The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Citi, and others announced commitments in support of climate action on the second day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) being held in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Gates Foundation pledged $315 million over three years to CGIAR, a global research partnership focused on the needs of smallholder farmers, in support of efforts to help them adapt to a surge of climate threats that, in turn, are exacerbating global hunger and poverty. Half of the funding will support climate adaptation initiatives under a new CGIAR portfolio that is streamlining partnerships, knowledge, and assets to accelerate the pace of innovation flowing to smallholder farmers. According to the foundation, sub-Saharan Africa, where most people work in agriculture, accounts for only 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it is severely impacted by climate change. Moreover, less than 2 percent of global public funding for climate-related work targets the needs of smallholder farmers.

In addition to the Gates Foundation, USAID and the Canadian government pledged $215 million and $45 million in support of climate-smart innovations, including stress-tolerant crop varieties, climate forecasting services and new strategies for restoring degraded lands to improve productivity. Other funders announced support for CGIAR's Research and Innovation Strategy for 2022 onward, including Sweden and Belgium, which pledged $18 million and $14 million. In the runup to COP26, CGIAR raised $256.4 million from the European Commission ($162.4 million), the Netherlands ($87 million), and Belgium ($7 million) at the Global Citizen Live event on September 25.

Meanwhile, Citi announced a partnership with Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a program of Bill Gates's Breakthrough Energy, to accelerate the development of clean energy technologies that will help achieve net zero emissions by 2050. As an anchor partner of Catalyst, Citi aims to deploy $100 million over the next five years to help fund efforts to rapidly scale and commercialize climate technology projects. Citi will provide an initial equity investment of $50 million through an expansion of its Citi Impact Fund, launched in 2020 to make equity investments in private sector companies that are applying innovative solutions to help address some of society's most pressing challenges, and will explore mechanisms to fund the remaining $50 million.

And the LEAF Coalition (Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest Finance) announced that it has mobilized $1 billion for countries and states committed to protecting tropical and subtropical forests and reduce deforestation. Convened by the governments of Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as businesses including Amazon, Airbnb, Bayer, Boston Consulting Group, Delta Air Lines, E.ON, GSK, McKinsey, Nestlé, PwC, Salesforce, and Unilever, LEAF announced that jurisdictions including Costa Rica, Ecuador, Ghana, Nepal, and Vietnam will sign letters of intent with U.S.-based nonprofit Emergent, which serves as the coalition's transaction agent.

(Photo credit: Emergent)