations on national-level US policy change organizations utilizing two strategies:
Activism - getting large numbers of people to put pressure on political systems through protests and grassroots campaigns, and
Insider policy influence - persuading policymakers support pro-climate policy through insider tactics such as lobbying, policy research, and advocacy.
We recommend donating to US policy change organizations if you prefer big and riskier bets that target the systemic issues.
Our strategy for making policy recommendations
More information on our policy change analyses
Clean Air Task Force
Clean Air Task Force is a non-profit environmental organization that catalyzes resilient solutions to climate change, focusing on all possible solutions. They push for a change in technology and policies that are required to get to a zero-emissions, high-energy planet.
We support Clean Air Task Force due to their complete focus on climate change mitigation, along with their long track record of successfully advocating for national-level policy change. They take a pragmatic approach in an effort to garner support from politicians across the spectrum.
Click here or on the image to read our research.
Shows promise
The Sunrise Movement -
The Sunrise Movement Education Fund supports the activities of the Sunrise Movement*, a US climate activism group that seeks to mobilize popular support and political will for more aggressive climate-change policy under the Green New Deal framework – a commitment to significantly decarbonize the American economy through a set of policies that includes renewable-energy public works programs.
Although they have a strong theory of change and some victories, we assign them a "shows promise" label due to the fact that they are still a young organization with limited wins under their belt.
*As Giving Green is part of IDinsight, which is itself a charitable, tax-exempt organization, we are only offering an opinion on the charitable activities of the Sunrise Movement Education Fund, and not the other organizations under the umbrella of the Sunrise Movement.
The Sunrise Movement
Offsets allow donors to support projects that cause verifiable, high certainty reductions in emissions. While high-quality offsets support valuable projects, we do not view offsets as a legitimate way to undo the climate damage caused by individual or businesses.
We recommend buying carbon offsets if you prefer that your donations will remove greenhouses gases immediately and with a high degree of certainty.
Our strategy for making offset recommendations
More information on our carbon offsets analyses
Most certain
Climeworks
Buy offsets
An important avenue for removing CO2 is Direct Air Carbon Capture and Sequestration (DACS). We have investigated several DACS projects and recommend purchasing carbon offsets from Climeworks, a Switzerland-based company that has built a modular technology for capturing CO2 and then permanently turning it into solid material deep underground. Although these offsets are expensive at over $1000 per ton of CO2, purchasing them gives unparalleled certainty of permanent CO2 removal, and supports the development of important frontier technology.
Most cost effective
Tradewater
Tradewater's mission is to find and destroy refrigerants and other gases with warming potential up to 10,000 times that of carbon dioxide. They work worldwide to find these gases, purchase them, and then destroy them. Priced at $15 per ton of CO2 removed, Tradewater offers one of the most attractive combinations of price and certainty.
Decrease emissions and save families money
BURN makes and distributes fuel-efficient stoves in Kenya. Their impact on fuel usage (and therefore GHG emissions) was validated by a recent randomized controlled trial (or RCT), which sets it apart from the mixed results of other cookstove providers. Additionally, BURN stove users see large reductions in expenditure on fuel, leading to more money for the family.
We are looking for support to provide more opportunities for evidence-based giving to address climate change, and to continue to have our product freely available:
Contact us at: givinggreen@idinsight.org
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