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“Focusing on the solutions gives you the motivation to wake up every day and be like, okay, we are doing something,” says Jacquelyn Francis, founder and executive director of the Global Warming Mitigation Project on Climate Curious. From solar huts in sub-saharan Africa to electric drones delivering medical supplies in the U.S., Jacquelyn shares why she has a solutionist mindset and how to cultivate yours. Recorded live at TED 2025 in conversation with co-host Maryam Pasha.

Created by TEDxLondon
Executive produced by Josie Colter
Produced by Ben Beheshty
Curated by Deesha Chandra
Hosted by Maryam Pasha and Ben Hurst
Communications by Tara Cooper and Issey Gladston

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00:00 Introduction
00:53 Meet Jacqueline Francis: climate solutionist
01:12 The Global Warming Mitigation Project
01:37 Categories of climate solutions
02:17 Jacqueline’s journey and inspiration
03:13 The power of solutions
07:02 Scaling climate solutions
07:59 Global examples of climate solutions
09:16 Staying optimistic in the climate crisis
10:11 Conclusion

[00:00:00] Introduction

[00:00:00] Ben Hurst: Welcome to Climate Quickies, bite-sized nuggets of climate goodness from our TEDxLondon experts in under 10 minutes. In this week’s climate, curious, we are taking stock of the solutions we have access to [00:00:15] today with founder and executive director of the Global Warming Mitigation Project. Jacquelyn Francis, in her words, focusing on the solutions, gives you the motivation to wake up every day and be like.

[00:00:27] Ben Hurst: Okay, we are doing something from [00:00:30] Solar Huts, bringing power to Sub-Saharan Africa to electric drones zipping through the US delivering vital medical supplies. We are looking at reasons to feel optimistic about existing climate solutions on what it means to be a [00:00:45] solutionist and why this is so important.

[00:00:47] Ben Hurst: Here’s Jacquelyn Francis. Stay curious.

[00:00:53] Meet Jacquelyn Francis: climate solutionist

[00:00:53] Maryam Pasha: Today we’re joined by Jacquelyn Francis. We’re at TED 25, and I was just saying to you, one of the things I love about coming here is [00:01:00] meeting all the amazing people, working on so many incredible ideas and solutions, and you are the founder and executive director of Global Warming Mitigation Project.

[00:01:09] Maryam Pasha: Can you tell us a bit about it?

[00:01:11] Jacquelyn Francis: Yes.

[00:01:12] The Global Warming Mitigation Project

[00:01:12] Jacquelyn Francis: So the Global Warming Mitigation Project is. Specifically focused on reducing, removing, and replacing greenhouse gases. And our, uh, initial project is the Keeling Curve Prize, which identifies climate solutions around the world in five different categories. And the reason we pick these categories is because climate change is a, a systems problem.

[00:01:34] Jacquelyn Francis: And these kind of cover the bases.

[00:01:37] Categories of climate solutions

[00:01:37] Jacquelyn Francis: Okay, so it’s carbon sinks, which can be both nature based or high tech, and we focus a lot on, you know, renewable energy in places where people are most in need of energy solutions. Finance is one of my favorites, and because that is. Really the crux of the problem is we just need to make a big financial shift from what we’re doing now to what we’re gonna need to do in the future.

[00:02:01] Jacquelyn Francis: Um, transport and mobility, which is always very interesting because the solutions are usually so, you know, innovative,

[00:02:08] Maryam Pasha: right.

[00:02:08] Jacquelyn Francis: And social and cultural pathways, which is basically about behavior change.

[00:02:13] Maryam Pasha: Incredible. Incredible. Okay. I mean, [00:02:15] that covers like all the bases. Mm-hmm. As you said. Mm-hmm.

[00:02:17] Jacquelyn’s journey and inspiration

[00:02:17] Maryam Pasha: I wanna get into the specifics, but before I do that, can I just ask you what brought you to this work and your background a bit?

[00:02:23] Jacquelyn Francis: Yes. So I was, uh, running something called the Aspen Science Center in Aspen, Colorado. And I was very involved in, uh, [00:02:30] thinking like a scientist, getting people to think like everything has kind of the scientific circularity of how we should think and how we should question and. Change when necessary and also have curiosity.

[00:02:41] Jacquelyn Francis: And I decided to go back and get a master’s and I got a master’s in [00:02:45] energy policy and climate science. Okay. And it really struck me that this was my calling,

[00:02:50] Maryam Pasha: right?

[00:02:50] Jacquelyn Francis: Climate and climate solutions are such a, um, incredibly intense, three dimensional, complex puzzle. Right. And that was where my [00:03:00] brain liked to tackle the challenge.

[00:03:02] Jacquelyn Francis: Right,

[00:03:02] Maryam Pasha: right, right. So

[00:03:03] Jacquelyn Francis: it really became something that I knew right away is, is my calling of being able to solve such difficult problems.

[00:03:10] Maryam Pasha: Right. And this is a, a question I have for you.

[00:03:13] The power of solutions

[00:03:13] Maryam Pasha: We love solutions here at Climate Curious. And I feel like you’re immersed in them. And it’s one of the things I think that before I started working on climate, I think I had this misconception that we didn’t know what we needed to do.

[00:03:24] Maryam Pasha: Like there was a problem, but we were like struggling or like reaching in the dark for solutions. [00:03:30] That’s not the case. And I guess you are immersed in them. So I guess what perspective does that bring you? On this problem.

[00:03:36] Jacquelyn Francis: You know, that’s exactly the reason that I started this prize is because I was like, we have solutions everywhere.

[00:03:41] Jacquelyn Francis: They’re like dropping out of the sky. Why aren’t we implementing them at [00:03:45] scale? Yes. So my whole concept was about like, let’s get people excited about the solutions, get people to understand that we do have them, and that if we put in the effort and the financial. Backing that we can actually get to a [00:04:00] place where we have a future that’s not as damaging to our planet, and that can allow us to have a society and a ecosystem with animals and plants that is survivable and thriving.

[00:04:12] Maryam Pasha: Can I ask you, how many years have you been, has the prize been [00:04:15] going? We’re now in our eighth year. Incredible that you must have seen a lot of change over that time in terms of what’s possible and what’s being, being done. I’m curious to know what are some of the things that you’ve worked on you’ve supported that really excite you?

[00:04:29] Jacquelyn Francis: You know, I [00:04:30] love things that have to do with, uh, circular economy and things that actually look at. You know, waste to resources or waste to financial gains. Yes. And I love things that really kind of look at the earth and the earth systems and how they regenerate themselves [00:04:45] and how human beings can create some kind of economic stability with these regenerative practices and how we can become more kind of in tune to the rhythm of the world around us.

[00:04:56] Maryam Pasha: That’s beautiful. I guess this idea of being inspired by nature, right? Um, [00:05:00] and missing, I mean, I’ve always

[00:05:00] Jacquelyn Francis: been inspired by nature. Nature, fabulous. Yeah. Do you have a deep

[00:05:03] Maryam Pasha: connection? Like do you have a connection to nature and the environment? Is that something that inspires you in this work? I. Yes, I grew

[00:05:09] Jacquelyn Francis: up in Aspen, Colorado.

[00:05:10] Jacquelyn Francis: Mm-hmm. It’s a well-known city that’s very high net worth, but it’s also incredibly [00:05:15] nature oriented and I, I love being outside. Whenever I’m stressed, I’ll put on good music and go for a hike or a walk or a bike ride, because that’s where I feel, you know, most connected.

[00:05:26] Maryam Pasha: It’s one of the things I’ve been reflecting on this week with the podcast.

[00:05:29] Maryam Pasha: We started [00:05:30] it because we, you know, we were kind of, we’re all based in cities and we kind of knew intellectually how important fighting the climate crisis was and coming up with solutions. But we, many of us didn’t feel that connection or hadn’t found our connection yet. So one of the most beautiful things we’re doing, this has been [00:05:45] like discovering our, each of us as a team, our connections to nature and what that looks like in different ways.

[00:05:50] Maryam Pasha: I’m curious to know if. Your focus on solutions in your work, how does that change the way you approach this problem and, and your mindset and the kind [00:06:00] of psychology and, and, and maybe perspective it brings you?

[00:06:04] Jacquelyn Francis: You know, I think that’s a really important question because, uh, focusing on the solutions actually gives you sort of the motivation to wake up every day and be like, okay, we are [00:06:15] doing something.

[00:06:16] Jacquelyn Francis: And you ask me in the questions, um, what is a solutionist and how, how do I. Find myself being a solution. Yeah, but it’s ’cause I’ve

[00:06:23] Maryam Pasha: not, like, I’ve not heard that word like

[00:06:24] Jacquelyn Francis: is phrased in that way before. So tell us a bit more about it. Well, there’s a lot of people that are, you know, in [00:06:30] academia and they’re researchers and there’s a lot of people that are advocates or activists and they may be out on the street and that’s great, but I’m the kind of person that I like to roll my sleeves up and navigate how to do something.

[00:06:41] Jacquelyn Francis: And so, you know, we can’t just. Wait for someone else [00:06:45] to do it. And I feel like a solutionist is somebody that just goes out there and starts either coming up with the actual innovation and implementing it or like what I do, which is activating and elevating solutions all over the world in a way that’s like getting them financing, getting them [00:07:00] visibility, getting them to a success rate.

[00:07:02] Scaling climate solutions

[00:07:02] Maryam Pasha: And you mentioned this idea of scale. That’s super important. Right. How do you help people do that?

[00:07:07] Jacquelyn Francis: Well, so to date, we’ve given out $2.25 million to prize winners. Mm-hmm. Over the last seven years. We’re on our [00:07:15] eighth year cycle right now, and that 2.25 million has turned into $2.4 billion. Wow. In add-on funding.

[00:07:21] Jacquelyn Francis: Wow.

[00:07:21] Maryam Pasha: Wow.

[00:07:22] Jacquelyn Francis: Wow. So that’s. An example that’s a thousand x. That’s example of how I see scaling. Where these [00:07:30] projects, they win the prize, we give them other things like a suite of services that kind of gets them visibility, it gets them on stages and it gets them, um, some capacity building. ’cause we have an internship program and that’s.

[00:07:41] Jacquelyn Francis: Working. We see people scaling and we’ve seen one [00:07:45] of the, um, organizations that won early on is a publicly traded company now, and others have gotten, you know, much bigger add-on funding and grant money and have gone on to do much bigger things. And that’s what we need.

[00:07:58] Maryam Pasha: That’s incredible.

[00:07:59] Global examples of climate solutions

[00:07:59] Maryam Pasha: I’m curious, you said you work around all around the world.

[00:08:02] Maryam Pasha: Would you maybe give us some examples, and it could be from maybe the most recent cohort of things that you’re supporting around the world. Of, of solutions?

[00:08:10] Jacquelyn Francis: Yes, sure. Absolutely. We have, uh, there’s a company that does energy in Africa. They [00:08:15] do, um, these solar huts that are kind of hubs, community centers, and they’re popping up all around Africa.

[00:08:21] Jacquelyn Francis: So people can go there, charge up their stuff, have the community gathering experience, and then go back home with like freshly charged lights [00:08:30] and cell phones and so forth. And then we have a company that I just wrote, uh, read about was. Drones that are actually electric drones delivering, uh, medical supplies like incredible organs.

[00:08:43] Jacquelyn Francis: And, uh, wow. That’s in the [00:08:45] eastern United States. We have, you know, projects in everywhere from Mongolia. To Indonesia, to South America. We’re getting a lot more solutions outta South America right now. Incredible. Which have to do mostly with like the [00:09:00] Amazon and the idea of this like circular economy that I was speaking about, which I find so fascinating and so interesting.

[00:09:07] Maryam Pasha: Incredible. So if people wanna find out more about this, where can they go?

[00:09:11] Jacquelyn Francis: Our website is gw mp.org.

[00:09:14] Maryam Pasha: [00:09:15] Fantastic.

[00:09:16] Staying optimistic in the climate crisis

[00:09:16] Maryam Pasha: I have a final question for you, um, which is, right now people are feeling many kinds of ways about the world, and particularly about the climate crisis. There’s a lot of doom, there’s a lot of inevitability.

[00:09:28] Maryam Pasha: Someone said the, the F told me this. [00:09:30] The F word in climate is fatalism. How do you not get stuck there?

[00:09:34] Jacquelyn Francis: Because I see all the solutions every single day, and they’re really inspiring and I feel like, um, there’s also a, a business case for it. Mm-hmm. You know, I feel like, I feel like the political [00:09:45] wins will shift back at some point soon.

[00:09:47] Jacquelyn Francis: And then, you know, I think people will understand that we have to do this. It’s not a matter of like, you know, let’s give up and wave the white flag. It’s a matter of like rolling up our sleeves and being like, yeah. And, and. Actually, it [00:10:00] is a world where we will be thriving. Yeah. And I think that that’s the most important thing, is to give people the kind of excitement and enthusiasm about a quieter, cleaner, you know, more pristine world.

[00:10:11] Maryam Pasha: Incredible.

[00:10:11] Conclusion

[00:10:11] Maryam Pasha: Thank you so much, Jacquelyn, for joining us and sharing this with us.

[00:10:14] Jacquelyn Francis: Well, thank you so [00:10:15] much for having me.

[00:10:16] Ben Hurst: Thanks for listening to this quickie.

[00:10:18] Maryam Pasha: This episode was created by our superstar podcast team at TEDx London. Until next time,

[00:10:23] Ben Hurst: stay curious.