Climate Solutions Fund Deep Dive 2026

Aviation and maritime shipping are among the hardest parts of the global economy to clean up. They cross borders, operate under complex international rules, and have historically been left out of national climate commitments. Opportunity Green was founded in 2021 to close exactly these gaps, using the combined power of law, economics, and advocacy to push the sectors that others overlook.

Opportunity Green is a UK-registered nonprofit led by Aoife O'Leary, a lawyer and economist who previously built and directed the Environmental Defense Fund's shipping programme. As of 2024, the organisation has 21 staff and has expanded to include a Brussels office, positioning it to directly engage with EU institutions on aviation and shipping legislation. Giving Green classifies Opportunity Green as one of its top nonprofit recommendations for addressing climate change.

The scale of the problem is significant. Emissions from aviation and maritime shipping are the most difficult modes of transport to decarbonize, and both sectors have historically been excluded from national carbon pricing and binding international agreements. Opportunity Green operates precisely where this policy gap is greatest, working to change the rules of the game at the international level.

Opportunity Green works through three interconnected strategies. The first is coalition building. It founded the SASHA Coalition (Skies and Seas Hydrogen Accelerator), which unites companies across maritime shipping, aviation, and alternative fuel production to collectively advocate for policies that support the sectors' transition to net-zero. According to Giving Green, SASHA's focus is on raising the ambition level of clean fuel targets in EU climate regulations, particularly the Fit for 55 package, and ensuring that policy does not entrench reliance on biofuels or liquefied natural gas.

The second strategy is international representation. The International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN body that governs global shipping, sets its targets through member-state votes. Opportunity Green works to bring climate-vulnerable nations, particularly Small Island Developing States, into IMO negotiations. These countries are disproportionately affected by climate change yet historically underrepresented in the rooms where shipping policy is made. Giving Green notes that Opportunity Green credits Pacific Island States with much of the credit for the IMO's adoption of more ambitious decarbonisation targets in July 2023.

The third strategy is strategic legal action. Opportunity Green takes a comprehensive approach: analysing and ranking legal opportunities across aviation, shipping, steel, agriculture, and buildings, then pursuing cases with the greatest potential for systemic impact. It has launched challenges to airport expansion financing by the European Investment Bank and filed a joint legal challenge against EU Taxonomy rules that would label fossil-fuel-burning ships and planes as "green." According to Giving Green, this Taxonomy challenge has already had an effect: other countries are now designing their own rules in ways that would avoid similar legal challenge.

Giving Green conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis focused on Opportunity Green's work with the IMO. While acknowledging the inherent uncertainty in modelling policy advocacy, their best estimate is that Opportunity Green's IMO engagement averts approximately one tonne of CO2e per $0.76, within the range considered for a top recommendation. The analysis modelled the difference in cumulative shipping emissions under high-ambition versus business-as-usual IMO regulations from 2025 to 2050.

This kind of systems-change work is, by nature, harder to quantify than a tree planted or a solar panel installed. Giving Green is explicit about this trade-off: systems-change interventions like policy advocacy tend to deliver impact at roughly an order of magnitude greater scale than direct emissions projects, precisely because they change the rules under which all other actors play. A single ambitious shipping regulation, once passed, applies to every vessel on every ocean.

Additional funds directed to Opportunity Green support the opening of its Brussels office for direct EU institutional engagement, expansion of its communications capacity, and hiring of additional lawyers and policy staff. Giving Green notes that approximately 90% of Opportunity Green's funds are currently restricted, making unrestricted philanthropic support especially valuable for filling strategic gaps.

Opportunity Green's IMO advocacy contributed to an unanimous ruling from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in May 2024, affirming that states have binding obligations to take all necessary measures to prevent marine pollution from greenhouse gas emissions. Its SASHA Coalition has grown to include shipping, aviation, and clean-fuel companies advocating for ambitious clean-fuel targets across EU policy. Its Taxonomy legal challenge is progressing toward the European Court of Justice and has already prompted other countries to design their own green investment rules more ambitiously to avoid similar legal action. Giving Green also notes that Opportunity Green filed complaints with the UK Advertising Standards Authority against major cruise companies for misleading claims about the climate benefits of liquified natural gas.

Decarbonising the global economy requires more than solar panels and electric cars. Aviation, maritime shipping, long-haul trucking, and heavy industry cannot simply be electrified. They need new technologies and the political will to back them. Clean Air Task Force (CATF) was founded in 1996 and has spent three decades becoming one of the most technically credible and politically effective climate nonprofits in the world.

CATF combines deep scientific and engineering expertise with hands-on policy advocacy, working across three interconnected programme areas: modelling and systems analysis, technology innovation, and policy advocacy. It has close relationships with legislators and regulators in the US and EU, and was instrumental in securing key climate provisions in the US Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the Energy Act of 2020. Giving Green has recommended CATF continuously since 2020.

What sets CATF apart is its focus on technologies that are either nascent or not broadly supported by civil society, despite being critical to mid-century decarbonisation. By raising awareness and advocating for the right policy conditions, CATF can accelerate progress in sectors that would otherwise struggle to secure funding from governments or private investors.

Giving Green highlight's three focus areas of CATF's work. The first is superhot rock (SHR) geothermal energy: a proposed zero-carbon, always-available energy source that, according to Giving Green, could be commercialised globally in the 2030s if the right policy and investment conditions are created. CATF's SHR team conducts technical analysis, builds a global network of stakeholders and investors, and advocates for supportive legislation. Its advocacy contributed to the US Bipartisan Infrastructure Law's inclusion of $74 million for enhanced geothermal pilot demonstrations, with $20 million specifically allocated to SHR.

The second area is zero-carbon fuels (ZCFs): the hydrogen-derived fuels will play a key part in decarbonising aviation, maritime shipping, and heavy industry. CATF produces peer-reviewed technical analysis, operates a public Hydrogen Production Calculator, and works with governments and industry to align standards and incentives. It helped catalyse the Global Methane Pledge, introduced by the US and EU in September 2021 and signed by over 100 countries, committing to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030.

The third area is transportation decarbonisation, with a focus on hard-to-electrify modes. CATF advocates for clean fuel standards in the US and EU, promotes stronger implementation of maritime clean fuel regulations, and works to ensure that policy frameworks for aviation and shipping create the conditions for clean fuel markets to develop. According to Giving Green, CATF is leading development of a federal carbon-intensity-based fuel standard that would decarbonise all US transportation fuels by mid-century.

Giving Green notes that CATF's most powerful asset is its track record: securing IRA provisions on methane, advancing neglected technologies through federal legislation, and catalysing international commitments. Giving Green's assessment of CATF's work on superhot rock and zero-carbon fuels rates it as highly effective, with high certainty that its technical analysis informs policy and high certainty that its advocacy leads to increased adoption of supportive policies.

Giving Green chose not to quantify CATF's cost-effectiveness given the high uncertainty across key parameters and the shortcomings of these models to address the complexity of the space. However, Giving Green is explicit that the scale of systems-change work is why CATF likely outperforms direct interventions: a policy that shapes an entire sector's transition to clean fuels will move vastly more tonnes of CO2 than any individual project. Additionally, CATF sits at the intersection of technical credibility and political access, a combination that is rare and genuinely difficult to fund through conventional channels.

Additional philanthropic funding helps CATF sustain multi-year programme strategies. CATF has cited fundraising as critical to its international expansion to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Giving Green notes that CATF was instrumental in passing IRA provisions covering methane reduction, neglected low-emissions technologies, and stackable tax incentives. It helped secure $74 million for geothermal pilot demonstrations in the US Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. It catalysed the Global Methane Pledge, introduced by US and EU leaders and signed by over 100 countries at COP26, committing to a 30% reduction in global methane emissions by 2030, which could eliminate over 0.2°C of warming by 2050. When $7 billion was allocated to seven regional hydrogen hubs in the US, CATF shaped how those funds are deployed by releasing guidance on priority end-use sectors and community engagement. In Europe, CATF successfully advocated for legally binding requirements for zero-carbon fuel refueling infrastructure to be included in the EU's Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation, ensuring the legislation became a regulation rather than a directive for immediate implementation.

Cement, steel, aviation fuel, and industrial heat: these are the sectors that the clean energy transition tends to forget. They are also some of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions on the planet. Heavy industry alone accounts for roughly a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and around 35% of the progress needed to reach net zero will require technologies that do not yet exist at commercial scale. Future Cleantech Architects (FCA) was founded in 2020 to fill this gap.

FCA is a climate innovation think tank based in Germany, founded by Dr. Peter Schniering, who holds a PhD in climate policy and technology and has advised both the IEA and UN Climate Change. FCA's key objective is to ensure that public funding for cleantech innovation is used as effectively as possible. It does this by identifying neglected sectors, translating technical knowledge into actionable policy, and building the relationships in Brussels and beyond that turn good ideas into legislation.

With a staff of 16 as of late 2024 and ambitious plans to double in size, FCA punches well above its weight. Its work covers EU and Member State policy, engagement with international organisations, and an expanding international reach into strategically important countries.

FCA works through three interlocking activities: policy advocacy, field coordination, and technical research. On policy, FCA engages directly with the European Commission's Directorates-General and with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs). For example, it holds a monthly briefing series "Coffee & Cleantech," which brings together policymakers on the technical pathways to decarbonise neglected industrial sectors. According to Giving Green, MEPs have described FCA's presentations as "exceptionally clear and effective."

On field coordination, FCA co-hosts the Future Cleantech Festival with UN Climate Change, UNIDO, IRENA, and Mission Innovation, convening stakeholders to drive momentum in priority sectors. It also publishes in partnership with Handelsblatt, Germany's largest business newspaper, reaching an estimated 9 million readers in 2024.

On research, FCA produces technological and policy pathways to decarbonize neglected sectors. It also co-develops consortia with manufacturers, research institutions, and government agencies to directly advance the technologies it advocates for, including a solar thermal cement manufacturing consortium with the German Federal Ministry for Economy and Energy and ThyssenKrupp.

For a young organization, FCA has shown impressive influence. It has developed strong relationships with many policy-makers, and has been frequently consulting while building legislation. FCA was recently admitted to the EU's Renewable and Low-Carbon Fuels Value Chain Industrial Alliance, one of the few nonprofits in a coalition otherwise dominated by Boeing, EasyJet, and Shell. This is an indication of its role as a trusted partner of the European Commission.

According to Giving Green, FCA's advocacy contributed to the 5% innovative renewable energy target becoming binding EU law in the RED III revision in 2023. The MEP responsible for the legislation publicly credited FCA for its contribution at COP28, and FCA estimates the target could result in 21 million tonnes of CO2e in avoided emissions from 2023 to 2030. Its engagement with policymakers has also led to direct input on hydrogen policy, EU ETS revenues, industrial emissions rules, and sustainable aviation fuels.

Geothermal energy is the most abundant clean energy source on the planet: heat produced naturally beneath the Earth's surface, available everywhere, around the clock, regardless of weather. Project InnerSpace notes that if geothermal resources were drilled at the rate the world currently drills for oil and gas, geothermal could supply up to 77% of global electricity demand and over 100% of global heat demand by 2050. The barrier is not the resource. It is exploration risk, funding gaps, and a lack of the policy frameworks needed to unlock the sector's potential.

Project InnerSpace was founded in 2022 to address exactly these barriers. Led by Jamie Beard, an internationally recognised leader in the "geothermal anywhere" movement, it is the leading independent nonprofit dedicated to accelerating global geothermal deployment. Its approach is direct: use the expertise and infrastructure of the oil and gas industry, which already knows how to drill deep into the earth at scale, and redirect that capacity toward heat instead of hydrocarbons.

Giving Green classifies Project InnerSpace as a top nonprofit for climate change, noting that its strategy of fast iteration and getting next-generation geothermal technologies onto a learning curve complements the work of CATF, which focuses on deeper, longer-range superhot rock development.

Project InnerSpace operates through three core programmes. The first is GeoMap: a publicly available, AI-assisted global map that characterises geothermal resources by aggregating subsurface data from oil and gas companies, geological surveys, and water well records. Exploration risk is one of the primary barriers to geothermal project development: before a well is drilled, there is considerable uncertainty about whether the resource will be commercially viable, making it difficult to raise capital. GeoMap reduces this uncertainty. Since its launch in 2023, it has grown to 2,600 users across 100 countries, with modules covering Africa, North America, and India, and further launches planned for Indonesia and Brazil.

The second programme is GeoFund: a financing vehicle to bridge the "valley of death" that prevents promising geothermal projects from reaching commercial viability. Giving Green notes that projects at community scale in low and middle-income countries are often unfunded because they fall outside existing financing mechanisms. GeoFund aims to raise $100 million between 2024 and 2030 to back these projects. The first round received more applications than it could support, and additional philanthropic funding would allow it to back more projects.

The final programme is to build momentum for the nascent geothermal industry through research reports, convenings, and policy advocacy. Examples include its PIVOT global conference series, the Geothermal House event at Climate Week NYC, and state-level roadmapping reports. It is leading the US Department of Energy's GEODE initiative, a $165 million programme connecting geothermal and oil and gas experts to accelerate technology transfer, with over 100 partner organisations from across the energy industry.

Giving Green has stated that resource characterisation mapping addresses a substantial obstacle to geothermal deployment, and is enthusiastic that Project InnerSpace is increasing the speed of this mapping in low and middle-income countries relative to what would otherwise occur. The mechanism is clear: better data reduces exploration risk, lower risk attracts more investment, more investment leads to more projects, and more projects put next-generation geothermal technologies on a learning curve that drives down costs.

Geothermal is an exciting climate bet because energy systems will need firm (always-on) power, and currently there are no clean and low-cost options to produce it. If the next generation of geothermal power can meet its promise, it can provide the firm power needed to complement solar and wind.

Philanthropic support for Project InnerSpace fills a specific gap: the organisation is 100% funded by philanthropy, and its core activities are not covered by its restricted government grants. The $3.3 million funding gap between its baseline and stretch budgets in 2025 represents direct capacity to expand GeoFund, reach more countries with mapping, and develop the policy work needed to unlock geothermal at scale.

Project InnerSpace notes that GeoMap has grown to 2,600 users across 100 countries since launching in 2023, with modules covering Africa, North America, and India. Additionally, Giving Green notes that Project InnerSpace, alongside partners, has been awarded $165 million from the US Department of Energy for the GEODE initiative to advance geothermal through oil and gas technology transfer. GeoFund's first round attracted more applications than could be funded, demonstrating clear demand for exactly this kind of patient, early-stage capital.