Mission and Approach

The Crux Alliance was established in 2018 to support the rapid implementation of ambitious, cutting-edge climate policies. By using top-of-the-class, nonprofit organizations with deep policy design expertise, the Crux Alliance helps policymakers in the 20 highest-emitting countries to design carbon mitigation policies for the sectors critical to long-term climate stability. Crux partners, the Crux Policy Centers (CPCs), address the following sectors and operate worldwide supported by a lean, expert Secretariat:

Power: Agora Energiewende and the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP)
Vehicles and Fuel: The International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT)
Urban Mobility: The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)
Industry: Agora Energiewende
Buildings: The Global Building Performance Network (GBPN)
Appliances: CLASP

The Crux Alliance is a philanthropic fund and project housed at the Aspen Global Change Institute (AGCI). Crux is facilitated and managed through a partnership between AGCI and Energy Innovation: Policy and Technology (EI), with EI providing day-to-day management of the Secretariat, which facilitates grantmaking and interactions between the Crux Policy Centers and partners.

Insider Advocacy for Each Sector & Across Sectors

Each CPC focuses on one sector and is led by experts who have decades of experience designing policies that truly deliver in that sector. The groups can be understood as “insider advocates.” They have the expertise and relationships to support and gain the trust of policymakers while retaining the ability as independent NGOs to push for greater levels of ambition. The groups work with the responsible agencies, in country and in language, on every element of policy, from design through implementation. Each group has local staff, as well as local NGO partners, in the largest emitting regions around the world.

Global & Local

By virtue of being both global and local, each organization can capture lessons from many jurisdictions, support peer-to-peer learning, achieve economies of scale in delivering best-practice strategies, and adapt to local circumstances.

Targeted at the Top-20 Emitters

Each CPC begins with an analysis of the top-20 emitting countries in its sector. The CPC then ranks those countries in terms of the political opportunity (e.g., Pakistan may rise in the rankings because government officials are desperate for help, while Russia may fall in the priority list because NGOs face difficulties when working there).

TOP 20 GLOBAL ENERGY EMITTERS

WHERE CRUX WORKS