This article reveals the top international climate change organizations you could become a member of. If you seek to pursue a career in climate change, this article is definitely for you.
The earth is about 4.54 billion years. Since her existence, she has housed several human generations. Each of these generations has been characterized by various forms of activities known as revolutions.
The most recent revolution that is of significant importance to environmentalists is the Industrial Revolution. The industrial revolution is characterized by a high level of exploitative industrial activities.
These activities also had positive and negative effects on the environment. Some of these effects include infrastructural development, economic development, climate change, among others.
Having understood the origin of climate change, let us discuss exhaustively the issue of climate change and how you can become a member of an international climate change organization.
Table of Contents
Top 13 International Climate Change Organizations
- World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
- Intergovernmental [Panel on Climate Change IPCC
- 350.org
- The Global Environment Facility (GEF)
- Climate Action Network (CAN)
- C40
- Greenpeace
- Conservation International
- Friends of Earth International (FOEI)
- Local Governments for Sustainability-ICLEI
- World Resources Institute (WRI)
- The Climate Group
- Fridays For Future
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations. It is one of the biggest international climate change organizations in the world.
It is the UN system’s authoritative voice on the state and behavior of the Earth’s atmosphere, its interaction with the oceans, the climate it produces, and the resulting distribution of water resources.
Within its mandate in the areas of weather, climate, and water, WMO focuses on many different aspects and issues from observations, information exchange, and research to weather forecasts and early warnings, from capacity development and monitoring of greenhouse gases to application services and more.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The IPCC in 1988 by the (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the objective of the IPCC is to provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies. IPCC reports are also a key input into international climate change negotiations.
The IPCC is known as one of the major International Climate Change Organizations and is a member of the United Nations or WMO. It is one of the major international climate change organizations.
The International Panel on Climate change currently has 195 members Thousands of people from all over the world contribute to the work of the IPCC. it is one of the most acknowledged international climate change organizations.
IPCC scientists volunteer their time to assess the thousands of scientific papers published each year to provide a comprehensive summary of what is known about the drivers of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and how adaptation and mitigation can reduce those risks.
An open and transparent review by experts and governments around the world is an essential part of the IPCC process, to ensure an objective and complete assessment and to reflect a diverse range of views and expertise.
Through its assessments, the IPCC identifies the strength of scientific agreement in different areas and indicates where further research is needed. The IPCC does not conduct its own research. For more information on their activities.
350.org
350.org is one of the International Climate Change Organizations that was founded in 2008 by a group of university friends in the United States along with author Bill McKibben, who wrote one of the first books on global warming for the general public. The goal was to build a global climate movement. The name 350 was derived from 350 parts per million — the safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The organization uses the power of online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions to oppose new coal, oil, and gas projects, fighting for a 100% clean energy goal. The main lines of action of 350.org consist in fighting fossil fuel industries, pressure governments into limiting emissions, and support communities confronting the impacts of climate change.
As an NGO, they make a serious case when it comes to its principles, which are: We Believe in Climate Justice, We Are Stronger When We Collaborate, and Mass Mobilizations Make Change. 350.org was one of the main organizations speaking up in major climate change-related events in the last decade, such as campaigns against large-scale fossil fuel companies, fracking in various cities in Brazil, and grassroots mobilizations before and after the Paris Agreement.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF)
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund was established on the eve of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems. GEF funding to support the projects is contributed by donor countries.
These financial contributions are replenished every four years by the GEF donor countries.
The Special Climate Change Fund, one of the world’s first multilateral climate adaptation finance instruments, was created at the 2001 Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to help vulnerable nations to address these negative impacts of climate change.
Climate Action Network (CAN)
Climate Action Network (CAN) is a global network of more than 1,500 civil society organizations in over 130 countries driving collective and sustainable action to fight the climate crisis and to achieve social and racial justice. CAN convenes and coordinates civil society at the UN climate talks and other international forums.
They do this in the following way:
Centering the stories of those impacted by the climate crisis and using their voices and experiences to advocate for lasting change towards a more resilient world is a priority for CAN’s work.
Stripping fossil fuel companies of their social and economic license to destroy the planet is a key pillar of CAN’s work.
C40
C40 is a network of the world’s megacities committed to addressing climate change. C40 supports cities to collaborate effectively, share knowledge and drive meaningful, measurable, and sustainable action on climate change. It is one of the international climate change organizations in the world.
Representing 700+ million citizens and one-quarter of the global economy, mayors of the C40 cities are committed to delivering on the most ambitious goals of the Paris Agreement at the local level, as well as to cleaning the air we breathe.
In 2016, C40 announced that every member city must set out a robust plan for how they will deliver climate action consistent with constraining global heating to no more than 1.5°C by 2020
Through C40’s Deadline 2020 initiative, more than 100 cities around the world have already committed to create and begin implementing inclusive climate action plans consistent with their fair share of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C.
By signing onto C40’s Green and Healthy Streets Declaration, 34 cities have pledged to procure only zero-emission buses after 2025 and to ensure that a major area of their city is zero emission by 2030. The potential impact is more than 120,000 zero-emission buses on the streets of just these 34 cities.
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is one of the most popular International Climate Change Organizations that was founded in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Timothy Stowe, Canadian and US ex-pat environmental activists.
Greenpeace is a nongovernmental organization that has offices in over 55 countries and an international head office in Amsterdam, the Netherlands the goal of Greenpeace as an organization is to “ensure the ability of the earth to nurture life in all its diversity.
Greenpeace uses non-violent creative action to pave the way towards a greener, more peaceful world, and to confront the systems that threaten our environment.
Conservation International
Since 1987, Conservation International has worked to spotlight and secure the critical benefits that nature provides to humanity.
Combining fieldwork with innovations in science, policy, and finance, they have helped protect more than 6 million square kilometers (2.3 million square miles) of land and sea across more than 70 countries.
Conservation International’s work aims to replace an extractive economy with a regenerative one through innovation, collaboration, and partnering with Indigenous peoples and local communities.
To avoid the catastrophic consequences of climate breakdown, Conservational International scientists are leading a team of globally renowned experts to determine where ecosystems containing more than 260 billion tons of “irrecoverable carbon,” most of which is stored in mangroves, peatlands, old-growth forests, and marshes. They are doing this by creating a global map of irrecoverable carbon in Earth’s ecosystems.
Friends of Earth International (FOEI)
FOEI is one of the world’s largest grassroots environmental networks, uniting 73 national member groups and some 5,000 local activist groups on every continent. With over 2 million members and supporters around the world, they campaign on today’s most urgent environmental and social issues. They also challenge the current model of economic and corporate globalization and promote solutions that will help to create environmentally sustainable and socially just societies.
FOEI operates on a decentralized and democratic structure that allows all member groups to participate in decision-making. Their international positions are informed and strengthened by their work with communities, and our alliances with indigenous peoples, farmers’ movements, trade unions, human rights groups, and others.
Local Governments for Sustainability-ICLEI
ICLEI is a global network of more than 2500 local and regional governments committed to sustainable urban development. Active in 125+ countries, we influence sustainability policy and drive local action for low emission, nature-based, equitable, resilient, and circular development.
When a pioneering group of local and regional governments founded ICLEI, they took action before sustainability was widely viewed as fundamental to development. For decades, their efforts have continued to put sustainability at the top of the agenda for local and regional governments across the world. Over time, ICLEI has expanded and developed, and we are now working in over 125 countries, with global experts in more than 24 offices
ICLEI makes sustainability an integral part of urban development and creates systemic change in urban areas through practical, integrated solutions. They help cities, towns, and regions anticipate and respond to complex challenges, from rapid urbanization and climate change to ecosystem degradation and inequity.
ICLEI also forges strategic alliances with international organizations, national governments, academic and financial institutions, civil society, and the private sector. We create space for innovation within our multi-disciplinary teams and work alongside our partners to create new ways to support sustainable development at the urban scale.
World Resources Institute (WRI)
WRI is a global nonprofit International Climate Change organization that works with leaders in government, business, and civil society to research, design, and carry out practical solutions that simultaneously improve people’s lives and ensure nature can thrive.
Since its founding in 1982, they focus on 7 urgent challenges: Food, Forest, Water, Ocean, Cities, Energy, and Climate. We have over 1,400 staff in 12 international offices, who work with partners in over 50 countries to put the planet on a more sustainable pathway.
The Climate Group
The Climate Group is a non-profit organization, it is one of the International Climate Change Organizations and was founded in 2003, with offices in London, New York, and New Delhi. Their goal is for a world of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, with greater prosperity for all.
They have a network of 300 multinational businesses in 140 markets worldwide. The Under2 Coalition, for which they are the Secretariat, is made up of over 260 governments globally, representing 1.75 billion people and 50% of the global economy
The Climate Group works with leaders and decision-makers from business and government because they shape the market frameworks that can help the world achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
Fridays For Future
FFF is a youth-led and organized global climate strike movement, it is one of the biggest international climate change organizations, it was found in August 2018, when 15-year-old Greta Thunberg began a school strike for climate.
In the three weeks leading up to the Swedish election, she sat outside Swedish Parliament every school day, demanding urgent action on the climate crisis. She was tired of society’s unwillingness to see the climate crisis for what it is: a crisis.
Along with other International Climate Change Organizations across the world, Fridays for Future is part of a hopeful new wave of change, inspiring millions of people to take action on the climate crisis, and we want you to become one of us
The goal of the movement is to put moral pressure on policymakers, to make them listen to the scientists, and then to take forceful action to limit global warming.
Their movement is independent of commercial interests and political parties and knows no border, the organization has remained among the most acknowledged international climate change oranizations.
What is Climate Change?
Climate is the average weather condition of a place over a period of ten years. It is the characteristic condition of the atmosphere near the earth’s surface at a given place or over a given region.
Climate can be described in terms of average seasonal temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and the extent and nature of cloud cover.
Climates are mainly determined by altitude, ocean current, topography, presence of vegetation, land and sea distribution, etc.
Climate change is a shift in the earth’s climatic mode. It refers to a variation or alteration of the earth’s climate from one form to the other that occurs over a long period of time. This means that the effects of climate change is not felt immediately.
The history of the scientific discovery of climate change began in the early 19th century when ice ages and other natural changes in paleoclimate were first suspected and the natural greenhouse effect was first identified.
If you are up to 18 years, you would agree with me that that there has been a slight variation in the climate of your city. The rains are coming earlier or later than they used to when you were about 8 years old. Or, the summer season seems to be longer and hotter these years than it used to be.
This is a clear indication that the climate is changing indeed.
What is an International Climate Change Organization?
International climate change organizations are organizations that are committed to combating the issue of climate change. They achieve through various ways such as awareness creation, financial support to environmental groups, expert advice to governments, creation, and enforcement of laws and policies.
What is the need for Climate Change Organizations?
Many countries in the region are suffering from the effects of climate change. International Climate change organizations therefore can play a crucial role in helping to plug gaps by conducting research to facilitate policy development, building institutional capacity, and facilitating independent dialogue with civil society to help people live more sustainable lifestyles.
There is a need for more independent research, communication, and grassroots outreach. International Climate Change Organizations can play a very significant role in leading and promoting such initiatives. They also have the ability to provide an independent view. This is very important in building trust in the issue/causes of climate change and will help enact behavioral/cultural change in the global community.
How to join an International Climate Change Organization
There are a lot of roles or positions one can fit into in any of the International climate change organizations of one’s choice.
To become a member of any of these organizations, visit their websites, search for careers or positions and requirements. Once you have decided on the one you can fit into, click on ‘join us or any similar request inviting you to become a participant.
Below are common opportunities open in International Climate Change Organizations:
- As an Arthur, Editor or Reviewer
- Research Scientists
- Consultant
- As a Donor/Investor
- As a Volunteer
FAQs
- What are the most effective International Climate Change Organizations?
The effectiveness of an organization is influenced by how active its members are. It is ideal to join an International Climate Change Organization that has a physical branch close by as this will encourage frequent physical meet up.
- How do we avoid Climate Change?
Climate Change cannot be completely avoided rather, it can be reduced if, we put a check on human activities that destroy the environment.
- How can I reduce my Carbon footprint?
Here are a few tips on how you can reduce your Carbon Footprint.
Eat less meat and dairy products
In a 2013 report, the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) found that 14.5 percent of all human-induced greenhouse gas emissions came from the livestock sector.
Avoid Food Waste
The European Parliament reckons about half of EU food waste takes place at home, the rest is lost along the supply chain or never harvested from the fields.
According to the UN, food waste translates into a carbon footprint of a whopping 3.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), amounting to more than India’s annual emissions
Fly Less
Flying harms the climate in several ways. Many estimates put aviation’s share of global CO2 emissions at just above 2 percent — but other aviation emissions such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), water vapor, particulates, contrails, and cirrus changes contribute to additional warming effects.
Sustainable Home Practices
- Do an energy audit of your home. This will show how you use or waste energy and help identify ways to be more energy efficient
- Change incandescent light bulbs (which waste 90 percent of their energy as heat) to light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
- Turn your water heater down to 120˚F. This can save about 550 pounds of CO2 a year
- Installing a low-flow showerhead to reduce hot water use can save 350 pounds of CO2. Taking shorter showers helps, too.
- Lower your thermostat in winter and raise it in summer. Use less air conditioning in the summer; instead opt for fans, which require less electricity. And check out these other ways to beat the heat without air conditioning.
- Wash clothes in cold water.75 percent of the total energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions produced by a single load of laundry come from warming the water itself. That’s unnecessary, especially because studies have shown that washing in cold water is just as effective as using warm water.
Invest in Climate Projects
A carbon offset is an amount of money you can pay for a project that reduces greenhouse gases somewhere else. If you offset one ton of carbon, the offset will help capture or destroy one ton of greenhouse gases that would otherwise have been released into the atmosphere. Offsets also promote sustainable development and increase the use of renewable energy. You can purchase carbon offsets to compensate for any or all of your other carbon emissions as well.
Recommendations
- Climate Justice Scholarship For Only Environmental Students
- Introduction to Ecology | +PDF
- Top 15 Best Nonprofit Organizations in Canada
- Top 10 Non-Government Organizations in The Philippines
- The 10 Best Climate Change Organizations in Canada
- Top 20 Climate Change Activist Groups