“It’s like the whole island is just barricaded against the ocean, house after house with their own seawall, trying to protect what land they have,” says Lulu DeBoer, a Kiribati citizen. For years, Kiribati’s 110,000 residents have watched as rising tides wash away their nation of coral atolls. They wonder if their efforts to save it will be enough or if the effects of climate change will force them to relocate their entire country.

“It’s something really special for the future of our country to be taking a step toward clean energy,” says Autumn Higgins, describing the impact of a new solar plant built on her tribe’s reservation in the Nevada desert. And not just any solar plant—the first utility-scale solar project ever built on tribal lands.¹ First Solar, using capital raised with the help of Morgan Stanley, is working to make renewable energy and new jobs a reality for the Moapa Band of Paiutes.