WINGS, a network of philanthropic groups, is launching an international campaign to rally funders to make climate change commitments ahead of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties.
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WINGS is planning to formally announce its International Philanthropy Commitment on Climate Change during the upcoming conference. Currently, nearly 200 organizations are named on the organization’s website as signatories to the pledge — though WINGS says the actual number is more than 300. The most recent crop to join includes the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation, and the IKEA Foundation.
As part of their pledges, the organizations are also signing national and international commitments with a goal of increasing funding and resources to address climate change.
WINGS, which has been quietly collecting signatures since the initiative’s “soft launch” in the summer, will unveil a full list at COP 26, Executive Director Benjamin Bellegy told Devex.
The initiative is a departure from WINGS’ typically “cause-agnostic” approach, according to the group. Following the recent release of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report finding that climate change is accelerating faster than expected, Bellegy has said it is imperative for all funders to take action on climate change.
“For us, really, the objective is to raise the awareness of donors and funders to the fact that they should care about climate,” Bellegy told Devex. “They should include it in their strategies and operations, even if they are not organizations that are focused on the environment or climate.”
For the first time, WINGS is leveraging its network of members — which indirectly reaches 100,000 donors around the world — to push for climate change commitments. “If we want to be able to continue to do our work and promote human welfare and social progress ... we need to tackle the climate crisis,” Bellegy said.
The European Union, Dafne – Donors and Foundations Networks in Europe, and Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso are listed as funders of the initiative, which is intended to parallel national philanthropic commitments on climate change made by organizations in France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and most recently Canada.
The initial goal is to get at least 500 signatories, but Bellegy said he hopes to see “much more” in the coming years.
A new report from ClimateWorks Foundation showed that philanthropic giving for climate change mitigation grew last year but remained a small slice of global philanthropy overall.
Still, several major donors have recently announced plans to invest money in tackling climate change. In June, the IKEA Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation pledged a combined total of $1 billion to address climate change and energy poverty. Last month, a spokesperson said philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs is directing $3.5 billion to climate action within the next 10 years. Also in September, the Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and seven other organizations made a joint $5 billion commitment to conserving 30% of the planet by 2030.
“This is the decisive decade for tackling climate change, and protecting the lands and waters that serve as our life support system is an imperative in that fight,” said Andrew Steer, president and CEO at the Bezos Earth Fund, in a press release.
“If we want to be able to continue to do our work and promote human welfare and social progress ... we need to tackle the climate crisis.”
— Benjamin Bellegy, executive director, WINGSMany of these major foundations are funded by corporations that have considerable carbon footprints. A new study by Generation Investment Management LLP showed that publicly traded companies are responsible for 40% of all climate-warming emissions. And critics question whether the corporate sector at large is willing to back policy proposals to address climate change. That debate is likely to be central to COP 26 discussions.
For WINGS’ part, Bellegy said the group wants to build accountability into its climate change commitment initiative to help ensure pledges are fulfilled.
Potential signatories will face a “low barrier of entry” so as not to scare any funders away, but WINGS still wants to give them tools to monitor and communicate their progress, Bellegy said. Initially, those tools will include an annual self-assessment and suggested methods for tracking progress indicators.
“Hopefully, we can incrementally increase the level of sharing and monitoring and accountability of those who will engage in the process,” he said.
Update, Oct. 15, 2021: This piece has been updated with WINGS’ updated name and the most recent number of signatories to the pledge.
About the author
Stephanie Beasley@Steph_Beasley
Stephanie Beasley is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global philanthropy with a focus on regulations and policy. She is an alumna of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Oberlin College and has a background in Latin American studies. She previously covered transportation security at POLITICO.
