Who we are
The Institute for Climate and Society is a non-profit institution that acts as a coordination platform for the Brazilian climate field, strategically connecting civil society, the public sector, the private sector, the scientific community, and funders to transform knowledge and resources into structuring results into transformative outcomes for the country’s sustainable development.
We work on strategic resource management, facilitating multi-sectoral dialogues, supporting the production of technical knowledge, structuring climate finance mechanisms, and strengthening the institutional capacity of partners.
The transition to a low-carbon world has moved beyond rhetoric to become an economic, regulatory, and geopolitical agenda. In this context, Brazil has unique comparative advantages: biodiversity, a renewable energy mix, agro-industrial capacity, water and forest resources, critical minerals, territorial scale, and geopolitical relevance.
The Institute for Climate and Society works to transform these assets into concrete climate solutions that serve as the foundation for development with social justice.
Purpose
Contributing to turning Brazil into a more prosperous and just country, with climate solutions that the world needs.
Mission
Orchestrating Brazil’s climate field to turn knowledge and resources into structuring actions to promote mitigation, adaptation, and resilience.
Vision
A Brazil that contributes to global decarbonization by generating prosperity and reducing inequality.
Values
Plurality
We believe in active listening and in the convergence of diverse voices, perspectives, and territories. We operate in a nonpartisan autonomous manner, actively seeking multisector collaboration, and ensuring that all stakeholders—including those that most often lack a voice—may have a role in discussing and developing solutions.
Technical Rigor
We operate on technical and scientific foundations aligned with the current state of knowledge, adhering to reliable standards, principles, and methodologies that ensure the robustness of our proposals. This rigor underpins our legitimacy.
Systemic Approach
We understand the interdependencies between climate, the economy, and society. We apply the Theory of Change to identify levers, causal relationships, and pathways that transform isolated actions into structural and lasting impact.
Pragmatism
We believe the climate agenda may only advance when it is implementable. Therefore, we anchor our proposals in economic, political, and social realities, prioritizing solutions that work within existing conditions while maintaining ambition.
Transparency
We actively and accessibly share and explain our accounts, criteria, processes, and knowledge, ensuring that our actions and results are traceable, understood, and auditable by all our stakeholders.
History
Founded in 2015, the Institute for Climate and Society was established to address the need within the Brazilian climate sector to coordinate—independently and with technical rigor—the various actors and resources required to advance the climate agenda in Brazil.
Since its founding, the iCS has mobilized more than US$156 million in grants, supporting over 500 organizations across all regions of Brazil through more than 1,300 grants.Throughout this period, it has contributed to formulating and implementing public climate policies, integrating the climate agenda into economic logic, strengthening civil society organizations, and projecting Brazil’s presence in key multilateral forums.