The United Nations Climate Change Conference, which was postponed by a year due to COVID-19, has sparked a series of declarations on behalf of foundations and individuals attempting to put money into efforts to fight climate change. philanthropy, an area that many feel has been neglected by philanthropy.
As policymakers from around the world gathered in Glasgow for a series of long-awaited meetings on climate change, a group of governments and private foundations pledged 1.7 billion to indigenous and grassroots groups working to protect forests. Announced plans to direct the dollar, a key strategy in absorbing carbon. emissions
We need to get the money out the door, said Kevin Curry, program officer for natural resources and climate change at the Ford Foundation.
Ford has pledged $100 million to support indigenous groups in securing land rights and conserving forest land. Other donors include the Christensen Fund, Sobrato Philanthropy, and the Good Energy, Hewlett, Oak and Packard foundations. The $1.7 billion commitment includes pledges from the governments of Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States. Those donors, along with nine other grantmakers, are participating in the Protecting Our Planet Challenge, a $1 billion 10-year, $5 billion commitment from the Bezos Earth Fund.
(The Hewlett Foundation is a financial supporter of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.)
Separately, the Bezos Earth Fund pledged a total of $2 billion to fund food-system change and landscape-restoration efforts to benefit the climate. The commitments come from a previous pledge by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to direct $10 billion to address climate change. The nutrition effort will support a range of activities, including increasing crop yields while reducing acreage devoted to farming, reducing food loss and waste, and helping people shift their diets to plant-based sources. According to a news release, the landscape work will be concentrated in Africa and the United States and will include planting trees and regenerating grasslands.
Other recent climate pledges include $33 million from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, announced in October to support entrepreneurs working on technologies to remove or reduce carbon emissions, among other things. Also in October, 20 foundations said they would spend $223 million to reduce methane emissions. In June, Ikea and the Rockefeller Foundation said they would pledge a total of $1 billion to develop renewable energy and that more money could be on the way.
Philanthropic grants to address climate change were increasing before the pandemic, said Larry Kramer, president of the Hewlett Foundation, which participated in the methane reduction commitment. The momentum stalled as the pandemic took its toll and the Glasgow meetings were postponed. Now that the meetings are taking place and the Biden administration has taken over from the Trump White House, which is not engaging on climate, philanthropy is seeking action, he suggested.
There’s a kind of rekindled interest and focus on climate, Kramer said.
Philanthropic support of climate mitigation and adaptation accounted for less than 2% of the $750 billion given by foundations and individuals globally last year, according to research conducted by the foundation-backed organization ClimateWorks. But climate-related grants were growing faster than all were given, the report said, even before commitments were made for the Glasgow summit.
Unsurprisingly, the debate has resurfaced about where the money might best be used to help achieve international global warming goals.
Some experts, such as Anna Baptista, associate director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center at the New School, expect more money to be directed toward grassroots movements, particularly those led by people of color and Indigenous peoples most affected by the effects of climate change. cause more damage. , Too much money, she said, is focused on moonlighting technology development that doesn’t address energy and economic policies that are based on racism and colonialism.
He said that a lot of climate funders are very much impressed by technological reforms and things that promise really fast change through technology and innovation.
Johannes Aquae, a fund manager at Founders Pledge, agrees that supporting grassroots movements is critical to the success of meeting the broader climate goals. But Aqua, which manages a fund that expects to distribute at least $10 million in climate-change grants this year, thinks there’s a gap in philanthropic support in developing policies and technologies that can help large Helps reduce emissions from industry and support sustainable nuclear power.
He warns that manufacturers paying attention to renewable fuels, environmental justice and conservation of forest land may be overlooking eligible grants to organizations that could have a big impact.
Lindley Meese, who directs the Climate Fund, said that while there has been an increase in grants to support grassroots climate organizations, it only reflects an increase in climate funding. The pooled fund is run by the Global GreenGrants Fund, Grassroots International, Thousand Currents and the Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights and is expected to support groups facing the fossil-fuel and agricultural industries and locally controlled renewables. $100 million will be raised to build the fuel substitute. ,
She cites the work of Clima Fund grantees in South Africa, including the Life After Coal Coalition. After the alliance was given a legal challenge to the construction of the Thabamatsi power plant, the investors decided not to proceed with the construction of the project. Another South African grantee, the Dornkop Communal Property Association, wants to help turn the nation into a clean power by training women and youth to install and maintain solar panels.
Over the past three years, the Clima Fund has raised nearly $10 million from individual donors and foundations. The group is targeting much more now, as protests against racism in the summer of 2020 helped donors understand the powerful impact of popular movements, Mees said.
Were in this sweet spot where there were a lot of big investments on the table, she said.
Color Networks’ Donors Climate Justice Funders Pledge is another effort to provide grant money to groups led by people disproportionately harmed by the hotter planet. Since it was launched in February, 20 grantmakers have pledged to publicly disclose the leadership of the groups they support and at least 30 percent of their grant money to be led by people of color. To run groups.
As Rockefeller Brothers Fund chairman Stephen Heintz recently signed the pledge, the summit in Glasgow is drawing global attention to the climate crisis and more philanthropic support that could help.
I expect the conference to encourage greater ambition, greater urgency, and increased climate funding, and in particular, increased climate-justice funding, Heintz said.
Miya Yoshitani, executive director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and advisor to Color Network’s donors, said announcements by large foundations that they would support eco-justice groups, but given the serious take on climate change, are not enough.
He said that where philanthropy has changed, it is important to celebrate. But it’s nowhere close to meeting the need or speed needed.
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This article was provided by Chronicle of Philanthropy to The Associated Press. Alex Daniels is a senior journalist at The Chronicle. Email: alex.daniels@philanthropy.com. The AP and Chronicle receive support from the Lilly Endowment for its coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. AP and Chronicle are solely responsible for all content. For all AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
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