The Rockefeller Foundation has announced a new climate strategy that will target net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for its endowment of $6 billion by 2050, making it the largest private U.S. foundation to date to pursue a net-zero endowment.

The endowment will contribute to the global decarbonization effort, accelerating the work needed to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement. In addition to regular reporting of progress, the foundation will convene investors, peers, and experts to advance broader collaboration toward net zero, with the first event to take place in early 2024. The strategy centers on engagement with asset managers and others on data, disclosures, and decarbonization plans; investment in climate solutions and other climate-focused strategies; and influence by leading convenings and advancing collaboration, standards, best practices, and shared learning.

Established 1913 by John D. Rockefeller—whose company, Standard Oil, once controlled more than 90 percent of petroleum production in the United States—the foundation committed to divesting its endowment from existing fossil fuel interests in 2020 and refraining from all future fossil fuel investments. The foundation’s original $100 million endowment was largely built from the proceeds of Standard Oil.

“We are putting the Rockefeller Foundation’s money where our mission is: investing our endowment in ways that will help lift up people around the world and lower emissions,” said Rockefeller Foundation president Rajiv J. Shah. “This change to our endowment strategy aligns with our recent billion-dollar commitment to advance the global climate transition and achieve net-zero emissions across our global operations, and it is the final piece of our work to reimagine the foundation’s philanthropy for the climate change era.”

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