Women & Allies in Climate: Nikoosh Carlo
Dr. Nikoosh Carlo is rethinking what it means to be prepared in the arctic.
Meet Neha Misra
Neha Misra नेहा मिश्रा is sharing solar and story power with people around the world.
By Andi Cross, Edges of Earth
The saree belonged to Neha Misra’s family before it became part of her climate solidarity work. Handwoven from raw silk and measuring seven feet by four, it carried a history before Misra ever put paint to it. Then she added another layer.
For the past decade, she has lived in a solar-powered eco-community on the edge of Washington, DC. From New Delhi to Washington, Misra has built a life around questions of power: Who has it? Where does it come from? And who decides how to implement it? To Misra, these questions aren’t only political ones, but also have everything to do with the sun.
The clean energy transition has distributed that power unevenly. Research from the International Renewable Energy Agency puts women at just 28% of STEM roles in solar, 22% of installation and construction jobs, and 19% of senior management and board positions. 80% of the planet’s remaining biodiversity is protected by indigenous peoples, yet these same individuals receive less than 1% of international climate funding. Not only that, but many of these communities still lack reliable access to electricity. And these statistics pose a question about who controls the future of clean energy decisions. “Solar power needs woman power if it’s going to reach its full potential,” she says.
Women & Allies
Misra designed a mandala in honor of Women & Allies in Climate.
©
Fid Thompson, University of Maryland
“Passing this saree from my family to the Women & Allies in Climate collective carries a lineage of love, power, and persistence across oceans."
Women & Allies in Climate Network Member
Misra’s solution has been to put decision-making power into the hands of those who have historically lacked it. She co-founded Solar Sister, now a network of more than 10,000 women-led grassroots entrepreneurs delivering clean energy across Africa. As Remote Energy’s inaugural Global Ambassador, she is focused on what comes next. It means building the training programs to integrate more women and indigenous communities into the process itself. So they can become the next generation of solar technicians, system trainers and leaders themselves.
But it’s important to note that who teaches matters as much as what is taught. A woman training people in her own community brings something an expert flown in cannot. Language, trust, context and the possibility of being seen as an example is what makes the real difference here. When women are meaningfully involved in clean energy projects, the benefits can extend beyond electricity to income, public health and climate resilience. And when the trainer comes from the community herself, the impact has a chance to carry into the next generation.
For Misra, though, access to climate action is unequivocally about who can see themselves in the movement at all. In January 2026, she joined the board of Intersectional Environmentalist (IE), the eco-media nonprofit founded by Leah Thomas, through a matchmaking process led by the Green Leadership Trust.
Her reasoning starts with a statistic that shows the missed opportunities in the way climate communication is often approached. Research from Yale and George Mason found that Americans who believe global warming is happening outnumber those who do not by more than four to one. “So the problem isn’t convincing people,” Misra says. “It’s giving them stories that make the work feel real and doable. What IE does so well—weaving culture and grassroots climate organizing together—feels both refreshing and essential to me.”
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Intersectional Environmentalist puts that idea into practice, using everything from its database of more than 500 grassroots efforts to action toolkits and films to give people different ways into environmental work. “We human beings are not flat, data-consuming bots,” Misra says. “Art, in its diversity of forms and expressions, makes us remember what systems of harm have made us forget. That we are tied together in a more-than-human tapestry of symbiotic wellbeing.”
This is Indra’s Web of Interdependence, an idea of shared wellbeing rooted in her Indian lineage. It is why, to Misra, a policy brief, green jobs’ program and a painted saree are not competing forms of climate work. They reach people holistically. “All people should be climate people,” she says. “The question is, where do your gifts meet what this moment needs?”
And she’s spent the bulk of her life answering that very question. Sometimes the tool is a solar panel. Sometimes it is a training program. Sometimes it is a painted saree. The truth is, climate infrastructure can really be any tool that provides people the agency to participate and become part of the solution themselves.
About the Author
Edges of Earth is a global expedition and storytelling platform focused on ocean conservation, sustainable exploration, and environmental progress. Through longform content creation, field reporting, and scientific collaboration, the project documents people and places working toward positive environmental change around the world. In partnership with Women & Allies in Climate, Andi Cross of Edges of Earth supports storytelling and visibility efforts that elevate women leaders operating on the front lines of climate and conservation work.
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