Absolutely, we would encourage individuals to support projects, whether it be one of the ones we are currently supporting or some other such project. We give people the opportunity to do so with Climate Wise and we can aggregate donations, select projects and then monitor their impact so there is control and oversight which often as a direct donor you cannot do. Climate Wise also provides a lot of other benefits outlined below.
The key is to motivate people to try and make a difference, but as previously mentioned their barriers to this happening on the scale that would truly make an impact, I refer to Richard Gifford’s Dragons of Inaction, three of these Dragons I believe are relevant here:
- Pessimism about Self Efficacy – as described above
- Social norming – we as individuals are influenced by what those around us do. By working as a conglomerate, we become more effective in influencing those around us to make a difference, which then goes some way to counteracting peoplepessimism about their own self efficacy
- Token behaviour – people will quite often make one of choices e.g. a one-off donation or they will reduce their plastic intake for a week, however it is difficult to maintain this on your own. Belonging to a group or an organisationencourages us to adopt long term behavioural changes. In effect we are in this together.
Finally, our role is not just to support projects, that already exist, but to provide the following as well:
- Educational opportunities for schools, communities, companies and individuals that encourage people to make better informed decisions on their lifestyle choices and to empower the next generation to have a voice.
- Create new eco-friendly starter projects around the world that meet the following criteria, reduce the CO2 footprint or capture CO2, improve health, provide jobs and improve the social structure of the local environment, for example empowering equal rights for all members of society etc
- Oversight and governance – by working hard on project selection, regularly reviewing the projects in place and assessing on a quarterly basis their performance, Climate Wise can complete the review of the projects which often individuals are unable to do and by benefitting from this, you can be comfortable your donations are being deployed in the best possible manner.