Why global climate challenges require local solutions

Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi was built for 10,000 people. It now houses more than 56,000. It faces multiple interlocking crises:

• 89% of households burn charcoal or firewood driving Malawi’s 2.8% annual deforestation rate

• Women spend 4.8 hours a day collecting fuel

• 68% lack access to menstrual products, costing them around four working days a month

Researcher Milemo Lusambya found a way to address all these at once.

Her team has designed a circular biomass system to turn that waste into biochar, cleaner fuel briquettes and biodegradable menstrual products. The facilities would be owned and operated by women’s cooperatives, linking waste management with household energy, livelihoods and health.

The project reflects a wider feature of climate action:

Climate change is global, but responses are shaped by the materials, institutions and knowledge available in places that are most affected.

Science is becoming more widely distributed

Researchers affiliated with institutions in low- and middle-income countries now account for 56% of active scientific authors in journals indexed in Scopus, up from 13% three decades ago. This growth follows sustained investment in universities, research institutions and national scientific capacity.

Writing for the United Nations, Carlos Henrique de Brito Cruz, Elsevier’s Senior Vice President for Research Networks, noted that, “The geography of research in the World is changing rapidly.” His analysisopens in new tab/window links that change to decades of capacity-building in research talent, institutions and national funding systems.

A broader geography of research can influence:

• which problems receive sustained attention;

• which practical constraints are considered early;

• whether proposed solutions fit the people and systems expected to use them.

This does not diminish the value of international science. It strengthens the case for collaboration in which researchers closest to a problem help define the questions as well as develop the answers.

Starting with what is already there

In Sri Lanka, Prof. Thilini Mudiyanselage and Dr. Amila Jeewandara began with another discarded material: sawdust from timber mills.

Their proposed approach binds sawdust with locally available natural rubber latex to produce composite construction sheets without advanced machinery. The intention is to make production accessible to smaller manufacturers while reducing demand for virgin timber.

The Sri Lankan and Malawian projects were selected from 285 proposals to the 2026 Elsevier Foundation Chemistry for Climate Action Challenge.opens in new tab/window

Although the technologies differ, both projects began by examining the resources, skills and infrastructure already present. They also considered from the outset who might manufacture the products, who would own the process and how it could fit into existing patterns of work.

Local context is therefore not a final implementation detail. It influences the research question itself.

Who leads also shapes the research

Through the Climate Women initiativeopens in new tab/window, the Elsevier Foundation and The World Academy of Sciences have supported 14 climate-resilience projects led by women scientists across the Global South. Their work spans water purification, sustainable food systems, climate-resilient pastoralism and community climate literacy.

In 2025, 25 African project leads and women scholars met in Addis Ababa to exchange methods, develop leadership skills and build collaborations across regions.

Inclusive leadership affects more than representation. It can broaden the range of problems recognised, strengthen relationships with local communities and improve judgements about whether a proposed intervention is practical.

The IPCC similarly recognisesopens in new tab/window the value of diverse forms of knowledge and inclusive participation in developing effective and locally appropriate climate responses.

Climate action often works through existing systems

Local resilience does not always take the form of a new material or technology.

In Andhra Pradesh, it can involve training frontline health workers to recognise heat illness and strengthening referral pathways. In Somalia, it can involve improving how malnutrition data is used as drought interacts with food insecurity and conflict.

These measures may appear routine: training, data collection, district planning and clearer care pathways. Yet they determine whether changing risks are recognised early and whether institutions can respond before pressure becomes a crisis.

Climate solutions are most useful when technical evidence is connected to local knowledge, supported by institutions and shaped with the people expected to put it into practice. These solutions weren't waiting to be discovered. They came from people already working in the communities that needed them. "Our winners start with what others have thrown out," said Ylann Schemm, Executive Director of the Elsevier Foundation. What they needed was early recognition, access to networks and sustained support. That is less visible than infrastructure announcements. It is also where much of the actual resilience gets built.