Bridging the Gap: Resourcing LGBTQI Climate Action

Summary & Recommendations from GiveOut’s LGBTQI Climate Convening

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Executive Summary

Around the world LGBTQI organisations are not only working to ensure the resilience of their communities in the face of the climate crisis, but are also contributing meaningfully to climate movements across mitigation, adaptation, capacity building, and just transition initiatives. However, the marginalisation of LGBTQI communities in climate policy and action spaces means that they lack funding to develop and scale their vital work. That is why GiveOut held our world-first LGBTQI Climate Convening in March 2025, to explore barriers to funding and co-create recommendations on how to support and scale LGBTQI climate work.

This report summarises key findings from this convening and GiveOut’s broader research through the LGBTQI Climate Fund, with highlights summarised below. We hope that it will inspire you to integrate LGBTQI communities into your climate work as dynamic drivers of change. Through doing so we can strengthen climate movements and ensure that our community is not left behind as we confront the escalating climate emergency threatening our planet and future.

Why Are LGBTQI Communities Vulnerable to Climate Change?

  • Criminalisation, a lack of legal protections, and limited legal recognition
  • Difficulty accessing emergency shelters, aid, and relief services.
  • Homophobia and transphobia, including violence, abuse, and denial of service.
  • Structural barriers to employment, low income and housing insecurity.
  • Exclusion from climate policies, planning and disaster preparedness efforts
  • Health inequalities, and disrupted access to essential care, including HIV treatment and HRT.
  • Reduced access to social networks, family support and community safety nets.

How Are LGBTQI Organisations Already Drivers of Climate Action?

LGBTQI organisations on every continent are already working on climate issues, contributing their strong expertise in change-making and community mobilisation. Their work includes collaboration with local climate movements to share strategy and knowledge; nurturing future climate leaders; developing humanitarian response networks and providing safe emergency shelters; advocating for the inclusion of LGBTQI people in climate policies and strategies; furthering the adoption of green technologies and land practices; engaging LGBTQI communities in sustainable livelihoods initiatives; and conducting research to evidence the climate vulnerability and needs of LGBTQI communities. We have included case studies at the end of this report to highlight some of the work currently happening and how this maps onto current climate funding priorities.

Barriers to Funding LGBTQI Climate Work

GiveOut interviewed climate and environmental funders between November 2024 and January 2025 to identify barriers to funding LGBTQI climate work. Key barriers were:

  • A lack of confidence and knowledge on LGBTQI issues.
  • Perceived risk around funding LGBTQI work in contexts where LGBTQI people face social and legal discrimination.
  • Gaps in the data and evidence about LGBTQI work at this intersection.
  • The invisibility of LGBTQI communities in the global climate agenda, climate policies, and funder strategies.
  • Practical challenges and structural constraints in funding this work.

Recommendations for Funders

Build internal knowledge

Develop understanding of the LGBTQI climate work and issues in-house or by working in partnership with expert organisations.

Fund small-scale and pilot efforts by LGBTIQ communities to adopt green technology, enhance regenerative environmental infrastructure, and expand sustainable livelihood practices as part of broader initiatives towards a just transition.

Help LGBTQI organisations access decision-making spaces, and uphold commitments to LGBTQI rights and climate justice despite political pressures.

Support research and data-gathering initiatives on LGBTQI climate work, rather than requiring this as a prerequisite for funding.

Use intermediaries, build trust-based relationships with grantees, make funding applications easier to understand for non-experts, and explore new ways to measure impact.

Recommendations for LGBTQI Organisations

Support data collection and knowledge building

Create best practice guidance on data collection for LGBTQI organisations, develop a centralised database, collect case studies on climate impacts, and apply for funding to enable data collection.

Build networks, collaborate with influential funders, engage with climate movements, and use media to increase visibility for LGBTQI climate work.

Invest in organisational strengthening, such as robust governance structures, financial management systems, and strategic planning, to increase readiness for larger, longer-term, and unrestricted funding opportunities, and to build resilience amid shifting donor priorities.

Partner with emergency and humanitarian organisations, integrate climate into organisational strategies, engage local communities, and urge funders to maintain support despite global pressures.