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Top Climate Nonprofit Spotlight: Clean Air Task Force

Last updated: October 2026

Giving Green classifies Clean Air Task Force (CATF) as one of our top nonprofits for addressing climate change. We have recommended CATF since 2020.

CATF has a history of successfully advocating for a wide array of climate provisions, most prominently in the U.S. and EU. CATF focuses on clean technologies that are either nascent or lack broad civil society support. By raising awareness and advocating for favorable policies in these neglected areas, we think CATF can accelerate decarbonization in sectors that might otherwise struggle to secure funding.

We have been impressed by CATF’s technical analysis, stakeholder engagement, and policy research and education. CATF has decades of experience influencing U.S. policy, while remaining agile in its focus areas to maximize impact across changing technological and policy landscapes. CATF has played a substantial role in securing key historic climate policies, including wins in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Global Methane Pledge.

We have not assessed all of CATF’s program areas in detail; our recommendation is based mostly on its work on power utility performance in West and East Africa, grid decarbonization, superhot rock geothermal energy, aviation, and shipping. Nonetheless, we are confident in its overall effectiveness and recommend unrestricted funding.

For more information, see our Nonprofit Evaluation report and our broader strategy reports on Unleashing Clean Energy in the U.S., Reducing Maritime Shipping Emissions, Reducing Aviation Emissions, and Derisking Clean Electricity Investments in LMICs.

What Is Clean Air Task Force? 

Founded in 1996, CATF is a U.S.-based nonprofit that advances technologies and policies to reduce carbon emissions across the economy. While it originally focused on the U.S., it has since expanded its work to the EU, the Middle East, and Africa.

How Could Clean Air Task Force Help Address Climate Change? 

CATF’s work elevates critical emerging climate technologies—such as nuclear, superhot rock (SHR) geothermal energy, low-emissions hydrogen, and other low-carbon fuels—that need robust investment and supportive policies to scale effectively. By highlighting these issues and advocating for effective policies, CATF helps accelerate their development and deployment. We believe CATF’s work can help address climate change by accelerating the deployment of clean energy technologies, which can help prevent continued emissions and the expansion of new fossil fuel infrastructure.

What Does Clean Air Task Force Do? 

CATF’s work to advance technological innovation falls into three main areas: 

• Identifying technical and market barriers through modeling and systems analysis
• Working with industry, policymakers, and civil society to develop solutions and align strategies addressing these barriers
• Advocating for policies supporting technological development and market growth

What Is New in 2026? 

In 2026, CATF secured concrete policy wins for clean firm power. California’s fiscal year 2026-27 budget created a new $20 million USD geothermal exploration cost-share program, drawing directly on a CATF report and engagement calling for an in-field testbed program to map subsurface geology and unlock private investment in next-generation geothermal. In New York, the state’s 2025 energy plan included nuclear power in its modeling for the first time, following years of CATF engagement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. The plan found that including nuclear could lower the cost of reaching the state’s 2040 clean energy goal.

At the federal level, CATF’s advocacy contributed to the May 2026 introduction of companion bills in the Senate and House—the Next-Generation Geothermal Research and Development Act—the first Senate legislation dedicated to SHR geothermal; the House version has since passed out of committee.

CATF’s SHR work also gained international recognition. In March 2026, the International Energy Agency (IEA) featured SHR throughout its flagship State of Energy Innovation report, following CATF’s work helping launch a dedicated SHR group under the IEA’s Technology Collaboration Program in 2025. CATF also released new research in July 2026 finding that reducing fossil-based kerosene use at a small number of high-impact airports, rather than spreading it across the network, could substantially reduce contrail formation and public health risk while low-carbon aviation pathways scale.

With support from Giving Green, CATF is also expanding its work strengthening power utility performance in West and East Africa, where poor utility performance limits both energy access and clean energy investment. Building on its partnership with the West Africa Power Pool (WAPP) and prior work in Ghana, CATF is now piloting a Utility Investment Resilience Index with WAPP member utilities to help identify reform priorities and attract investment.

What Would Clean Air Task Force Do With Your Donation? 

As of September 2026, CATF has an organizational budget gap of about $5.1 million for the balance of 2026. A donation today goes directly toward funding that gap and keeping CATF’s core programs fully funded and moving forward without interruption. Additional support beyond that baseline lets CATF go further. For example, it means advancing SHR geothermal projects in the Western U.S. and building awareness and multipartisan support for the technology across Europe. In clean firm power, it means expanding state-level advocacy and modeling work in both the U.S. and Europe to speed the buildout of reliable, low-carbon electricity. In transportation, it means working to limit the widespread adoption of liquefied natural gas for trucking in India, strengthening clean fuel standards in the U.S., and expanding the technical expertise needed to decarbonize aviation and marine shipping. These additional dollars help CATF expand the work it already does best.

Why Is Giving Green Excited About Clean Air Task Force? 

We believe CATF’s pragmatic, results-driven approach, policy expertise, and proven track record position it to keep advancing global climate policy.

Key accomplishments include:

• Securing key climate provisions in the bipartisan U.S. Energy Act of 2020.
• Providing technical input on authorization and funding measures in the IIJA.
• Shaping Inflation Reduction Act provisions on methane reduction, low-emissions technologies, and stackable tax incentives.
• Enabling about 7,400 new grid connections and $1.56 million in utility savings in Ghana through CATF-recommended power-distribution efficiency reforms with WAPP.

CATF has also been a leading advocate for SHR geothermal energy. Experts credit CATF with elevating SHR’s visibility, and we think it played a key role in influencing the U.S. Department of Energy’s January 2025 decision to launch a dedicated research and development program for SHR geothermal, and the 2026 wins described above.

Explore ways to give to CATF and more.

This spotlight is a non-partisan analysis (study or research) and is provided for educational purposes.

CATF has 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) entities. As Giving Green is itself a charitable, tax-exempt organization, we are only offering an opinion on the charitable activities of CATF’s 501(c)(3) arm.

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