Sounds of hope

Climate Breakthrough Project announces newest awardees Mohamed Adow and Nicole Rycroft

When freshly inaugurated president Joe Biden stated that the US would re-join the Paris Agreement and lead in fighting climate change, it was welcome news. But global climate action still lacks effective leadership. Our partner the Climate Breakthrough Project is working to change that. Each year, the San Francisco-based initiative awards exceptional climate action leaders with resources and support to bring their ideas to life.

The Climate Breakthrough Project’s two newest awardees are Mohamed Adow and Nicole Rycroft. Over the next three years, each gets a $3 million grant to develop bold solutions and strategies for tackling the climate crisis.

They join a cohort of nine fellow Climate Breakthrough Project awardees, from Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Indonesia, the UK, the US and Vietnam. This community of strategists unites some of the world’s brightest, most imaginative minds in climate policy, law, finance, forestry, energy and behaviour change.

Mohamed Adow (Kenya) is an international climate policy expert and advocate for people in developing nations, who are disproportionately affected by climate change but play almost no role in causing it. Mohamed’s experience on the climate crisis front lines anchors his work defending those most vulnerable to climate change. He founded Power Shift Africa, a think tank mobilising climate action in Africa and transitioning climate and energy policies to zero carbon. Before this, Mohamed spent a decade working as the global climate policy lead for Christian Aid.

Nicole Rycroft (Canada) is an environmental activist, an Ashoka Fellow and the founder and executive director of Canopy. The non-profit organisation has engaged many of the world’s leading fashion, publishing and consumer brands to pressure fibre producers to stop sourcing from old-growth high-carbon forests. Canopy’s work led to the final Harry Potter instalment being printed on sustainable paper in over 25 countries and has shifted more than half of global viscose production out of endangered forests within just a few years. Nicole’s focus is fixed on achieving what is ecologically necessary rather than what might be deemed reasonable.