$300,000 up for grabs as AI for Climate Resilience 2025 seeks bold climate solutions

The AI for Climate Resilience 2025 programme, a new initiative from Klarna, is accepting applications. Its goal is to assist local, AI-driven climate adaptation projects in underprivileged, climate-vulnerable areas.

Klarna and Milkywire launched the AI for Climate Resilience program, which focuses on initiatives that support local communities in developing long-term resilience and adapting to a changing climate, including:

• Enhancing food security
• Reinforcing health systems
• Building coastal resilience

Milkywire, founded in 2018, has raised over $35 million, supported 140+ projects across 40+ countries, partnered with 27 carbon removal companies in 15 nations, protected over 1M hectares of land, and committed $6.6M to carbon removal pre-purchases.

Benefits 

Participants selected for the AI for Climate Resilience 2025 programme will have the opportunity to receive a $300,000 grant, as well as training, a community of practice, and a mentorship network.

Who can apply 

To be eligible for the AI for Climate Resilience 2025 programme, projects or initiatives must meet the following requirements to be considered for funding, support, or participation:

• Strategic alignment: proposals must tackle a specific climate impact issue that is outlined focus of the call
• Implementation-focused: teams must modify, localise, scale, or implement a concrete solution. Submissions that solely focus on research are not accepted
• Use of AI: the suggested use of AI should be responsible, cooperative, and show obvious promise. Candidates must present a convincing argument for how AI directly advances project goals
• Geographic focus: in low and middle-income countries, projects should assist underprivileged, climate-vulnerable communities
• Public-benefit purpose: to guarantee that results serve the public interest and have a quantifiable social and environmental impact, proposals must be dedicated to a public-benefit purpose. For-profit organisations must demonstrate that their projects will produce equitable results that directly benefit local communities and accord with public-benefit objectives

In order to determine which projects should receive financing priority, the evaluation criteria are intended to evaluate each project’s advantages and disadvantages.  Reviewers of the AI for Climate Resilience 2025 apply context-specific judgement within each criterion, such as disaster preparedness or agriculture, but similarly across all proposals, such as:

• Impact and equity potential: while tackling the underlying causes of inequality, it is imperative to lessen climate vulnerability with evident advantages for marginalised communities
• Local relevance and ownership: it should be co-designed with local stakeholders, supported by a robust local presence, and guarantee benefit-sharing and equitable governance
• Technical and adoption readiness: needs to exhibit scalability, usability, and AI adoption readiness, together with a well-defined user support strategy
• Risk reduction and protections: plans to deal with AI bias, guarantee openness, and stop environmental or societal damage
• Partnerships and team capacity: a solid track record, a capable team, and defined roles within solid alliances
•  Catalytic effect: a plausible route to scale or replication via finance, policy, or open-source approaches
•  Longevity: show a strategy for ongoing capacity building and long-term implementation

ALSO READ: Apply to win $100k grant at the Henry Arnhold Fellowship 2026

Key dates to remember

• Call for proposals open: Friday, July 4, 2025
• Deadline of proposals: Sunday, August 31, 2025
• Shortlisting and reviewing projects, meeting with advisory groups, and communicating with project teams again: September 2025
• Final decisions, contract signing and payouts: October 2025
• Project onboarding: November 2025 to December 2025
• Project start date: Thursday, January 1, 2026
• Project length: 12 to 18 Months

How to apply 

Interested applicants can apply for the AI for Climate Resilience 2025 programme via the official application website on or before  Sunday, August 31, 2025.

Do you have an innovative business (small, mid-scale business or startup) that adds value, creates opportunities or solves bold problems? Then you`ve got a story worth telling? Shoot us an email with SUBJECT “Story Worth Telling (+Name of Business)” to [email protected]