Overview
At the Catalyst Group, our Climate Practice integrates closely with our Health and Livelihood practice areas to further our vision of creating “a thriving world powered by resilient communities and carbon-neutral systems.” We believe that we need to bridge systemic gaps in climate ecosystems and promote people-centric models at scale. We are committed to leveraging our three decades of experience, expertise, and relationships working for and with vulnerable communities like small and marginal farmers, sex workers, street vendors, etc.
Our Expertise
People focus and reach:
With decades of experience working with vulnerable communities, we have a deep understanding of the socio-economic canvas of vulnerable communities. We believe in working for and with vulnerable communities. Our collaborative approach ensures that climate solutions are co-created with the people they directly impact, making our efforts more effective and sustainable. We work through communities and institutions, enabling collective agencies to navigate the complex climate ecosystem and empowering their role in shaping climate solutions. We directly reach 2 million vulnerable people and another 20 million through our partners across India.
Multi-Sectoral Integration:
We go beyond a siloed approach by integrating our Climate Practice closely with Health, ESG and Livelihood practice areas. This holistic approach recognises that climate, health, and livelihoods are interconnected, and addressing one area often positively impacts the others. Our approach ensures a fair and equitable shift to sustainable practices, safeguarding community well-being.
Innovation:
We design innovative, people-focused climate solutions that address the specific needs of vulnerable communities. Our ability to adapt and create tailored solutions is a key strength. We actively promote solutions worldwide, accelerating the adoption of sustainability practices. We have already built innovative tools and approaches to solve climate issues—in plastics, in environmental surveillance, and in regen agriculture—all amenable to scale. And ready to co-create new solutions.
Range of assets we have built, which can be used for climate response
Our network of partners (Private sector, NGOs, Government, academic, and technology companies), our established community-focused tools (Know Your Resilience), established approaches (health and climate planning), and our coalitions and networks (Community Action Collab, Green Health Alliance, etc.) are all assets we will be able to leverage.
Our Approach
We work for and with vulnerable communities who are disproportionately affected by climate change - small and marginal farmers, Nano, Micro, and MSMEs, street vendors, and indigenous people. We focus on enhancing their resilience, ensuring they can recover from or adapt to climate-related disruptions without compromising their lives, livelihoods and long-term well-being.
How We Work
Thought: We design innovative, people-focused climate-smart solutions and innovations to address the unique challenges faced by vulnerable communities.
Action: We provide solutions, technical assistance, network building, and resource mobilisation to put our climate solutions into action.
Transformation: Our goal is to create climate-resilient pathways and achieve Net Zero by working closely with a range of stakeholders in the ecosystem to improve policies and practices.
Three Sectors
Our initiatives primarily focus on the following sectors:
Agriculture & Food Systems
Challenges: Agricultural systems are on the front lines of climate change, both creating and affected by it, contributing significantly to water usage and livestock carbon emissions. With increased weather variability, shifting growing seasons, and changing precipitation patterns, small and marginal farmers are disproportionately affected...
ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) Services
Challenges: Industries and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are significant contributors to carbon emissions. It is vital to help them transition to more sustainable and low-carbon operations. While large companies are increasingly committed to and able to move in a net-zero direction, it is the MSMEs who will need support in the transition.
Health system
Challenges: Climate change has a profound impact on people’s well-being, as evidenced by the strain on our health system caused by the rising prevalence of illnesses (waterborne, vector-borne, and foodborne diseases) related to climate change (heat waves, storms, and floods). At the same time, people’s unsustainable behaviours, like high carbon emissions and deforestation, exacerbate the...