Kenyan climate change advocate wins global award

Climate Breakthrough awardee Mohamed Adow. He is the Director and Founder of think tank Power Shift Africa.

A Kenyan climate policy activist has bagged the global the Climate Breakthrough Award in recognition of his work addressing climate change.

Mohamed Adow, the Director and Founder of think tank Power Shift Africa in Nairobi, is this year’s one of two awardees.

The second recipient of the award is Nicole Rycroft, the Executive Director Canada-based Canopy, a not-for-profit organisation that works with stakeholders in forestry to develop solutions aimed at protecting last-frontier forests.

The award is given to strategists to afford them the time, space, and resources to develop and implement new strategies to confront and mitigate the growing climate crisis.

The initiative seeks to launch breakthrough efforts to tackle climate change by identifying, supporting and unleashing innovative leaders with transformative strategies.

Over the next three years, the awardees will each receive a USD3 million-dollar grant and tailored support from the Climate Breakthrough Project to bring new strategies from idea to fruition.

“The Climate Breakthrough Project finds exceptional leaders capable of pursuing strategies that would affect entire industries or countries and materially change the lives of millions of people. Mohamed and Nicole have the drive and the rare ability to make change at an immense scale,” said Climate Breakthrough Project Executive Director Savanna Ferguson.

New Climate Breakthrough Awardees, Mohamed Adow and Nicole Rycroft.

Adow founded Power Shift Africa, a non-governmental organisation and think tank, in 2018 to mobilise climate action in Africa and shift climate and energy policies to zero carbon. He spent a decade at the intersection of international development and climate as the Global Climate Policy Lead for Christian Aid.

“It’s such a privilege to be chosen for the Climate Breakthrough Award. For a long time, Africa has been the victim of a climate crisis its people did almost nothing to cause. Now the continent is emerging as an example for the rest of the world as it starts to power its development using clean, renewable energy, rather than dirty fossil fuels. But this seismic shift in approach is far from guaranteed and requires African leadership to make it happen,” said Adow.

With the Climate Breakthrough Award, he plans to strengthen African leadership to guide the world toward more ambitious global climate policies.

“I will use this award to help build a platform that brings together leading political and economic voices from the continent, along with experts and grassroots organisers, to ensure Africa fulfils its true potential as a progressive force for climate action. With Africa hosting the UN climate negotiations in 2022, there has never been a more crucial time to put the African voice at the heart of the global climate conversation,” he added.

Launched in 2016, the Climate Breakthrough Project award has been given to 11 outstanding leaders from all over the world so far. Previous winners have come from Australia, China, Canada, Argentina, Vietnam, Indonesia, the United Kingdom and the United States.