Bridging Climate Foresight and Frontline Realities: Meet Our Coalition-Building Grantees
The Climate Emergencies Forum Announces 2025–2026 Coalition-Building Grantees
As the climate crisis accelerates, so do the risks in scale and complexity. From potential Earth system tipping points like the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet or major Ocean currents, to cascading disruptions to ecosystems and food systems with dire consequences for vulnerable communities, today’s climate emergencies demand responses that integrate scientific foresight with grounded local knowledge and experience.
That’s why the Climate Emergencies Forum (CEF), with support from the UK Advanced Research and Invention Agency, launched a targeted request for proposals in April to identify coalition-building partners working at the intersection of climate risk, frontline communities, and governance. From nearly 100 proposals, six grantees were selected to help advance a more grounded and plural climate risk discourse aligned with CEF’s pillars: Predict, Prevent, and Prepare.
The Gap
Too often, research and decision-making processes remain disconnected from those who bear the brunt of the climate crisis. From informal urban settlements to Arctic communities, people experience climate risk not as data or probability, but as immediate, daily reality. This disconnection can lead to blind spots in research and governance, maladaptation, and missed opportunities for resilience and preparedness.
The Opportunity
CEF’s new grantees are building bridges across science, governance, and community leadership. Their work will:
Elevate frontline perspectives in tipping point foresight
Build coalitions across sectors, geographies, and generations
Translate local realities into global climate strategy
Invest in future-focused leadership that is too-often marginalized
Meet the 2025–2026 Grantees
🇫🇮 Operaatio Arktis: A youth-led Earth system tipping point strategy agency integrating research and Sámi engagement on polar risks.
🌍 Green Africa Youth Organization (GAYO): Working across six African nations, GAYO is democratizing access to climate governance and frontier climate technologies.
🇿🇦 Slum Dwellers International (SDI): Representing over 1.2 billion people in informal settlements, SDI champions data-driven, community-led adaptation to cascading urban risks.
🇪🇺 Generation Climate Europe (GCE): Europe’s largest youth coalition, GCE links local action to systemic change through microgrants, coalition building.
🇪🇬 MENA Climate Security Hub (CGIAR): Based in Cairo, the hub amplifies voices from climate-fragile regions such as Yemen and Gaza, with a focus on peace, risk, and resilience.
🇨🇦 Arctic Youth Network (Canada): A global network elevating Indigenous and Arctic youth leadership through traditional knowledge, capacity-building, and scientific dialogue.
Why It Matters
Together, these grantees are shaping a "risk-to-risk" framework - one that links the catastrophic climate risks identified by science with the cascading, daily risks experienced on the ground. Their work underscores a central CEF principle: that plural knowledge systems and deep community engagement are essential for effective foresight and action.
In a time of accelerating emergencies, these partnerships demonstrate that climate research and strategy must not only better predict the future, but help shape a more just and resilient one.