The Global South is not Waiting: Climate Solutions from the Frontlines
About the Event
On the sidelines of the London Climate Week this year Goonj invites you to an evening of conversation, reflection, and learning on one of the most urgent questions of our time: What can we learn about climate resilience from the people living with climate impacts every day?
For over two decades, Goonj has worked alongside communities affected by floods, cyclones, earthquakes, droughts, and other humanitarian crises across India. In that journey, some of our most important lessons on resilience have come from the very people who live with uncertainty, disruption, and change every day.
Across the Global South, communities on the frontlines of climate change are not waiting for solutions—they are already creating them. Drawing on local knowledge, frugal innovation, collective action, and deep understanding of their realities, they are adapting in ways that are practical, effective, and sustainable. Yet despite being closest to the challenges, their experiences, insights, and solutions receive only a fraction of the attention, trust, and resources flowing through global climate systems.
Who Should Attend
This session brings together practitioners, philanthropists, impact investors, and changemakers to explore what it will take to shift capital, visibility, and decision-making closer to standing with and learning from these communities.
About the Exhibition
Complementing the conversation is Disasters: Myths and Realities, a powerful photo exhibition by Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, Ashoka and Schwab Fellow Anshu Gupta, Founder, Goonj & Gram Swabhimaan. Drawing from over two decades of his personal work in disaster-affected regions, the exhibition nudges for a rethink on conventional disaster narratives, revealing the human cost of disasters but more importantly the courage, dignity, resilience, and collective resilience of people.
Panellists
▪️ Anshu Gupta – Founder, Goonj
▪️ Ashif Shaikh – Founder & CEO, People's Courage International (PCI)
▪️ Khushboo Singhania – Climate Finance Executive, British International Investment
▪️ Nakul Zaveri – Partner, LeapFrog Investments
▪️ Rajat Sindhu – Global Climate Initiatives Program Officer, Oak Foundation
▪️ Runa Khan – Founder and Executive Director, Friendship NGO
About Goonj
Goonj is a pioneering social enterprise that reimagines urban surplus as a resource for rural development, dignity, and climate resilience. Over more than two decades, it has built community-led models connecting material reuse, disaster response, the circular economy, and grassroots development, and has emerged as a first responder to climate emergencies across India mobilising pan-India civic participation and building societal alliances for rapid response.