The World Economic Forum (WEF), with the support of more than 45 partners has launched the Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA) initiative, a global initiative to fund and grow new and existing public, private, and philanthropic partnerships (PPPPs) to help unlock the $3 trillion in financing required each year to achieve net zero, reverse nature loss, and restore biodiversity by 2050.
According to a statement from the ongoing World Economic Forum in Davos, the ambition of steering the planet towards a 1.5-degree Celsius warming route is in jeopardy due to energy and cost of living issues.
Meanwhile, the recent UN Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP15) agreement in Montreal to protect 30% of all land and sea is audacious but unstable in the face of a growing biodiversity crisis. Current funding is slow and insufficient, and a new strategy is required to get funds flowing.
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“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 of WEF, Klaus Schwab said at the forum.
He said that GAEA’s growing body of philanthropic partners 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: the 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,”he said. “Greater philanthropic funding for climate and nature will support, not detract from, existing social priorities”.
This story was adapted from ThisDay.
