When the mercury rises and vacation season arrives for philanthropoids, sector news tends to dry up. But not this summer, at least for climate philanthropy.
Open Society Foundations has unveiled a new long-term climate program. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has published an updated strategy. The Global Methane Hub has announced hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding. And in the neighboring world of government funding, the EPA has issued a massive new round of grants, the latest in the federal government’s historic federal climate spending.
It’s also been a summer with plenty of disturbing milestones. A Sunday late last month was the hottest day in recorded history — until the following day, when the heat rose even higher. Those two unprecedented days came after 13 consecutive months of record temperatures that pushed the world into uncharted territory. Maybe that warrants another grant or two?
Below is a roundup of the biggest climate philanthropy news to break so far in this record-shattering summer, though even this account leaves plenty on the cutting board.
For instance, in response to the U.N. Secretary General’s call to action on extreme heat, ClimateWorks Foundation has assembled a dozen philanthropies and an initial $50 million commitment for a climate adaptation and resilience initiative. Sequoia Climate Foundation — whose quiet launch several years ago prompted much curiosity — has launched a grants database. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation announced its intention to go net zero by 2040. And Jeff Bezos’ climate fund has endured a summer of tough coverage over its role in a carbon offset controversy at the Science Based Targets Initiative.
What comes next? Well, things are going to get hotter.
A new pot of money for a potent greenhouse gas
Since its 2021 launch, the Global Methane Hub has emerged as one of the most popular megafunder efforts in climate philanthropy — and the love keeps growing. The hub announced $300 million in new funding last month from a consortium of funders led by the High Tide Foundation, a clear signal that backers have liked the results from the $200 million the fund has distributed since its inception.
The hub gets support from many of the largest climate philanthropies in the world. The list spans legacy funders like the Hewlett, Packard and MacArthur foundations; billionaire-backed operations like Bloomberg Philanthropies and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation; and relatively newer climate grantmakers like Quadrature Climate Foundation, Sobrato Philanthropies and Sequoia.
The announcement is a reminder of the mountain of money that megafunders are mobilizing to fight potent greenhouse gasses. Another coalition of funders, with many of the same members, announced in December that they would spend $450 million by 2026 to combat emissions of super pollutants.
A leading climate foundation refreshes its strategy
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation was one of three foundations that spearheaded the current era of climate philanthropy back in 2008, and it has been a leader in the field ever since. Overtaken as the space’s top funder in recent years by outfits backed by living billionaires, it’s still a top-tier heavyweight, with about $300 million a year in environmental grants. So its newly updated climate strategy is worth noting.
Laid out in a 22-page document published last month, the strategy is notable for its emphasis on international work. The foundation’s three-point summary of its new priorities mentions a country-level focus on “high-emission geographies” in its first line, and supporting “multinational” work in the second. While the United States is still cited as one focus, Environment Program Director Jonathan Pershing’s blog post on the strategy also name-checked a familiar list of top emitters: China, India and the European Union.
A mega-philanthropy fixes climate in its sights
When Open Society Foundations launched a one-year $40 million climate justice initiative in 2020, it was hard to believe those were the first significant dollars that George Soros’ massive philanthropic operation had put toward the global emergency. Four years later, with its painful and protracted restructuring process recently completed, OSF has confirmed that its climate funding is here to stay. Last month, the philanthropy announced the first major new program since the overhaul: an eight-year, $400 million program on green industrial policies in the Global South.
Like OSF itself, the new program will send funding around the world, including the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and Southeast Asia. The goal is to promote pro-climate policies that will lead to widespread economic benefits. While the headline figure is large, the program equates to $50 million a year, or only marginally above that initial commitment back in 2020.
Put another way: OSF spent $1.3 billion in 2023, so it could fund about 26 programs this size. Hopefully, this is just the start of this giant’s funding in this area, as the climate movement could use a lot more help as we reach the midpoint of a decisive decade.
The new program’s lead, Laura Carvalho, OSF’s director of economic and climate prosperity, gave a window into her vision and focus in an op-ed last month for Project Syndicate. “The waning of neoliberalism gives developing and emerging economies a chance to cooperate on a new economic development paradigm for the age of climate change,” she wrote. “But addressing climate change is a global struggle, and international trade rules generally do not allow developing countries to break with the old orthodoxy.”
And the prize for giving away money at the speed of need goes to…
The stereotype is that governments move slowly. Yet since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, the U.S. government has shown that when money has been allocated, and there’s political will, funds can fly out the door — leaving lots of opportunities for philanthropy to help make the most of that spending.
The latest example is the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement last month that it will grant $4.3 billion to climate action projects in 30 states. Multilateral organizations, too, are no slouches. The EPA news came a few days after the United Nations-sponsored Green Climate Fund approved $1 billion in climate finance for developing countries.
There’s more than a few private climate funders who could easily give away that much money. Of course, the government has a much bigger budget — and plays roles that philanthropy does not. Yet some billionaires have actually pledged similar sums, or even more, for climate action. Many more have pledged to give their fortunes away. And a large share of them come from tech, known for its “move fast and break things” ethos.
Yet compared to government, supposedly nimble philanthropic funding — including from tech donors — is moving at a snail’s pace. That’s not to say some big climate donors aren’t moving fast, like (as usual) MacKenzie Scott. Granted, only a sliver of her giving has been for climate, but even in that area, she beats all but a few green donors. What gives?
Of course, the Biden administration is moving at high speed right now due to the pending election and the prospect that a Trump victory could halt, or at least slow roll, remaining funding. I wonder what it would take to make more billionaires feel that sort of urgency?
