While philanthropic funding for climate change mitigation increased in 2020, as a percentage of total giving it remained below 2 percent and is not nearly sufficient to meet the urgency of the crisis, a report from ClimateWorks Foundation finds.

Based on 2015-20 data collected by ClimateWorks and other organizations, the report, Funding trends 2021: Climate change mitigation philanthropy (14 pages, PDF), estimates that out of approximately $750 billion in total philanthropic giving by individuals and foundations in 2020, between $6 billion and $10 billion was dedicated to climate change mitigation. While funding for climate change mitigation grew 14 percent on a year-over-year basis, significantly outpacing the 3 percent increase in overall giving, its share of total philanthropic dollars was just 1.3 percent.

Among large foundations with climate-focused programs, funding for climate change mitigation has been growing steadily, from nearly $900 million in 2015 to at least $1.9 billion in 2020. The report's authors note that 2020 saw the emergence of new major donors and a growing focus on racial equity and justice, including climate justice. The Bezos Earth Fund was launched in February with a $10 billion pledge, awarded $791 million in grants in 2020, and has committed $285 million so far in 2021. In December, twenty-nine funders who had pledged at the 2018 Global Climate Action Summit to collectively dedicate $4 billion over five years to climate solutions were joined by ten others and raised the pledge to $6 billion by 2025. According to the report, those thirty-nine philanthropies already have committed $8.2 billion through 2025.

In February 2021, the Donors of Color Network launched the Climate Funders Justice Pledge, calling on the top forty U.S. climate funders to be transparent about their 2019-20 investments in climate justice organizations with leaders who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color, and increase funding to such groups by 30 percent within two years. Large-scale investments announced so far in 2021 — including Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation's $100 million XPRIZE competition for carbon removal; the IKEA and Rockefeller foundations' $1 billion global platform to fight climate change and energy poverty; Lauren Powell Jobs' $3.5 billion climate-action group, the Waverley Street Foundation; and the $5 billion pledged by nine foundations in support of conservation efforts — indicate accelerating growth and momentum that needs to be sustained through 2021 and beyond, the report's authors write.

The report found, however, that critical gaps remain between funding levels and what is required in many sectors of the economy. For instance, emissions in the transport sector have overtaken power sector emissions, yet the transportation sector received less than 4 percent on average of all tracked foundation funding for climate change mitigation between 2015 and 2020.

"The climate emergency isn't slowing down. While we saw positive trends across climate change mitigation philanthropy in 2020, greater and more sustained levels of giving are needed to match the massive scale of the challenge," said ClimateWorks Foundation vice president of Global Intelligence Surabi Menon. "There is no shortage of climate solutions in which to invest, and the grantee field is better positioned than ever to help deploy resources toward climate action at the speed and scale that is needed to address the climate crisis."

(Photo credit: Donors of Color Network)