Why we exist

Our vision is for a just, prosperous world in which global average temperature rise is limited to 1.5C

We aim to compel leaders to take action at speed and scale. We do this by galvanising the collective power of business, investors and civil society to influence and accelerate policy change.

Our history

The climate crisis is here, and bringing damaging impacts to lives and livelihoods, our society and economies, and to our natural world. In this time of crisis, we draw inspiration from those who have made progress to date. The climate community has many heroes and has secured many victories. But the task ahead is huge, and we need to act now to hold global temperature rise to 1.5C – beyond which climate impacts become more unpredictable and unmanageable – and secure the future we want for ourselves and future generations.

That’s why in 2020, a consultation was conducted to look at what was driving progress on climate change, and vitally, what was holding the world back from the exponential change we need. They talked to 100 experts and identified two critical needs: the need to go beyond traditional networks and bring new allies into this fight; and the need to break down silos and build trust across different sections of the climate community. And so the idea of Climate Catalyst was born. 

This expert consultation led us to the model of a second organisation: Crisis Action, and their decades of experience using collective impact to drive ambitious policy change on humanitarian crises. We felt many of the core elements of the Crisis Action model – the emphasis on building collaboration, the focus on a handful of issues at any one time, and working behind the scenes to mobilise new actors – could all help unlock more decisive action on climate. 

The nature of the climate challenge is of course different to Crisis Action. We have taken inspiration from their work, adapted to a different context.