The biggest philanthropy pledges at COP 28

The Bezos Earth Fund, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation are among the foundations to announce big pledges during the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 28, in Dubai. Many of them focused on addressing the impacts of climate change on health and food production, which have become priority issues for the sector. One of the major themes behind commitments made by some of the world’s wealthiest donors was that while philanthropy can’t fully fund global climate goals on its own, it can provide critical seed funding that can accelerate the development of new science and technology and help mobilize future investments from the public and private sectors. Here are the biggest pledges from the summit, which ends Dec. 12. Collective efforts A coalition of 11 climate-focused philanthropy groups committed $450 million to accelerate the phasing out of super pollutants, such as fluorinated gasses and nitrous oxide, over the next three years. Members of the coalition include the Bezos Earth Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Hewlett Foundation, among others. Phasing out fossil fuel use is key to achieving the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius — the benchmark laid out in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. And a recent U.N. report warned that the world could heat up 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century if more aggressive measures aren’t taken. “[I]f we look at the damages we’re trying to avoid, we have not yet achieved the rate of change that we have to achieve. So this is really about acceleration. This is about what else do you have to do? What are the barriers to more rapid change?” Jonathan Pershing, program director of environment at the Hewlett Foundation, said at an event hosted by Devex on the sidelines of COP 28. The endowments of foundations such as Hewlett are small in comparison to what governments can provide, but philanthropy can play a key role in leveraging other investments, he said. Another coalition of funders pledged $250 million to establish a new initiative to make the oceans and marine life more resilient to climate change and help achieve the U.N. goal of protecting 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. The coalition includes Bloomberg Philanthropies, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Oak Foundation, among others. “It advances our shared commitment to address the climate crisis while supporting ocean health and conservation, and the people who depend on marine resources for their livelihoods and food security,” said Imani Fairweather Morrison, a program officer at Oak Foundation. “These people and communities, especially those who have been historically marginalized from decision-making, have the expertise, solutions, and power to inspire and foster lasting and durable environmental change,” she said. Separately, the Bezos Earth Fund pledged $100 million to a similar ocean resilience effort, this one focused on the Pacific Ocean. The funding will support the design and implementation of a conservation plan that is being developed by Pacific island nations. The philanthropically funded Global Methane Hub also announced the launch of a $200 million collaborative funding research initiative aimed at reducing livestock methane emissions. The initiative will “unite funders, guided by a science oversight committee, to invest in a globally coordinated research plan” as well as the exploration of alternative livestock feed additives and other ways to potentially reduce methane emissions from agriculture, according to a press release. Funders include the Bezos Earth Fund, Quadrature Climate Fund, High Tide Foundation, and the Gates Foundation. The governments of Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States are also listed as partners. Focus on food The Gates Foundation announced a $200 million partnership with the United Arab Emirates to help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia respond to immediate and long-term climate threats. The issue has become a major climate priority for the foundation, which contributed $100 million of funding for the joint effort. "We need to make big bets on innovation to ensure smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia have the tools they need to adapt their practices, feed their people, and build resilience in the face of climate change,” Bill Gates said in a statement. "The needs of farmers are an integral part of the global climate agenda.” The Bezos Earth Fund committed $57 million in food-related grants to address the “dual threats” of climate change and biodiversity loss. The pledge is part of the foundation’s bigger $1 billion commitment to supporting climate-related food systems work. The remaining $850 million will be distributed by 2030, according to a press release. The Bezos Earth Fund also was one of the funders behind a report released on Tuesday and promoted as a “roadmap” for philanthropy to support efforts to reduce food loss and waste. In a separate report, several foundations also pushed philanthropists, corporations, and governments to increase their spending on climate-related changes to global food systems by more than $200 billion annually to achieve the global goal of significantly reducing fossil fuel use by 2050. “We cannot afford for food to be on the sidelines of climate and nature conversations any longer. Food is a victim, problem, and solution in the climate and nature crises, and we must raise its profile in the discussion,” Andrew Steer, president and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund, said in a statement. Accountability work Following a historic pledge in Dubai from oil and gas companies to reduce methane leaks to “near zero” by 2030, Bloomberg Philanthropies pledged $40 million to track methane emissions and public commitments to reducing them. The effort will be done in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund, the International Energy Agency, the U.N. Environment Programme, and the Rocky Mountain Institute. Bloomberg Philanthropies founder Michael Bloomberg is the special envoy to the U.N. secretary-general on climate ambition and solutions. The initiative will provide “accurate data, transparency, and accountability” and will “ensure public commitments to tackling methane are followed through on,” Bloomberg said in a statement. The Bezos Earth Fund, The Rockefeller Foundation, and the United States government also rolled out a framework for the Energy Transition Accelerator that was first announced at last year’s COP. Early estimates show that ETA could help direct $72 billion to $207 billion in finance towards the transition from fossil fuel use by 2035. Climate health impacts Wellcome pledged more than £14 million, or roughly $18 million, to efforts to measure the impacts of climate change on human health. The funding will be used to incorporate climate data into an open-source platform for collecting and analyzing national and local health data that is operated by the University of Oslo and used by more than 100 countries. “Wellcome is doing this because the climate crisis is a health crisis,” Alice Bell, head of policy for climate and health at Wellcome, said at the Devex event. Part of the challenges with addressing climate as a health issue is that “so much of the health sector is acting as if we’re living in static temperatures,” she said. That hasn’t been the case for decades, Bell added. As a result of that pervasive thinking the health sector in many parts of the world is “woefully underprepared” to address climate impacts, she said.