The Aspen Climate Innovators Initiative, led by Aspen Global Innovators Group (AGI) in partnership with the John P. & Anne Welsh McNulty Foundation, is designed to identify, support, and amplify frontline leaders advancing community-driven climate solutions. Grounded in the recognition that local climate innovators are often underfunded, overlooked, and working without the support needed to scale, the initiative invests in leaders poised for significant impact.
As part of this initiative, AGI launched the Aspen Climate Innovators Accelerator, an intensive year-long experience focused on strengthening fellows’ leadership, voice, visibility, and ability to scale their solutions.
OVERVIEW OF THE ASPEN CLIMATE INNOVATORS ACCELERATOR
The Accelerator year includes communications coaching and training for investment pitches and public engagement, access to transformative spaces, leadership training through stimulating dialogue, values-based introspection, and peer support.
By the end of this year, leaders will have identified and begun to address the constraints required to scale their climate goals and community-driven solutions. They will demonstrate a path to accelerated scalability, experience increased visibility, and the opportunity to pitch their work to new investors. Innovators will have shaped policy and funding conversations through tailored messaging and sustained strategic engagement, strengthened their ventures with enhanced leadership skills and expanded networks, and joined a cohort of climate leaders equipped to champion equitable solutions on the global stage.
WHY NOW?
At its core, addressing the trajectory of climate change is dependent upon innovation and behavioral change at the local, community level. Yet, community based leaders pioneering proven, effective solutions to climate change face systemic barriers to scale, visibility and influence. While the lion's share of climate finance flows to large enterprises, innovative solutions led by Global South and underserved U.S. community leaders struggle to scale. These frontline innovators often work in isolation, without the platforms, networks, and strategic communications support needed to shape innovation landscapes and funding agendas that will define our collective future.
THE GAPS WE ARE HERE TO CLOSE
This accelerator builds on the Aspen Global Innovators Group's tested model to ensure that Global South and frontline climate leaders are not just heard but positioned to lead the solutions our future requires. AGI supported 291 leaders across 54 countries, reaching 1.8 million people and catalyzing $5–10 million annually for fellow enterprises. AGI's emphasis on strategic storytelling has consistently elevated fellows to global platforms such as United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP), TIME 100, the Hilton Humanitarian Prize, World Economic Forum, Skoll World Forum, United Nations General Assembly, World Health Assembly, and TED, while shaping narratives that move policy and funding agendas.
PROGRAM PILLARS
The program is structured around four interconnected pillars, each working together to enhance your voice, visibility, and impact.
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Alice Ruhweza
President, AGRA
Alice Ruhweza is working to improve food security and income for 30 million smallholder farming households across Africa. Previously she served as Regional Director for Africa at WWF, and at Conservation International as Executive Director of the Vital Signs Programme. At UNDP she led the Global Environment Finance Unit for Africa, mobilizing more than $600 million for environmental initiatives across 40+ sub-Saharan countries.
Thilmeeza Hussain
Director, United Nations Regional Commissions New York Office
Thilmeeza Hussain leads strategic coordination and engagement across the five Regional Commissions, strengthening their collective voice within the multilateral system.
Prior to her current role, she served as Permanent Representative of the Maldives to the United Nations, concurrently as Ambassador to the United States and non-resident High Commissioner to Canada. She also served as Special Envoy to the President of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Angélica María Mayolo Obregón
Former Minister of Culture of Colombia | Research Fellow, MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative
Angélica María Mayolo Obregón served as Minister of Culture of Colombia and as Executive President of the Chamber of Commerce in Buenaventura. She holds a Bachelor's in Administrative Law from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali and a Master's in International Law from UCLA. She is currently a Research Fellow at the MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative, exploring the intersections of culture, governance, and environmental policy, with deep expertise in Colombia's Pacific coastal communities.
Dr. Katherine K. Wilkinson
Author, All We Can Save & Climate Wayfinding | Co-founder, The All We Can Project
Dr. Katherine Wilkinson is a writer, teacher, and climate communicator whose work shifts cultural narratives about what is possible. Her publications include the forthcoming Climate Wayfinding, the bestselling anthology All We Can Save, the podcast A Matter of Degrees, and the New York Times bestseller Drawdown. She co-founded and leads The All We Can Project and was previously principal writer and editor-in-chief at Project Drawdown. She holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. Time magazine named her one of fifteen 'Women Who Will Save the World' in 2019.
Greg Gershuny
VP & Executive Director, Aspen Institute Energy & Environment Program | Co-Director, Aspen Ideas: Climate
Greg Gershuny is VP and Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Energy and Environment Program and Co-Director of Aspen Ideas: Climate, a major annual public forum on climate solutions. Prior to joining Aspen in 2016, he served as Chief of Staff for Energy Policy at the U.S. Department of Energy, and in several White House roles including Director of Energy and Environment at PPO and Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy Advisor under President Obama.
