Open Climate Fellowship

We are developing a network of Open Climate practitioners working across all facets of the open and climate movement who can advance climate justice with an open lens. 

The inaugural edition of the Open Climate Fellowship, supported by the Wikimedia Alliances Fund, brings together 7 open climate practitioners coming from various disciplinary and cultural backgrounds to engage in exchanges with other peers alongside activists, researchers, emerging leaders and other individuals working at the intersection of the open movement and the climate crisis.

During the 4-month program (February-May 2023) fellows will develop new and existing projects based on their communities and areas of interest through a facilitated peer-learning process, with support and mentorship from the Open Climate team. The cohort will also help shape public-facing programming and contents related to Open Climate’s mission, while learning in the open and contributing to the knowledge commons.

The aim of this program is also to encourage fellows to share the skills and experience gained from their fellowship with the communities and organizations that they are a part of, to ultimately develop a culture that translates the principles of open practices into the climate action movement.

Meet the 2023 Open Climate fellows

Our first fellow cohort was selected by the Open Climate team from over 270 applications collected through an open call process launched back in December 2022. They come from various disciplinary backgrounds, cultural contexts and different open communities. 

Why this fellowship

We are facing a critical planetary emergency. How we openly share knowledge for climate action is key to creating relevant local solutions for a global problem. However, there are few coordinated spaces for the open and climate movements to collaborate in knowledge production, sharing, reflection, and action.  

Open Climate seeks to create this space of exchange to bring together climate action and movement builders, and to fully connect them to the  open movement people, tools and approaches. We seek to identify opportunities for free and open source communities to support climate action and solutions.

Since our first community call in 2020, Open Climate has hosted conversations with people who bring insights about how open practices can strengthen climate action. Over the course of 12 community calls, we identified five issues where the open movement could become a key actor to pursue a sustainable future:

1.  Our information environment is polluted by companies and governments who deny or delay climate action. This can be countered by a robust knowledge commons.
2. Openness can help address the environmental impact of digital infrastructures.
3. Downscale climate science to local levels and work for the “smallest possible policy-maker.”
4. Freeing access to climate information can be done by growing the socio-technical capacity of community spaces.
5. The open movement is a cultural movement in principle, and it can offer value to other movements by operating intersectionally.

You can read more about these issues on Branch Magazine and the Climate Justice & the Knowledge Commons report.

Building on the insights from this journey, the Open Climate Fellowship aims to create a space for transdisciplinary collaboration, peer learning and community building. We are developing a network of Open Climate practitioners working across all facets of the open and climate movement who can advance climate justice with an open lens. 

Acknowledging the lack of similar opportunities, in particular for practitioners in the regions that are most affected, throughout this fellowship program, Open Climate offers a part-time paid professional development opportunity that provides a platform for learning, creative exchanges, and access to mentors and collaborators. 

Supporting fellows 

Want to support the meaningful work current Fellows are doing or fund future fellowship programs? Either as a partner organization or a funder, you can collaborate with us in our mission.

Please contact us at info@open-climate.org to learn more about how to partner with Open Climate.

More Information 

For more information about the Open Climate Fellowship, and to learn more about the application process, read the Call for Fellows Guidelines (now closed). 

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