Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

The Degrees Initiative has been funded by a broad range of internationally recognised and respected philanthropists and philanthropic organisations, which are dedicated to tackling the climate crisis and to capacity development in the Global South. We are transparent about all our funders. We publish a full list of current and past donors.

We believe that SRM should only be considered as a potential temporary supplement to reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, which must remain the primary focus of climate policy. We do not accept funding from donors who do not share this belief. 

Specifically, we will reject donations if the source: 

• is not legal 
• is not publicly transparent  
• has substantial ties to climate-change denialism or the fossil fuel industry 
• claims that SRM should be an alternative to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, or 
• seeks to interfere in the execution of our grant programmes.

Yes. We do not accept funding from donors that request public anonymity, as we are committed to full transparency.

The world is not on track to meet its international climate change goals and risks and impacts are rising. Countries in the Global South are feeling the biggest impacts of climate change and face the greatest risks from future warming. 

If SRM could work to reduce climate impacts, they stand to gain the most. But if SRM goes wrong or is rejected prematurely, they stand to lose the most. 

It is therefore critical that the countries of the Global South play a more central role in the evaluation of SRM. The more they understand SRM and its implications, the better placed they will be to shape SRM governance arrangements, to stand up for their interests, and to resist any external attempts to persuade them to support or oppose SRM.

We fund both climate and social science research on SRM. 

Our Degrees Modelling Fund, launched in 2018, provides grants to research teams in developing countries that want to understand how the physical impacts of SRM could affect their local climate. This is done using computer models, much like research on the impacts of global warming. In fact, climate scientists use the same models to research SRM as they do to understand climate change. 

They start by simulating a world with higher global temperatures and then they simulate the same world where SRM has been used to reduce global temperatures. By comparing the warmed world with the SRM world, they can learn more about which climate impacts might be reduced by SRM, or made worse, or just changed. 

With this method, our funded teams are investigating the impacts of SRM and climate change on, for example, extreme weather, food security, public health, sea-level rise and biodiversity. 

Our Socio-Political Fund, launched in 2024, allows researchers to delve into the social, political, and ethical dimensions of SRM that affect their regions and their role in global discussions. These studies involve reviews, interviews, or economic and health modelling approaches, and investigate knowledge, perspectives, governance and ethical implications of SRM.

No, we do not fund any physical experiments that involve releasing materials. All our funded projects involve either computer modelling or socio-political studies.

New projects are selected via open calls for proposals and a process of independent external peer review. Degrees does not decide who to award grants to; the selections are made based on external expert recommendations. During review, these experts look for: 

• research team experience and knowledge 
• a well-developed research topic and suitable method 
• project feasibility 
• benefits to the country or region.

No, we do not commission research or tell our funded teams what to research. All teams propose their own research agendas and are accepted for funding based on the criteria outlined in the answer above, by a panel of subject-matter experts external to Degrees.

No, all researchers are independent. We just use ‘Degrees researchers’ as a shorthand for researchers who receive some funding from us to conduct SRM-specific studies alongside their other work.

All results are published in peer-reviewed open-access academic journals. We also publish summaries and links to all funded research results.

Climate models are improving all the time, and while there are still some unknowns, our researchers use the most up-to-date models. However, models are less accurate at local levels, and this is particularly true for the Global South, where there is often less climate data available. 

Alongside funding research, we are also working with our researchers to improve data quality and access across the Global South, so climate and SRM models produce the most accurate results possible.