Climate Action
Overview
We aim to drive science, innovation, and collaboration to transform food, land, and water systems for a climate-resilient, net-zero, and equitable future.
Through more resilient, low-emissions farms, landscapes, and aquatic systems, we will advance research across agri-food systems benefiting 16 million vulnerable small-scale producers and value chain actors across 20 countries.
Our goal
Our work aims to help
Technical Report
Where we work
Bangladesh, Cambodia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Honduras, India, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Challenges
Challenges we’ll address
- Vulnerability of small-scale producers affected by accelerating climate change and extreme weather events
- Rising agri-food systems emissions which already contribute one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions
- Environmental degradation and geopolitical instability
Areas of work
Prioritization and Coordination of Climate Action
Accelerating Climate Action serves as CGIAR’s climate integration and engagement platform. It connects climate-related science, modelling and expertise from across CGIAR to support adaptation and mitigation planning, investment decisions, and global climate agendas as well as access to CGIAR’s wealth of climate expertise. Through the CGIAR Climate Hub, it helps transform a broad portfolio of climate research into coordinated action to ensure food, land, and water systems are represented in national and international climate agendas and available to support local programming.
Digital Advisories and Climate Risk Management
Adapt to Variability and Extremes helps producers, institutions, and governments anticipate and manage climate risks. It develops and scales digital weather and climate advisories, early warning systems, anticipatory action approaches, insurance and other risk management products that help people make informed decisions due to year-to-year variability and extreme events. Working through national meteorological agencies, agricultural extension systems, humanitarian organizations, and private sector platforms, the Area of Work translates the latest climate science into decisions, including for women, youth, and other underserved groups across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Locally-Led Adaptation
Empower Locally Led Action helps communities, local governments, and development partners shift adaptation decision-making, resources, and authority closer to those most affected by climate change. The Area of Work identifies and addresses the institutional, financial, governance, and information barriers that often prevent locally led adaptation from occurring in practice. Working with communities, local organizations, governments, and financial institutions, it develops and tests approaches that strengthen local innovation and leadership while embedding successful models in policies, institutions, and financing systems. This enables locally led adaptation to move beyond isolated cases and scale through broader development and climate investment systems.
Low-Emission Transitions
Transition to Low-Emission Development helps governments, businesses, and development partners design and implement affordable, just, and verifiable pathways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food, land, and water systems. The Area of Work strengthens the policies, incentives, financing mechanisms, and measurement systems needed to support implementation of mitigation solutions while advancing frontier technologies to accelerate low-emission transitions at scale. Working with governments, private sector actors, and investors, the Area of Work connects emissions-reduction opportunities to national climate commitments, climate finance, and carbon markets.
Finance and Policy for Scaling Solutions
Finance Climate Ambition helps governments, development banks, climate funds, and private investors increase funding for climate action while improving how resources are allocated and used. The Area of Work develops climate risk analytics, adaptation and mitigation investment cases, and supports innovative financing mechanisms that help identify high-impact investment opportunities and direct capital where it can deliver the greatest returns. By improving the evidence base for investment decisions and strengthening the measurement of results, the Area of Work helps build the track record needed to attract additional finance, increase investment effectiveness, and accelerate climate action across food, land, and water systems.
Gender Equality & Social Inclusion
To meet global climate goals, it’s crucial to prioritize justice in food, land, and water systems, especially for women and marginalized communities who face greater climate impacts. Our work focuses on empowering these groups through fair climate resilience strategies, policy shifts, and community-driven solutions to support millions.
Our approach
Interlinked support across CGIAR’s portfolio
We will closely work with the Better Diets & Nutrition, Breeding for Tomorrow, Food Frontiers & Security, Genebanks, Multifunctional Landscapes, Policy Innovations, Scaling for Impact, Sustainable Animal & Aquatic Foods, and Sustainable Farming programs, and the Capacity Sharing, Digital Transformation, Gender Equality & Social Inclusion accelerators.
Working to share our capacity with
- Farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, SMEs
- Policymakers and climate negotiators
- Scientists
Our expertise
- 20+ years of interdisciplinary climate research
- Deep-rooted partnerships with local and international agencies, national governments, and policymakers
- Global science-based solutions: actionable climate data and cutting-edge innovations tailored to local contexts
- Proven high return on investment in scalable, equitable, and justice-oriented climate solutions
- International influence through partnerships with advanced research institutions, think tanks, to shape and integrate international climate policies and processes
Events
News
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Côte d'Ivoire secures climate finance to support smallholder farmers to adapt to climate change
A USD 50 million Green Climate Fund (GCF) investment will help rice, cassava, and yam farmers in the country's Central regions adopt proven CGIAR...
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What a stronger El Niño could mean for food systems
A stronger El Niño could test food systems in vulnerable regions. A new GEOGLAM Crop Monitor report shows where crop risks may rise, and why early...
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CGIAR Climate Action awards six research grants to deepen research on GESI across the program
The CGIAR Climate Action Program has awarded gender equity and social inclusion research grants to six teams across four CGIAR Centers. The grants...
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Women as shock absorbers: Gendered costs of the global fuel and fertilizer crisis
A recent interview with a woman farmer in Kenya revealed the multiple challenges of higher fuel and fertilizer prices stemming from the closure of...