Is philanthropy enough to solve climate change?

Climate change never fails to hit the news agenda, whether it’s the indefatigable Greta Thunberg making headlines with a speech at the UN, or images of starving polar bears floating on ice sheets, it really is one the hottest topics around (no pun intended). Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you must be aware that our world is in a dire state of planetary emergency. If unchecked, climate change will have a drastic and devastating impact on humanity in the not-so-distant future. Every fraction of a degree of global warming compounds the negative consequences of climate change, such as floods, storms, fires, drought and rising sea levels, which will affect every aspect of human and animal life as we know it for generations to come. You may think that armed with this knowledge, other philanthropic efforts would pale into significance. After all, controlling climate change is at the root of solving or alleviating world hunger, disease, poverty, equality and protecting wildlife – the list is endless. But according to ClimateWork’s 2020 Funding Trends: Climate Change Mitigation Philanthropy report, in 2019 a mere two percent of philanthropic dollars went to this most vital and time-sensitive of causes.

Whilst it would be wildly inaccurate to say that philanthropy alone can solve the climate crisis, it can certainly play an important part in organising the huge amounts of money from the public and private sectors which are needed for the transition towards a low-carbon global economy. Additionally, it would appear that the world is firmly behind this type of action. The results of the biggest-ever opinion poll on climate change, carried out by the UN Development Programme, concluded that two-thirds of people across the planet think global warming is an international emergency and want politicians to take major action to tackle it. So, with the world’s population firmly backing initiativetaking, why aren’t every donor, foundation and charitable organisation jumping on the climatechange bandwagon?

The Achilles’ heel of many a philanthropic cause is its immeasurability, and this is certainly true when it comes to climate change. For potential donors, the sheer scale and complexity of solving climate change can seem incredibly abstract in comparison to, let’s say, finding a cure for a specific disease or providing educational resources to a community. For the latter two, the potential results are unquestionably more clear-cut and definable. However, when it comes to educating and lobbying governments about climate-friendly policies or renewable energy standards, the moving goal posts are understandably not quantifiable. It can’t be ignored that some donors are also reluctant to be seen supporting climate change mitigation given the construed political stance that it can portray. As Alicia Seiger of Stanford Law said to NPR.org, “If you’re a public figure and you want to maintain some sort of image of neutrality, you can give to cancer research. No one’s going to judge you for that. But you put a whole bunch of money into climate, and you’re labelled as a something.”

Many small grassroot organisations are developing clean, trailblazing technologies, but are in need of investment and need it now.

Putting money into concrete environmental causes, such as the protection of a wetland area or the reintroduction of an endangered species to a specific ecosystem, might be more palatable to the average Joe who doesn’t have the resources to make big change and who wants to observe a greater impact per dollar. In fact, in the UK, donations like these, have recently more than doubled as the general public becomes more concerned about issues surrounding environmental and climate emergency actions.

Of course, there are many foundations who are getting their hands well and truly dirty with the cause. A group of wealthy US philanthropists and investors have set up the Climate Emergency Fund to support grassroot organisations in their individual quests to mitigate the crisis. Furthermore, 29 foundations have signed the Global Climate Action Summit pledge to donate US$4 billion to tackle the issue over five years. And more than 40 organisations have signed the UK Funder Commitment on Climate Change, which was facilitated by the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF), with similar initiatives launched by Spanish and French associations. Although these are certainly important, they are unfortunately just a drop in the ocean of what is needed.

So what measures can foundations be taking to ensure maximum impact going forward? As well as lobbying governments on climate-friendly policies, innovative technologies are probably the most effective long-term solution, although still woefully under-resourced. The development of clean technologies that can potentially mitigate climate change and accelerate decarbonisation is vital. Nevertheless, to ensure support and funding, hurdles must be overcome given that these kinds of investments can take longer to show results or may not even pan out at all; a risk that many aren’t willing to take. Many small grassroot organisations are developing clean, trailblazing technologies, but are in need of investment and need it now. As the ClimateWorks report states, “Philanthropy can also take risks that the public and private sectors can’t or won’t take. It can support frontline advocacy, emerging but unproven breakthrough technologies, and unique collaborations that bring together voices from the public, private and civil society sectors to solve the climate crisis.”

By supporting policies that ensure both corporate and governmental accountability as well as funding climate change innovation, philanthropy can make big change in the fight to decarbonise the global economy. Thanks to the role that it has played alongside government and private sector efforts, the global average temperature increase has been lowered. Although there is still some way to go to reach the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to below two degrees Celsius, there can be no doubt that philanthropy plays an essential role in the world’s ongoing aim of protecting the planet for future generations.