The Global South — from Sub-Saharan Africa to the Pacific Islands, from the Amazon Basin to Western Asia — is at the forefront of a crisis that was largely created by just a few wealthy nations. These regions are facing the most severe and immediate consequences of climate change: rising oceans, prolonged droughts, accelerating deforestation, disrupted food systems, and mass displacement. Yet these same communities are generating some of the world's most innovative, locally rooted, and human-centered climate solutions.

While global attention on climate justice in the Global South has never been higher, the lens used is disproportionately centered on the perspectives of Western nations and large international institutions. Additionally, much of this coverage only focuses on the massive scale of the problem, overlooking those working tirelessly to combat it and the consistent progress that has been made.

Global Voices Spotlight shifts that narrative. Rather than framing the Global South as a site of climate vulnerability and victimhood, our reporting will center the ingenuity, agency, and leadership of communities, activists, scientists, and entrepreneurs across Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Western Asia and North Africa, and the Pacific. We focus on the people making brilliant advancements in green research, launching impressive conservation plans, harnessing Indigenous knowledge and wisdom, and achieving concrete victories in the fight to restore the planet’s ecosystems.

We have so many stories to tell, and not enough budget for all of them. The global funding crisis — controlled by many of the same actors opposing climate action — has made it harder to report on these issues, even as that reporting is more and more vital. Donate now, and your contribution will go towards paying our editors and other staff so that we can offer you more of these urgent insights from around the world.

Rewards

Each individual donation of $25 or more will receive an eBook copy of the full Spotlight issue once it’s complete.

Stretch goals (cumulative)

$1,000: An additional Undertones column analyzing narrative trends – we have more ideas for fascinating narrative analysis stories than we can produce at our current budget, help us add another one!

$1,500: An additional online panel, bringing together experts, journalists, and analysts to discuss an aspect of the theme!

$3,000: A podcast including follow-up interviews with editors and contributors, highlighting some of the most interesting stories in the Spotlight issue)

$10,000: An additional article from each of our regions. Most of our editors have far more article ideas on this topic than they can complete in their paid hours. Help us pay them more, and you get more fantastic insights into Positive Action on Climate!

$15,000: Surprise! Based on the topic and our learnings from it so far, we’ll choose an add-on that we think will add the most to our understanding of the Spotlight theme.

Any funds that don’t make it to a stretch goal level will still be used to support the Global Voices newsroom!

You can also support additional translation of all of our stories by donating to Lingua.