At WEF, New Initiative to Help Unlock $3trn Needed Yearly for Climate Change Launched

Obinna Chima

The World Economic Forum (WEF) supported by more than 45 partners yesterday launched the Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA), a global initiative to fund and grow new and existing public, private and philanthropic partnerships (PPPPs) to help unlock the $3 trillion of financing needed each year to reach net zero, reverse nature loss and restore biodiversity by 2050.

A statement from the ongoing WEF in Davos, noted that with the energy and cost of living crises, the ambition of steering the planet towards a 1.5-degree Celsius warming pathway hangs in the balance.

Meanwhile, the recent agreement at the UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP15) in Montreal to conserve 30 per cent of all earth and sea looks bold, but fragile in the face of a rising biodiversity crisis.

Current funding is slow and inadequate, and a new approach is needed to get capital flowing. Philanthropic giving can address this, with unique qualities not found in other financing: it is nimble, more tolerant of risks and is driven by values and long-term outcomes rather than quarterly returns.

 “We are at a tipping point in our efforts to put the planet back on track to meet our climate ambitions. To reach the speed and scale required to heal the Earth’s systems, we need to unlock not only private capital and government funds, but also the philanthropy sector as a truly catalytic force to achieve the necessary acceleration,” Founder and Executive Chairman, WEF, Klaus Schwab said at the forum.

It revealed GAEA’s growing body of philanthropic partners to include: Active Philanthropy, the African Climate Foundation, André Hoffmann Family Office, the Arab Foundations Forum, Bezos Earth Fund, BMW Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, the Clean Air Fund, Climate Leadership Initiative, ClimateWorks Foundation, Eleven Eleven Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Growald Climate Fund, IKEA Foundation, Laudes Foundation, Noa’s Ark Foundation, Open Society Foundations, the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, Pearl Initiative, Philanthropy Asia Alliance (by Temasek Trust), Philea, The Rockefeller Foundation, Trottier Family Foundation, United Nations Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, WINGS, Workday Foundation.

Individuals, academic institutions, companies and public sector organisations supporting the initiative include: Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Capital for Climate, Carbon Direct, Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, Centre for Strategic Philanthropy at the University of Cambridge, Climate-KIC, Crescent Enterprises, Government of Egypt, HCLTech through their chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra, McKinsey Sustainability, Ocean14, Prince Maximilian von und zu Liechtenstein – Chairman of the Board LGT Group, Salesforce, Singapore University for Social Sciences, Stanford University Center for Ocean Solutions, Strategic Philanthropy Initiative at NYU Abu Dhabi, UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, We Mean Business Coalition, World Association of PPP Units & PPP Professionals.

“Philanthropic financing for climate mitigation has risen in recent years, but still represents less than two per cent of total philanthropic giving, estimated at $810 billion in 2021. Greater philanthropic funding for climate and nature will support, not detract from, existing social priorities.

“As recently noted by Rajiv Shah, President, The Rockefeller Foundation: “Climate change poses a singular threat to humanity … we must directly confront climate change, even as we redouble efforts in our traditional program areas: health, power, food, and equity.”