The Rockefeller Foundation has announced a commitment to making climate change central to all its work.

In an open letter, Rockefeller Foundation president Rajiv J. Shah said it will maintain its mission “to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world,” but through the lens of climate change. Over the next year, the foundation will assess where it can make the most impactful partnerships and investments, according to the letter.

While the foundation was born out of the Rockefeller family’s wealth from the oil industry, Shah maintained that the foundation has always focused on supporting healthy communities and the science behind them. The commitment builds on several of the foundation’s climate change and environmental initiatives, including the decision to divest its more than $6 billion endowment from fossil fuels starting in 2020.

In addition, the foundation’s Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet has established partnerships with more than a dozen countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean to accelerate just, clean energy transitions. The Pandemic Prevention Institute it established is contributing to an early warning system for detecting, preventing, and mitigating pandemics, which will grow more frequent as climate change worsens. And its Zero Gap Fund was one of four co-anchor investors in Seedstars International Ventures II, a $30 million fund with investments focused on companies building for the future of finance, commerce, health, work, and education, with follow-on investments up to Series A. 

“Though we do not yet know exactly how our future climate efforts will take shape, I’m excited by the challenge, and certain that, with your help, our refocused institution can help meet it,” Shah wrote. “The Rockefeller Foundation will help meet the climate challenge by centering our work on the people we have served for more than a century.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Leo Patrizi)