The Tasks of Now: Toward a New Era in Climate Resilience Building; A Climate Resilience Field Scan

In 2024, a coalition of climate resilience experts published a report entitled The Tasks of Now: Toward a New Era in Climate Resilience Building, recommending investment strategies to philanthropic organizations looking to make the most impact in the climate resilience space. The report discusses the need for “transformative change” rather than incremental, project-based approaches, arguing that the traditional approach is insufficient to address climate change when systemic change is necessary. 

The report authors argue that transformative change is needed for a multitude of reasons, including: 

  • Worsening of climate change and its impacts; 
  • Exacerbating and interconnected crises, or a “polycrisis,” where environmental issues are made worse by the surrounding social, political, and economic conditions; 
  • Rapid changes in technology, often resulting in increased resource extraction, labor exploitation, and ”profound” changes in communities; 
  • Economic volatility and injustice, which highlights inequitable access to resources; the gap in capacity of different groups and governments; and the affordability crisis; and
  • Inflexible and outdated government institutions, making the government ill-suited to respond quickly and efficiently to the climate crisis. 

In order to best support this transformative change and make a big impact, philanthropic organizations should look to invest in “cross-cutting interventions that span multiple sectors and tackle interconnected issues” that support the climate resilience field. The report provides recommendations for funders concerning operations and innovation. First, the authors argue funding groups need to change how they operate in order to accelerate resilience work. To achieve this, they suggest:

  • Hiring or training staff on climate resilience; 
  • Coordinating and collaborating with other foundations; 
  • Centering equity, justice, and inclusion; 
  • Investing strategically in long-term programmatic resilience-building; and 
  • Working to see interdisciplinary connections in funding. 

Second, funding groups must act with urgency and speed in funding innovation and advancing the field, the authors argue. To this end, they recommend:

  • Fostering multisectoral problem-solving; 
  • Supporting collaboration between governance levels; 
  • Replicating proven practices and scaling up and out; 
  • Influencing private sector action through incentives or compliance efforts; and 
  • Investing in workforce development and building capacity for resilience efforts. 

Many of the recommendations in the report are based on a state-of-the-field assessment conducted by the authors in 2017. The original assessment was conducted under a “field-building framework” that centered around Purpose, People, Practice, and Pillars of Support. This report serves as the 2024 update to the initial assessment. In response to some of the gaps discussed in the assessment, the authors provide a list of six key strategies for funders when it comes to financing a climate resilience grant, that comply with the field-building framework: 

  1. “Building a better tomorrow” by applying cutting-edge climate science; 
  2. “Undoing past harms and creating just and thriving futures” by centering equity and restorative justice; 
  3. “Fostering connections and broader perspectives” through multisolving, governmental collaboration, and rebuilding of social connectedness; 
  4. “Investing in human capacity” by supporting resilience leaders and fostering innovation; 
  5. “Accelerating progress” by scaling out proven practices, addressing obstacles, and influencing the private sector; and
  6. “Supporting structures” by scaling up policy development, influencing federal and state policies, and creating a climate resilience legal framework. 

The report authors recommend that when selecting a proposal to invest in, the project does not need to meet all the criteria, but a proposal that does not comply with any of the above strategies would “perpetuate inadequate or even harmful approaches to climate resilience”. Therefore, funders should prioritize projects that meet all or some of the above strategies in order to make the biggest impact in the climate resilience field. 

This report was authored by Susanne Moser, Joyce Coffee, and Robert Macnee, with funding from the Packard Foundation.

Publication Date: December 2024

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Resource Types:

  • Assessment
  • Policy analysis/recommendations
  • Progress report

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