The Climate Action Project is a 10-year initiative of Global Shapers Harare Hub and falls under the Global Shapers Climate and Environment Impact Area. Its first phase was initiated in December 2019 and is meant to end in July 2021. This phase addresses the rampant cutting down of trees without replacement. Zimbabwe is losing approximately 330,000 hectares of tree cover annually leading to total tree cover of only 45% and an overall ‘carbon-positive’ status for the nation. To enable change, the Global Shapers Harare Hub is educating 10,000 Zimbabweans to influence environmental policy and drive sustainable tree planting. The objectives of Phase 1 are:

1. To educate 10,000 citizens of Zimbabwe by July 2021;


2. To facilitate the planting of 5,000 trees in Zimbabwe by July 2021 and


3. To, by July 2021, advocate for the formulation and implementation of an environmental policy that compels all organisations in Zimbabwe to be carbon-neutral through tree planting.

The project is intended to benefit citizens of Zimbabwe including those in rural areas, schools, universities, churches and other institutions of socialization. Harare Hub envisages a carbon-neutral Zimbabwe with more than 60% tree cover enabled through grassroots-inspired climate action.

The first objective is to educate 10,000 citizens of Zimbabwe by July 2021.

Applicable Key Performance Indicators include: the course content fully covered; number of citizens trained; number of citizens reporting improvement in their knowledge of climate change and number of trained citizens who are now training others.

The second objective is to facilitate the planting of 5,000 trees in Zimbabwe by July 2021.

Applicable Key Performance Indicators include: number of trees planted; number of citizens who successfully planted trees and number of citizens continuing to plant trees post intervention.

The third objective is to, by July 2021, advocate for the formulation and implementation of an environmental policy that compels all organisations in Zimbabwe to be carbon-neutral through tree planting.

The relevant Key Performance Indicators include: number of policies analysed; number of policy papers published; number of issue papers presented; number of organisations whose carbon emission have been calculated; number of pledges and commitments made by citizens; number of policy changes made and the number of organisations planting trees or promoting tree planting due to the project