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Celebrating African Women’s Day with Joy Kakenya Barta

In celebration of Africa’s Women’s Day on July 31st, we’re releasing a video with Joy Kakenya Barta, a participant of Brighter Green’s East African Young Women’s Leadership Initiative. Joy speaks about becoming a leader in her community as an advocate for gender equality and environmentalism. She relates her upbringing and involvement with social justice as a youth, and considers how her community projects have helped her define “leadership.” She also describes the experiences with gender inequality that led her to become a mentor for other young women and girls.

Joy is one of five young Maasai women who participated in the program, which is a joint project of Brighter Green and Tribal Link, in partnership with three indigenous non-governmental organizations: Parakuiyo Pastoralists Indigenous Community Development Organization (PAICODEO) in Tanzania, Simba Maasai Outreach Organization (SIMOO), and the Indigenous Information Network (IIN) in Kenya. Wangari Maathai inspired the program’s creation.

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Recent News

BRIGHTER GREEN JOINS WORK OF “ANIMAL CLUSTER” FOR THE ANNUAL SDG REVIEW

 Friday, July 16th, 13, marked the end of this year’s High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). The annual forum presents an opportunity to review the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030. Now in its ninth year, the theme of HLPF 2021 was “Sustainable and resilient recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that promotes the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.” Brighter Green is part of the Animal Issues Thematic Cluster (AITC), which works to get animal issues on the SDG agenda. Kwolanne Felix, a Columbia University Navab Fellow with Brighter Green, worked on a virtual exhibit for the HLPF that’s available for viewing here. The exhibit was paired with a July 13th side event entitled, “Harnessing the linkages between human, animal and environmental health and well-being to effectively combat biodiversity loss, prevent future pandemics and achieve sustainable development.” The event, which can be streamed here, featured a panel discussion with several Brighter Green allies, including Philip Lymbery from Compassion in World Farming and Pei Su from ActAsia.

 July 19, 2021
Goldman Environmental Prize Winners Announced: Brighter Green Nominee Wins

Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize

Since 1990, the Goldman Environmental Prize has been awarded to grassroots environmental leaders who have demonstrated remarkable efforts to protect and enhance the natural world. Each year, candidates for the prize are nominated by a diverse coalition of climate organizations, including, for the first time for the 2021 prize, Brighter Green. A jury composed of international leaders in the field of climate change then selects six individuals representing the six inhabited continents to receive an award. Often working with limited resources in underserved communities, these six individuals strive to achieve environmental justice despite assuming great personal risk. Past winners include Nobel peace prize recipient and former Brighter Green advisory board member Wangari Maathai (1991).

This year, we are thrilled and honored that environmental justice campaigner and organizer Sharon Lavigne, whom Brighter Green nominated, has been awarded the 2021 Goldman Prize for North America. Ms. Lavigne, a teacher turned activist, has been recognized for her work in disrupting the construction of a plastics manufacturing plant in her community in Louisiana. More information about Sharon and her grassroots organization, RISE St. James, can be found here. This year’s virtual ceremony, which is now available to stream, was hosted by actor/activist Jane Fonda and featured a special appearance by Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate. Ms. Nakate is currently working on a book with Brighter Green’s executive director Mia MacDonald that will be published in October, just before the next UN climate change summit. We congratulate all of this year’s winners for leading inspiring and often risky campaigns to both protect the natural world and human communities and stop environmental harms and injustices to people, non-human animals, and ecosystems.

 July 6, 2021
Brighter Green Research Quoted by the Guardian: Hurdles Remain in the Race Towards Cultivated Meat

In 2019, Martin Rowe, a senior fellow at Brighter Green who runs the Vegan America Project, published a paper detailing the future of plant-based and cellular meat and dairy products. Beyond The Impossible outlines the potential possibilities, as well as significant challenges, in the shift away from traditional animal agriculture. Recently, Rowe’s work was quoted in The Guardian in an article about cultivated meat startups. Rowe states that regulatory oversight will be needed to prevent companies from promising “a technology that changes everything and doesn’t exist.” Beyond The Impossible will be updated this fall to incorporate new developments in the emerging industry. Alternative protein is also attracting interest within the UN Food Systems Summit, with a “cluster” (akin to a working group) on the topic within one of the Summit’s five thematic action tracks.

 July 1, 2021

Joint Side Event at UNEA-4 in Nairobi, Kenya

The fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-4) is taking place from March 11-15, 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya. Learn More

Recent Events

Brighter Green at COP24

Brighter Green will be at this year’s Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24 for short). It’s taking place from December 3-14, 2018 in Katowice, Poland. Learn More

 December 4, 2018
Affiliate Event – Global Climate Action Summit

Brighter Green will be at the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) in San Francisco from September 12-14th. Beforehand, on the 11th, we will be hosting an Affiliate Event. Learn More

 September 5, 2018
Second Annual Good Food Hero Summit

Brighter Green is proud to be a co-host of The Good Food Hero Summit along with the Good Food Fund, part of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation. Learn More

 July 27, 2018

Our Mission

Brighter Green is a public policy action tank that works to raise awareness of and encourage policy action on issues that span the environment, animals, and sustainability. Based in New York, Brighter Green works in the U.S. and internationally with a focus on the countries of the global South and a strong commitment to ensuring and expanding equity and rights.

On its own and in partnership with other organizations and individuals, Brighter Green generates and incubates research and project initiatives that are both visionary and practical. It produces publications, websites, documentary films, and programs to illuminate public debate among policy-makers, activists, communities, influential leaders, and the media, with the goal of social transformation at local and international levels.

The Asia Program

Linking activists and organizations from across Asia and other parts of the world, the Asia Program focuses on the development of sustainable food systems through knowledge exchange and public education. Our work focuses on China, but we are expanding to countries across the continent. We have produced documentaries, published policy papers, organized speaking tours, and hosted conferences to foster critical, collaborative engagement on climate change and food systems across Asia.

Global Factory Farming

Intensive animal agriculture constitutes one of the greatest contributors to climate change. In an effort to expand awareness of the negative effects of factory farming, Brighter Green has produced policy papers, briefs, and short documentary videos that examine the globalization of factory farming through the lens of climate change, with a focus on the Global South.

International Climate Advocacy

Brighter Green collaborates with organizations from all over the world to bring attention to climate change and sustainable development. Through our International Climate Advocacy program, we empower individuals and groups to work together to resist deforestation, cope with erratic rainfall, and foster adaptation and resilience to climate change by creating paths to sustainable development.

Vegan America Project

Combining writing, presentation, and research, the Vegan America Project uses veganism as a lens through which to examine complex issues related to climate change. This project focuses on food security, animal welfare, and social transformation, and considers how the United States might reimagine food systems in the Anthropocene.