With United Nations climate talks wrapping up in Dubai, foundations and other funders have pledged at least $2.1 billion in new financing to reduce climate impacts, particularly from agriculture, and increase aid to vulnerable communities.
UNFCCC Conference of the Parties or COP28 summit; It has hosted numerous premiers, including health, food production and philanthropic forums. Estimated commitments, which do not represent a full account of philanthropic commitments at COP28, came from foundations and private companies; some were done in partnership with governments. They will be delivered in various timelines.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria sent a delegation to the conference for the first time, pledging to spend 70% of its budget (about $9 billion) on the 50 most climate-sensitive countries over the next three years.
“The honest answer is that the global health community, including ourselves, has been so focused on Covid-19 that we probably haven’t paid enough attention to all the signs of what climate change is doing to global health,” Peter Sands said. CEO of the Global Fund.
His organization has also implemented a set of principles for financing projects at the intersection of climate and health, together with the World Health Organization, the Green Climate Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation and the COP presidency.
The first Business and Philanthropy forum offered a greater official role for foundations, donors and corporations at a time when COP28 leaders are seeking more funding from the private sector.
Philanthropic funding to combat climate change remains essentially unchanged in 2022 after showing steady growth over the past three years, according to a report from the ClimateWorks Foundation released earlier this month. The lack of growth is attributed to global economic conditions, including rising inflation.
“Every part of society must do more to contribute, including through philanthropy,” said Helene Desanlis, ClimateWorks director of climate philanthropy for global intelligence, adding that this includes both increasing funding amounts and collaborating more closely with other funders and actors.
The forum also announced new blended finance instruments that could fund initiatives through a mix of corporate investments and donations, as well as a call for direct funding to Indigenous peoples already working to protect the environment in their communities.
Ozawa Bineshi Albert, co-executive director of the Climate Justice Alliance, which advocates for people and organizations in front-line communities affected by climate change, said increasing funding for Indigenous peoples, who always face an uphill battle, is a welcome idea. was heard at these meetings.
“It would be generous of me to say that I am a cautious optimist,” Albert said. “There’s a difference between people advocating for being benevolent stewards of Indigenous people and having Indigenous people at the table, because they’re
Albert said the Business and Philanthropy forum could be useful, but government policy and regulations, particularly around reducing carbon production, could be even more helpful.
“Should and can they do more? “Absolutely,” he said. “Do I think their investment in this will get us out of the crisis we’re in? No. The government still needs to act. “If we don’t reduce and eliminate carbon production from our energy sources, we will never get out of this hole, no matter how much philanthropy invests.”
Christie Ulman, president of the Sequoia Climate Foundation, which focuses on reducing emissions in part through a transition to clean energy, said she supports grantees and their partners at the COP in advocating for ambitious targets for renewable energy and reducing other pollutants like methane.
“We are also there to promote and promote the fossil fuel phase-out agenda,” he said of his organization’s role at the summit. Sequoia, along with many other philanthropic funders, announced a $450 million commitment over three years to target reductions in methane and other pollutants.
Last year, Sequoia, along with some of the same funders, pledged $500 million over three years to accelerate the transition to clean energy sources in low- and middle-income countries. So far, the coalition has met 40% of the commitment, or about $200 million, Ullman said.
Ulman said that the investments aim to support the plans and projects that countries have already made on energy transitions and that he hopes additional financing will also come.
Bezos World Fund has pledged $100 million to support a plan for Pacific Island countries to protect and sustainably manage marine ecosystems. Bloomberg Philanthropies has also made commitments to protecting the oceans, transitioning to clean energy and supporting cities to adapt to climate change.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has long focused on addressing food insecurity by developing tools and technologies to help farmers adapt to climate change, announced a new $100 million commitment, with the United Arab Emirates pledging another $100 million. Some of these funds will go to CGIAR, an agricultural research group that the Gates Foundation has supported with more than $100 million in grants over time.
“No other effort to adapt to climate change will be as effective,” Gates said in his preliminary speech to CGIAR.
The Gates Foundation and other funders have also pledged a collective $770 million to expand the work of a fund set up by the UAE to eliminate neglected tropical diseases, called the Reaching the Last Mile Fund.
The Global Fund’s Sands argued that existing global health architecture should be used as much as possible to reduce the burden on health systems in individual countries, and called for rapid action in the short term as climate change worsens health inequalities around the world.
“What it basically does is make those who are the most vulnerable and have the least access to healthcare even more vulnerable and have even less access to healthcare,” he said.
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