King Climate Action Initiative (K-CAI)
King Climate Action Initiative (K-CAI) supports researchers and policy partners with randomized evaluations and evidence-informed scaling to advance solutions addressing climate change and poverty together.
Funder: Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab
Due Dates: September 17, 2026 (Risk Valuation LOI) | October 21, 2026 (Risk Valuation full proposal) | Rolling (Time-sensitive Risk Valuation applications)
Funding Amounts: K-CAI’s Fall 2022 limits: research up to $400,000; Path-to-Scale up to $400,000; suggested durations six months–three years
Summary: K-CAI supports randomized research and evidence-informed scaling of solutions addressing climate change and poverty together.
Key Information: The Risk Valuation Top-Up call uses K-CAI’s funding infrastructure and requires an LOI before full-proposal submission.
Description
The King Climate Action Initiative (K-CAI) at J-PAL designs, pilots, evaluates, and scales cost-effective policy and technology solutions at the intersection of climate change and poverty alleviation. Funded by King Philanthropies, it works with governments, NGOs, donors, and companies worldwide. Its four focus areas are climate change mitigation, pollution reduction, adaptation, and affordable, reliable energy access.
K-CAI supports rigorous randomized evaluations and technical assistance to scale effective interventions. It prioritizes administrative and remote sensing data, quick-response evaluations, and partnerships that can move findings into policy decisions. The separate GiveWell-funded Risk Valuation Measurement Top-Up call operates through K-CAI’s funding infrastructure. It supports randomized studies testing assumptions behind Value of a Statistical Life estimates and generating new estimates in low- and middle-income countries.
