EA - Announcing Giving Green's 2023 Top Climate Nonprofit Recommendations by Giving Green

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Announcing Giving Green's 2023 Top Climate Nonprofit Recommendations, published by Giving Green on November 16, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum.What is Giving Green?Giving Green is an EA-affiliated charity evaluator that helps donors direct funds to the highest-impact organizations looking to mitigate climate change. We believe that individuals can make a real impact by reshaping the laws, norms, and systems that perpetuate unsustainable emissions. Our annual list of recommendations helps direct donors towards high-impact climate nonprofits advocating for systemic change.How does Giving Green work?We spent the past year finding timely giving strategies that have a huge potential impact but are relatively neglected by traditional climate funding.Our process starts byassessing various impact strategies and narrowing in on ones that we believed could substantially reduce emissions, were feasible, and needed more funding (Figure 1). After developing a short list of impact areas, we explored the ecosystem of nonprofits operating in each space by speaking directly with organizations and other stakeholders. We used our findings to evaluate each organization's theory of change and its capacity to absorb additional funding.For more information, seeGiving Green's Research Process.Figure 1: Giving Green's process for identifying and assessing nonprofitsWhat climate nonprofits does Giving Green recommend for 2023?Our findings led us to double down on one pathway where we believe climate donors can have an outsized impact:Advancing key climate technologies through policy advocacy, research, and market support.We think technological progress provides a uniquely powerful and feasible way to decarbonize, allowing the green transition to proceed while minimizing costs to quality of life and the economy.For 2023, we highlight five key sectors ripe for innovation: next-generation geothermal energy, advanced nuclear, alternative protein innovation, industrial decarbonization, and shipping and aviation decarbonization; within those, we recommend six top climate charities (Figure 2).Figure 2: Giving Green's 2023 top climate nonprofit recommendationsBelow, you will find a brief overview of Giving Green's recommendations in reverse alphabetical order.Project InnerSpaceDeep underground, the Earth's crust holds abundant heat that can supply renewable, carbon-free heat and reliable, on-demand electricity. However, conventional geothermal systems have been limited to places bordering the Earth's tectonic plates.Project InnerSpace is fast-tracking next-generation technologies that can make geothermal energy available worldwide. It has a bold plan to reduce financial risks for new geothermal projects, making geothermal energy cheaper and more accessible, especially in densely populated areas in the Global South.We believe Project InnerSpace is a top player in the geothermal sector and that its emphasis on fast technology development and cost reduction can help geothermal expand globally.For more information, see ourProject InnerSpace recommendation summary.Opportunity GreenAviation and maritime shipping are challenging sectors to decarbonize and have not received much support from philanthropy in the past.Opportunity Green has a multi-pronged strategy for reducing emissions from aviation and maritime shipping. It pushes for ambitious regulations, promotes clean fuels, encourages companies to adopt greener fleets, and works to reduce demand for air travel.We think Opportunity Green has a strong theory of change that covers multiple ways to make a difference. We are especially excited about Opportunity Green's efforts to elevate climate-vulnerable countries in policy discussions, as we think this could improve the inclusivity of the process and the ambition level of...