Climate: Possible | Impact Report 2025

Local leaders. Proven solutions. A more resilient world.

Since 2023, Climate: Possible has been a proving ground for Mercy Corps' most innovative, locally-grounded climate work—testing new approaches and centering the communities that are taking action.

Mercy Corps' climate approach starts with this reality: that the communities closest to the problem are best placed to lead the solution — and that our role is to find, resource, and help scale what they're already building.

When Mercy Corps rebrands to Prosper Global in September 2026, the learning and momentum Climate: Possible activated will be fully integrated into our global strategy. Climate: Possible is no longer a campaign. It's core to who we are and how we work.

Our approach

Mercy Corps' climate approach starts with a conviction: the communities most exposed to climate change are already developing solutions. Our role is to find them, resource them, and help them scale—across two goals. Adaptation helps communities withstand climate shocks and protect their livelihoods. Mitigation accelerates low-carbon development so communities can build cleaner, more resilient economies. Often, the best climate action pursues both.

Acting before disaster strikes

Anticipatory action—delivering support before a disaster hits, not after—is one of the most effective tools in climate response. Mercy Corps invests in early warning networks, climate forecasting, and pre-positioned cash and supplies designed to reach households before floodwaters rise or cyclones make landfall.

Building economic resilience

Lasting resilience requires sustainable livelihoods. We work alongside communities to strengthen the markets and systems that underpin economic opportunity — helping farmers access climate-resilient resources, supporting entrepreneurs to rebuild, and creating conditions where local businesses can grow long after aid ends. Local markets and private sector partners are essential to enabling and scaling climate solutions. In settings where clean energy access remains out of reach for most, we work with local organizations and financing partners to change that.

Walking the talk

We hold ourselves to the same standard we ask of others. In 2021, Mercy Corps committed to reducing our carbon footprint by 50% by 2030. Every year since, we've published our Greening Mercy Corps report disclosing our emissions, our progress, and the work still ahead.

In Mundri, South Sudan, our team secured funding for a solar and battery installation—delivering reliable power around the clock, no diesel fumes, and no noise for the office and its neighbors. One office acts as a case study, but also a model for how sustainability gets built from the ground up.

Climate Innovation Fund

Our Climate Innovation Fund exists for one reason: to give promising, locally-led climate solutions the resources and runway to prove themselves.

Mercy Corps has spent decades building platforms that test and scale what works. The fund draws on that infrastructure—our global program portfolio, local partnerships, technical teams, and advocacy networks—to find promising approaches that haven’t yet been tested, and give them resources to grow. That means identifying local innovators, supporting first-of-a-kind pilots, building evidence, and determining how solutions, once proven, can eventually travel through markets, governments, and global partners.

Cacao, carbon, and the farmers remaking the land

Catatumbo, in Colombia’s Norte de Santander region, is both one of the country’s most biodiverse areas and also one of its most conflict-affected. Farmers here have spent years navigating drought, flooding, and the legacy of illicit crop economies. Mercy Corps has worked with cacao producers in this region since 2018, helping families build sustainable livelihoods.

This pilot set out to answer this question: could a nature-based farming approach not only strengthen those livelihoods, but also restore the ecosystem and create entirely new income streams through environmental markets?

How it worked

Working with Colcocoa—Colombia’s largest cacao buyer—and PlanT Reforestation, Mercy Corps piloted syntropic agroforestry across six cacao farms. Syntropic agroforestry mimics natural forest succession: instead of a single crop, farmers layer species at different heights. For example, planting cacao below shade trees, surrounded by fruit trees and ground-level plants. This creates a self-sustaining system that improves soil health, reduces chemical inputs, and protects crops during drought or heavy rain.

The pilot also deployed 18 acoustic recorders across the farms, using AI to document 148 bird species—a scientifically validated proxy for ecosystem health. And it established a rigorous carbon sequestration baseline, to determine whether these farms could participate in voluntary carbon markets—giving farmers a new income stream independent of cacao price fluctuations.

Adonay’s story

Adonay has farmed cacao in Tibu most of his life. He walks his plots every day, pruning, fertilizing, and listening to the birds. Even as cacao prices dropped by as much as 50% last year, he stayed committed. “Cacao gave me a hand when I needed it most,” he said.

When Mercy Corps’ pilot launched, Adonay joined without hesitation. Over six months, he learned to produce organic compost from farm waste, planted fruit trees and plantain alongside his cacao, and began moving away from chemical fertilizers. For Adonay, the program is about more than yields.

His vision for the future: “In fifteen years, I see myself producing even more cacao and waking up every morning to the sound of the birds.”

Why this matters

This pilot produced the first rigorous environmental characterization of cacao production systems in Norte de Santander. The six pilot farms collectively remove 301.5 tons of carbon per year — the equivalent of taking roughly 65 passenger vehicles off the road annually. Agroforestry systems captured 70% more carbon per hectare than monoculture farming. Forest fragments captured nearly five times as much. At typical voluntary carbon market rates, those 301.5 tons could generate between $3,000 and $4,500 in annual carbon credit income for participating farmers — a new, diversified revenue stream independent of cacao prices, and one that could grow as the model scales.

Getting ahead of disaster in one of the world’s most challenging places

Myanmar is one of the most climate-exposed countries in Southeast Asia—and one of the hardest places to deliver aid. Active conflict, governmental challenges, and communities reachable only by boat or motorcycle create conditions where traditional disaster response can arrive too late.

The question this pilot set out to answer: can you build a system that reaches people with resources before a flood or cyclone strikes, in a place where almost none of the usual infrastructure exists?

How it worked

Working with Yaung Chi Thit (YCT), a local civil society organization, and GreenAnt, a specialized climate forecasting firm, Mercy Corps piloted a community-driven anticipatory action model across 11 villages in Rakhine State—some of the most flood- and cyclone-exposed communities in the region.

The model works like this: satellite data and AI-driven flood forecasting generate early warnings tied to specific rainfall and flood thresholds. Nine of the eleven villages did not have phone or internet access. The team built a seven-channel communication system to work around this: digital alerts for staff, community relay networks, boat-based message delivery, loudspeakers, and door-to-door visits for the most vulnerable households.

Cash was prepositioned in advance and ready to be distributed to households quickly and securely when triggers were activated.

No flood thresholds were triggered during the pilot period—which is expected, not a failure. The purpose of anticipatory action is to build the system, validate it, and make sure it’s ready. The pilot demonstrated that the system works, communities are prepared, and the evidence is strong enough to scale significantly.

Up before sunrise

Many of the villages participating in the pilot are reachable only by boat. Often before the rest of the village is awake, program volunteers are already moving—recording rainfall data, compiling reports, and making sure early warning information reaches families before the water does. When telecommunication networks fail during the monsoon, as they frequently do, volunteers travel regular boat routes to deliver printed weather forecasts and rainfall updates directly to villages by hand.

These volunteers are the bridge between satellite forecast data and household decisions. When alerts are issued, they coordinate with village leaders to spread warnings through loudspeakers and direct communication. Youth groups support elderly residents and people with disabilities when warnings require action. The system connecting a weather forecast in a city to a family preparing their home in a remote village runs, in large part, on the commitment of people who wake up before dawn to make it work.

Why this matters

The GreenAnt forecasting platform delivered the first village-level flood modeling in Myanmar—predicting flood risk at 100-meter resolution, far more precise than global tools that cannot distinguish between communities just kilometers apart. That precision matters: the framework developed through this pilot was shared with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and informed inter-agency anticipatory action protocols now used across Myanmar. The pilot positions Mercy Corps as a leading actor on anticipatory action in fragile and conflict-affected settings in Southeast Asia.

When the land goes barren, women lead the way forward

The Al-Qurnah district of Basra sits in one of Iraq’s most climate-exposed regions. Rising water salinity, persistent drought, and shrinking farmland have eroded livelihoods that families here have depended on for generations. Women carry much of the farming burden while also facing the steepest barriers to resources, training, and decision-making.

This pilot set out to answer: What would it take to give women farmers in one of Iraq's most climate-exposed regions the tools, knowledge, and networks to reclaim their land — and their seat at the table?

How it worked

At the center of the model is the Community Market Hub—a space within the existing Al-Qurnah Farmer Union where women access training, connect with agricultural experts, and build market relationships. Rather than create something new, the program strengthened an institution the community already trusted.

Eight women were selected as Agribusiness Champions through a transparent, community-led process, receiving intensive training from University of Basrah researchers. Six received grants to launch their own projects:

• Four solar-powered greenhouse systems with drip irrigation, allowing year-round cultivation of okra on land previously made unworkable by drought and salinity
• Two palm farm restoration projects, rehabilitating land damaged by climate change and replanting with climate-adapted trees

The program also established a Women in Agriculture Committee to amplify women’s voices with local government—building the foundation for lasting policy change.

Fatima’s story

Fatima, a mother of five from Al-Qurnah, watched climate change transform her family’s farm over years. Water salinity damaged crops. The rising cost of diesel to run irrigation generators pushed the family into debt. Eventually, they couldn’t afford to pump water at all and the plants died. “I remember when our orchard was green, and we used to pick the okra, cucumber, and eggplant. Our life was happy, and we used to sell at the market. Now our land is barren,” she said.

Through WAVES, Fatima installed a greenhouse, a modern drip irrigation system, and a solar energy system that now powers the farm around the clock. The results were immediate. Today, her farm is producing again. She has become a source of inspiration for other women farmers in her community.

In the drylands, help arrives before the drought

When drought threatens to wipe out a pastoralist family's entire herd — and their main source of income — what would it mean to obtain support beforehand?

Our impact investing arm, Mercy Corps Ventures (MCV), put an anticipatory action pilot to the test in Kenya's Laikipia and Kajiado counties. This region is often called the Drylands, a part of sub-Saharan Africa where more than 50 million people depend on pastoralism for their livelihoods. Using satellite data to monitor pasture conditions, the pilot automatically transferred blockchain-powered cash to households before drought reached a critical threshold—giving families the resources to take anticipatory action to protect  their livestock and livelihoods. The most recent results are striking: households consuming three meals per day increased from 13% to 77%. Additionally, 85% of participants reported reduced financial stress, and the cost of delivering funds was 64% lower than traditional transfer methods—with pastoralists receiving cash within hours of a trigger rather than the seven to ten days typical of conventional programs. The model is now expanding to additional regions and climate triggers, with the goal of building a replicable system for the most climate-vulnerable communities globally.

This work is one example of how Mercy Corps Ventures backs locally-led climate solutions at scale. This year, MCV celebrated ten years as a leading climate resilience investor, with 61 portfolio companies operating across 87 countries, including 27 of the most climate-vulnerable nations. Over that decade, portfolio companies have contributed to 1.6 billion hectares conserved or adopting regenerative practices, 233,000 tons of CO₂ reduced or avoided, and $2.9 billion in financing mobilized to small businesses and individuals. An 83% follow-on funding rate reflects both the strength of the model and the growing market viability of climate solutions built by and for emerging markets. In 2025 alone, MCV made seven new investments, and its portfolio companies served 11.4 million customers and generated $124 million in co-investment and follow-on funding—charging into the next decade with expanded capacity to back what works.

Read the Mercy Corps Ventures 2025 Annual Impact Report.

The work continues

Climate action is fundamental to our mission—and we can’t do it alone.

Funding solutions to help communities cope, adapt, and thrive in the face of climate change requires long-term commitment. Support from partners creates the flexibility that Mercy Corps needs to take bigger, bolder action—to test new ideas, scale what works, and reach people in the places most at risk.

Thank you

Bold climate action across Mercy Corps' programs wouldn't be possible without the collective efforts of our donors, partners, and the communities we serve. Together, we are testing innovative solutions, scaling what works, and helping people build lasting resilience in the face of climate change.

Supporters of the Climate: Possible campaign represent a new model of philanthropic partnership—one that trusts locally-led solutions, invests in evidence, and takes a long view on what climate action requires. Their commitment make our climate resilience work possible, and will shape how Mercy Corps delivers climate programming for years to come.