The Degrees Initiative

The Degrees Initiative is a UK-based charity that builds the capacity of developing countries to evaluate solar radiation management (SRM) climate engineering, a controversial proposal for reducing some of the impacts of climate change. The Degrees Initiative is neutral on whether SRM should ever be used, but we believe that developing countries should be empowered to conduct their own research and to play a central role in SRM discussions. The initiative has been registered as a UK charity since 2021, but it has been operating for ten years as the Solar Radiation Management Governance Initiative (SRMGI) and its work has received widespread acclaim.

Degrees’ programmatic work is centred on capacity-building through research grants and North–South and South-South collaboration schemes, outreach activities, and cross-cutting community-building. As part of this, Degrees runs workshops in the Global South that bring new voices into the SRM conversation, and our research funds support scientists and other experts in developing countries as they research what SRM could mean for their regions and become part of a global research community. Since 2018 the Degrees Modelling Fund has supported the first SRM impact analysis modelling research projects in South America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States. In 2023 we launched the Degrees Socio-Political Fund, the first ever programme of grants specifically for social science researchers in the Global South to study the social and political dimensions of SRM.

The Degrees Initiative has been steadily growing since becoming a charity, and plans to expand with ambition. Over the next few years, Degrees will offer grants to research teams in new countries and new disciplines, support the current teams as they develop into regional leaders, and keep building a well-connected global community of experts. All of this work comes in service of Degrees’ long-term goal: changing the environment in which decisions about SRM will be made, ensuring informed and confident representation from the climate-vulnerable countries of the Global South.