Climate Change and Environment
The world faces a climate crisis that is already affecting economies and societies and exacerbating inequalities in all corners of the globe. We urgently need to adapt to climate change, mitigate its effects, and implement policies and actions to reduce loss and damage to people and the planet from adverse weather and climate events. A significant share of international aid, along with private sector flows and much voluntary action and funding, is spent on addressing climate change and its impacts. More is required, and soon. The challenges are immense, but so are the opportunities to transition to a clean, green world.
To seize these opportunities we need to learn fast. And to learn we need tools to capture change, measure progress, and understand failures. The Agulhas Climate Hub offers a diverse, multidisciplinary team with extensive experience of providing evaluation, learning and knowledge services, together with strategic advice and evidence-based policy development. We offer expertise in achieving a just transition to a low-carbon future, enhancing national and international climate action, and enabling more climate resilient societies. The Hub also plays a valuable role in convening and facilitating initiatives across a diversity of key players in policy, advocacy, business, research and academia. We support clients to perform better and have a higher impact in their work.
Our expertise includes research, evaluation, impact and risk assessments, case studies and stories of change, think pieces and policy briefs, and convening and facilitating international roundtables. We also support wider knowledge dissemination activities for our clients including at COP24, COP 25 , COP26, COP27 and COP28.
Our thematic expertise
Climate adaptation and resilience
Climate adaptation helps us to protect our existing resources. It can save lives and reduce the long-term costs of responding to climate hazards. It also helps to build more resilient societies and communities, capable of absorbing shock and continually evolving in a changing world. Our approach helps clients to navigate challenges to adaptation, discover and implement solutions, and support more resilient and sustainable societies.
Climate strategy and action
Our work helps clients to build their organisational capacity to drive more effective climate action, interrogating strategy, developing and refining theories of change and embedding robust MEL systems into their programming. We also evaluate the impact of their interventions, providing evidence-based learning to inform their strategies, ambitions and programming.
Environmental equity and climate justice
An approach that takes human diversity as its starting point is better equipped to deepen our understanding of how actions impact communities, and build alliances for climate action at scale and pace. Our work conducting global and national level research, assured fund-level approaches, convening discussions and developing country case studies to share examples of equitable and just climate action across sectors and countries helps clients to recognise the co-benefits of this approach.
Oceans, land, forests and biodiversity
Using evidence-based analysis to derive knowledge and insights, we help our clients to integrate nature into their strategic approach by recognising how nature affects and is affected by the work they do. We have conducted global-level portfolio analyses of funding for oceans, forests and biodiversity as well as project specific assessments, to identify actionable recommendations to improve programming for nature renewal.
Climate, fragility, displacement, and conflict
While the effects of climate change are highly context specific, disadvantaged and low-income communities will be hit hardest by impacts. While climate change can function as a threat multiplier and amplify the risk of conflict, conflict-affected societies are also less able to tackle the adverse effects of climate change. We work at the forefront of the climate-conflict nexus, providing knowledge and insights to help our clients understand and respond to the interdependencies between climate, fragility, displacement and conflict.
Carbon mitigation and green growth
Carbon mitigation and green growth are related approaches that can reduce adverse climate impacts and promote a safer, cleaner, greener planet. As the world shifts away from fossil fuel dependence and towards a greener growth model we need to pilot, innovate, replicate, take innovations to scale and keep learning. Our approach helps clients to measure and monitor their progress, to test new approaches and to learn as they do this.
Sustainable cities
Sustainable cities play an important role in reducing carbon emissions and conserving our natural resources. We work with governments, multilateral agencies and foundations to better understand how their policies and programmes can support the development of cleaner, healthier cities. Our sustainable cities work focuses on clean air, sustainable transport, green infrastructure, urban agriculture and renewable energy.
Climate finance
he volumes of finance going into climate mitigation and adaptation must increase many times over, and quickly, to support a systemic transition to a low carbon and climate resilient world. We are a trusted partner to international organisations, donors, multilateral funds and foundations, working collaboratively with our clients to promote the effective use of scaled-up finance to meet the climate challenge, providing high quality research and evaluation and provide practical advice.
