Contrary to what the climate naysayers would have us believe, the effects of climate change are already being felt. No more so than in areas of the world where a rapidly changing climate is turning fertile land to desert. According to Excellent Development, it's estimated 50 million people could be displaced by 2030 as a result of desertification.

Excellent Development is an initiative working with dryland communities across Africa and India to achieve water and food security through soil and water conservation, all enabled by sand dams - a simple, low-cost rainwater harvesting technology.

If managed well, with the help of sustainable farming practices, drylands can become fertile, capable of supporting habitats, crops and livestock. In turn, that environment - the trees, the crops, the soil itself - plays a vital role in the carbon cycle and ultimately in mitigating climate change.

Why we think they're great

Excellent Development are ambitious and that's clearly what's needed here. To date they have built 1,174 sand dams across ten countries, providing over a million people with access to clean water for life. Their goal now is to work in collaboration with other organisations, pledging to build 1 million sand dams for 0.5 billion people by 2040.