Addressing Climate Change

Since 1913, The Rockefeller Foundation has pursued our mission to promote the well-being of humanity around the world by breaking down the barriers that limit who can be healthy, empowered, nourished, well-off, secure, and free. Today, the climate crisis threatens not only people around the world, but the progress we’ve made in each of these areas.

We are leveraging every part of our Foundation – including the Bellagio Center Convening and Residency Programs – to reverse the climate crisis.

In 2025, we’re interested in supporting leaders and organizations working on solutions that address the climate crisis at the intersection of these key areas: energy systems, health systems, food systems, financial systems, and global policy.

We encourage applications organized by or with meaningful participation from Global South leaders, women, or other marginalized groups.

The sub-themes for the 2025 climate change convening application included:

Climate and Energy Systems

Energy accounts for more than three-quarters of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions globally, yet 840 million people still lack access to electricity, and over 3 billion people can’t access the Modern Energy Minimum of 1,000 kWh per year. We must find ways to increase access to clean and renewable energy while ending energy poverty worldwide. Applications in this theme should address these areas:

• Accelerating the just transition to clean energy across the Global South, especially through institutional and human capacity in underserved areas to achieve universal access, equitable economic growth, job creation, and development; and novel and efficient technologies to advance energy transitions.
• Ensuring increased mining for minerals such as lithium or cobalt needed for renewable energy systems avoids negative impacts on local communities.
• Avoiding future use of the dirtiest sources of energy, such as coal. This includes the decommissioning of coal plants through just and sustainable energy transitions.

Climate and Health Systems

While much of the climate change narrative has been about rising temperatures, rising sea levels, fossil fuels, and extreme weather – human health is at the heart of climate change. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in four deaths can be attributed to preventable environmental causes made worse by climate change, such as heat, air pollution, infectious and vector-borne diseases, mental health, and more. We must increase global funding sources for the climate and health space to strengthen community-level health systems and to ensure that they’re better prepared to understand, predict, and respond to climate change and its impact on health and well-being. Applications in this theme should address these areas:

• Identifying current and future climate-specific health impacts to inform the creation of programs and policies to manage these threats.
• Identifying the evidence-based, scalable solutions necessary to address climate-associated health threats worldwide.
• Building the knowledge, capacity, and institutional infrastructure necessary to formalize the field of climate and health through new approaches like climate health observatories.

Climate and Food Systems

Agriculture contributes an estimated 25-30% of global greenhouse emissions. We must find sustainable and climate-friendly ways to grow enough nutritious food to feed the world’s poor and hungry. Applications in this theme should address these areas:

• Using regenerative farming techniques, climate-resilient crops, and making dietary changes to address the climate crisis.
• Reducing the impact of livestock on deforestation, methane, and CO2 emissions, and interrogating its role in nutrition.
• Preparing global food systems to be resilient in the face of increasing weather extremes to prevent food shortages.

Climate Aligned Policy and Financial Systems

The annual climate financing gap is estimated at $3.5 trillion. Alongside this, many countries still have policies that subsidize fossil fuels and petrochemicals or allow for economic practices that contribute to the climate crisis, such as deforestation. We must change the global financing and policy landscape to enable solutions to the climate crisis. Applications in this theme should address these areas:

• Increasing investment into green infrastructure and nature-based solutions that can conserve biodiversity, buffer the effects of climate shocks like flooding, and drive decarbonization. 
• Creating new carbon markets at national and regional levels and improving currently existing markets to ensure they serve local populations and result in durable and measurable climate improvements.
• Protecting local community access to clean water in the face of depleted or changing natural sources.
• Rethinking the global approach to water rights and conservation through behavior change approaches to ensure fair and sustainable access.