Climate Breakthrough Awardees

A veteran leader in environmental justice and community development, Denise Fairchild is dedicated to untangling the multidisciplinary root causes of climate change. SELECTION AND BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGIES Denise Fairchild exemplifies the key qualities of a Climate Breakthrough Awardee: ambition, a strategic mind, systems-changing thinking, and a track record of effecting change. Denise is the President and CEO of Emerald Cities Collaborative (ECC), a network of key U.S. nonprofits coalescing

Sara Jane Ahmed is a finance advisor and strategist who sees transitioning to a resilient and clean energy economy as the path to prosperity for the countries most vulnerable to climate change.  SELECTION AND BREAKTHROUGH STRATEGIES Few people have Sara’s ability to dive deeply into the technical while continuing to foster and strengthen a larger vision. Sara has deep expertise in financial and energy markets and uses this

Nicole Rycroft is an accomplished environmental activist, an Ashoka Fellow, and, unusually, a former physiotherapist and elite rower. A systems thinker, she confronts the world’s rapid and dangerous destruction of forests with the same holistic, solutions-focused perspective she once used to address the root cause of symptoms in a patient.  Over the last two decades, as the Founder and Executive Director of the Canada-based NGO Canopy, Nicole

Nguy Thi Khanh is a pioneer leader of Vietnam’s environmental movement and has played an instrumental role in shifting Vietnam from coal and towards renewables and energy efficiency. Khanh’s breakthrough strategy will focus on accelerating Vietnam’s clean energy economy, safeguarding clean air and water for public health, and sharing lessons with partners in Southeast Asia to usher in a clean energy era for the region. In 2011 the

Tzeporah Berman has a long record of leading and winning major environmental campaigns and negotiating significant policy victories. Now she is focused on curtailing the global oil and gas supply. She was a creator and lead negotiator of the Great Bear Rainforest agreement that protected 6 million hectares of old growth forests, co-founded Stand.earth (previously ForestEthics), and was co-director of Greenpeace’s Global Climate and Energy program

Bruce is the founder of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, which stopped the rush for new coal plants in America, and secured retirement of over half the country’s coal fleet. Early in his tenure as a Climate Breakthrough awardee, he explore novel climate mitigation strategies, including addressing emissions from natural gas in U.S. buildings and homes. Bruce then launched the electrification program at the Rocky Mountain

John is Executive Director of The Sunrise Project and co-founder of Unfriend Coal, now Insure Our Future, a network of NGOs and social movements calling for insurers to divest from and cease underwriting coal. The campaign has already made significant progress. At least 23 insurance companies, including Axa, Allianz, and Zurich, have already made major new commitments to reduce or eliminate their financial ties with the coal