A lot of talk regarding the USAID funding pause as good people, projects and communities will face a hit. Having worked on an USAID project for a year, the people who work on these projects are on a regional scale and some of the cutting edge action research is performed.

As we reflect on alternatives to the grant based approach, this is a revealing nugget on the western imperatives of aid from Amitav Ghosh’s stunning work, Wild Fictions.

The architecture of climate action is biased towards the global, while impact of climate change is rooted in the local context. The way the architecture is configured, determines whether the local deserves to be on the priority of climate action.

Carbon offsets are useful as commodification is a precursor to modular architecture, which are traded as stocks in a bourse. Low friction is imperative for scale. Carbon markets work well at high volumes, thus national and regional scale architectures will thrive. Carbon offset projects such as NbS which have scale will attract large capital investments rather than a cook stove project.

For local impact, we need a different offset type, which social impact bonds need to meet carbon offsets. There is scope for financial inclusion there.